INSIDE STITCH FIX’S CREATIVE OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Adapted from a Creative Force Content Talks webinar featuring Stitch Fix and Orange Logic. Questions have been consolidated and rewritten for clarity, and answers have been edited for readability while preserving their meaning. Watch the full on-demand webinar below to hear directly from Sarah Zerubinski, Director of Creative Tools and Systems at Stitch Fix.
As Stitch Fix expanded its assortment across women’s, men’s, and kids’ apparel, shoes, and accessories, its creative production needs grew to tens of thousands of images and SKUs annually. Product photography, lifestyle imagery, and marketing campaigns all needed to keep pace without requiring a corresponding increase in budget or headcount. For an online styling service, that speed matters: human stylists need current product imagery to help clients find the right pieces.
Sarah Zerubinski leads the team supporting the tools and production workflows behind that content. By connecting Creative Force with Orange Logic, her team built a workflow that carries imagery and product data from the studio into the DAM, reducing manual file transfers, repetitive tagging, and time spent searching. The goal is to give creative teams more time to create and make approved content easier for everyone else to find and use.
Sarah Zerubinski: I’m the Director of Creative Tools and Systems on the creative operations team within Marketing at Stitch Fix. I’ve been in the DAM space supporting creative teams for most of my career. My team and I oversee the support for production workflows for both product imagery and editorial, lifestyle imagery and video, along with the tools everyone uses to do that work.
Stitch Fix is a retailer, but not a traditional retailer. It’s an online styling service that helps people find clothes they love, pieces that actually fit and make them feel great. We combine the creativity and talent of expert human stylists with powerful AI-assisted recommendations, offering a mix of exclusive, well-known, and up-and-coming brands.
Sarah Zerubinski: A great place to start is the growth opportunity. Stitch Fix offers apparel, shoes, and accessories for women, men, and kids. As we expanded our assortment and broadened our retail e-commerce offerings, the scale and diversity of our imagery needs grew rapidly. What had supported a smaller catalog evolved into tens of thousands of images and SKUs annually. Our photo and video production also expanded to include on-figure imagery and marketing campaigns.
We knew we had to invest in tools and workflows that could match the pace of the business. The production demands and turnaround requirements created an opportunity to build a more scalable, connected foundation and optimize our resources. We also needed to maintain a budget. With that growth, our budget could have skyrocketed. The question was how to maintain our quality without adding a lot more people. We knew the technology existed; we needed to find the right solution to modernize our workflows.
Sarah Zerubinski: We weren’t looking for just any solution that could solve the problem. We wanted a great workflow tool for people on set and those supporting studio production. It needed to be forward-looking from a technology standpoint and something our team could independently administer and support.
We already had systems connected through scripts that required people and engineers to manage them, so we understood the importance of connecting systems to make every production step smooth. Integration capabilities and modern APIs were essential, particularly for passing both imagery and product data. We wanted less manual management and fewer file transfers between production systems and, ultimately, the DAM.
We established a focused set of criteria and did a small RFI rather than a full-blown RFP. Once we identified platforms that matched those criteria, we started doing demos and brought our stakeholders along from the beginning. They had a voice and could see how the tools would help them do their jobs more quickly and improve their KPIs. Coming from a DAM background, I brought that same rigor to selecting our DAM. We were transparent about our needs and looked at what the technology could provide both now and in the future.
Sarah Zerubinski: We were looking for good partners, strong product roadmaps, and a commitment to continuous innovation, which both delivered on. We wanted a modern tech stack, an innovative roadmap, and strong partner support that understood and spoke to our use cases.
We’re a lean operations team, so it was important to choose partners who understood us and could support the focused resources we had available to make this happen. Keeping those priorities at the center helped us make the right choice, and the success we’ve had with the systems has reinforced that.
Sarah Zerubinski: The connected pipeline allows imagery and data to flow seamlessly from our studio into our DAM, for both product and lifestyle imagery. Product information comes in at the front end from our product catalog, and then we add information throughout production: when an image was taken, who photographed and styled it, who provided final approval, and which set it was taken on. That information is important for historical reference as well as reporting, analytics, and dashboards.
All of that comes along with the images. Automation reduces manual effort and speeds up delivery, giving our creative teams more time to focus on their work. We want people focused on what they’re doing on set, rather than asking, “Do I need to type this? What product is that? How do we move this to the next step?” Once the images are in the DAM, we want people to find them quickly and use the system confidently without extensive training. That independence also reduces the strain on our operations and support team because we’re not answering questions all day about how to find things.
Sarah Zerubinski: When a sample arrives in the studio, we can track its every move: when it’s scanned into the system, when it reaches a set to be photographed, where it is in the production and post-production cycle, and when the final images are available in our DAM.
The product information is piped in from our product information management system, so we don’t have to hand-key it. From the moment the product arrives, we can scan the label and bring that information into the system. The production team then has the information it needs without having to reenter SKU numbers or manually tag everything along the way.
Sarah Zerubinski: Before label scanning, we were entering information by hand through drop-down menus in our product information management system. Care instructions, country of manufacture, all of that was hand-keyed. It took at least a minute and a half to two minutes to check in a product.
With label scanning, it’s much quicker. An easy label takes about 30 seconds. A more complicated product with multiple tags can take up to a minute. That information is then imported back into our product information management system so merchandising, styling, and our retail page have it available. It lets our sample operations team scan the information and move on, focusing on the task at hand.
Sarah Zerubinski: The interface is intuitive, and we can partner with both vendors without depending on internal technical support. Connecting the systems is within the admin team’s ownership, without development or programmatic work.
We choose the delivery options and map the fields. Our fields might be named differently in Creative Force and Orange Logic, but we can map them accordingly. Images can arrive with their tags and go directly into the appropriate Orange Logic folder, where the permissions are already established. There are intricacies, and getting the mapping set up can be a little tricky, but the support was there. The experience showed us that we could maintain it on our own.
Sarah Zerubinski: It isn’t a bulk upload process, and we don’t have to wait 24 hours for delivery. As soon as someone hits the final approval button in our post-retouching QC process, the image is ready to go and transfers to Orange Logic.
Along with the image, we receive the product information and the information collected throughout production, such as the creation date, photographer, stylist, and person who performed QC. That information remains in Creative Force as well, where it supports production reporting, studio management, and forecasting. Orange Logic is where we can look for historical and legacy information.
Sarah Zerubinski: Product information was already coming into Creative Force automatically, but we didn’t have that same connection to Orange Logic. Based on what we had photographed, we would export a list of SKUs from our product information management system and import the information through Orange Logic’s API.
That worked well, and the information came in accurately through a spreadsheet, but it wasn’t available immediately when the images arrived. There was a delay because a person on the team had to do it manually. The integration removed that manual step.
Sarah Zerubinski: We track the products used in lifestyle imagery very closely. Those images support both our marketing campaigns and the client experience, and we want to make sure the merchandise being represented is sellable, live product.
Styling the products is a manual process because the team is working with physical items. They track those products, and we bring that information into Creative Force as we manage post-production. We only want the information entered once, so any work they’ve already done becomes part of the image’s production metadata and continues with it into Orange Logic.
In Orange Logic, the style variant tags and widget show the products used within the lifestyle image. That’s valuable for our design and growth marketing teams as they curate campaigns. If someone needs the skirt featured in an image, they don’t have to search for it separately. They can see the associated products, open them, and grab what they need alongside the lifestyle image.
Sarah Zerubinski: Usage rights are important because we don’t want to use something beyond its licensing. We manage that information in Orange Logic, and permissions are tied to the use-by date. Once that date expires, the image’s permissions change. People who need access for historical reasons can still view it, while others are restricted.
We also use watermarks and visual cues. The interface has colored indicators to help people understand availability and usage restrictions. For expired imagery that someone is still permitted to download, the watermark includes their name. That gets their attention. People ask, “Why does this have my name on it?” It makes it clear that they’re not supposed to use it. Having those automated guardrails is valuable.
Sarah Zerubinski: We’re interested in AI that helps people work more quickly, efficiently, and accurately, not just generative AI. One example is generating text from videos in Orange Logic. That’s useful for our marketing, growth marketing, design, and content teams.
Previously, people might listen and type out the content themselves or upload the video into a one-off free platform that might not be approved. Now they can generate and download the text within the system and use it for website copy, emails, or subject lines.
Another benefit of working with both Creative Force and Orange Logic is the opportunity to beta test features that fit our roadmap and use cases. Our admin team can vet a feature and make sure it’s applicable before rolling it out to users.
Sarah Zerubinski: Product images arrive quickly and correctly tagged, with the relevant information attached. We don’t have someone manually babysitting the files or adding the tags afterward. We can be confident that the files are coming in.
That means people can receive imagery and get on with their creative work instead of repeating tagging tasks or tracking down files individually. With lifestyle imagery, they don’t have to separately find the skirt, shoes, shirt, and other products. Everything is available at their fingertips. In the past, we also had to reconcile how many files were sent and how many were received. Removing that work gives us a much smoother, more reliable transition between systems.
Sarah Zerubinski: Automation has improved accuracy because metadata and product information travel with the images. That also improves search within our DAM. People understand our catalog hierarchy and can use search and filters to find what they need.
On the production side, we’re reducing costs and improving speed to market with Creative Force. From the time we shoot, the image stays within the workflow as it moves through production and post-production. We can photograph something, have it retouched overnight, and have it returned and live in the system within 24 hours of being shot.
That speed matters for Stitch Fix because of the variety of products we offer. Our human stylists need product imagery as soon as possible to meet specific client needs. Production is no longer the blocker on that speed. We can provide imagery at the pace the business needs. The tools also give us flexibility to adapt our studio capacity and bring on capabilities that help creatives do more in less time. That capacity to meet demand across the business and marketing is our main goal.
Sarah Zerubinski: Capacity is always a big consideration. We photograph everything we sell, but we work with both our own private brands and market vendors. We’re looking at how to use these workflows to bring in new sources of imagery. We also bring in lifestyle content such as user-generated content that doesn’t necessarily go through the same production process.
The focus is on managing capacity and turning content around faster, always with the client and the creative team in mind. We don’t want to create a separate workflow for every new type of content. We want to rely on the foundation and tools we’ve established to deliver the imagery we need.
Sarah Zerubinski: When we brought on Creative Force, some people were wondering, “Isn’t that my job?” But it didn’t replace their job. It helped them move faster without worrying about all the other things involved in production, tagging, and project management.
With AI, we’re also seeing that what you put in is what you get out. It takes a creative driver to get quality work. As people are asked to produce more and we’re constrained from adding more people, we have to get smarter about the tools we use and how they can extend creative output.
Bringing people along has also changed the conversation. It used to be, “I can’t do this,” or “Can you help me with this?” Now people ask, “How do I do this with this technology?” or “Is there a way to do this?” They understand what the technology can do and come to us with ideas. That collaboration is the golden key. We’re not imposing things on people; they want easier ways to work and are collaborating with us to find them. We’re not the ones pushing them. They’re pushing us.
Sarah Zerubinski: I’ve described the experience positively because it has been positive, but nothing is perfect. Being early adopters, beta testing, and bringing on new features isn’t always a smooth transition. Not everything works right off the bat, especially when you’re pioneering something new.
It takes time, patience, and persistence with both vendors. Cultivating the customer success relationship is important, as is pushing each other to make sure a feature works the way you need it to. Both Creative Force and Orange Logic have been receptive as we work through those transitions.
You also need contingency plans and communication, if not overcommunication, with the teams using the tools. New features can require people to adjust how they work. The results are good, but getting there takes work and patience.
Sarah Zerubinski: Look for vendor partners who listen to your use cases and combine ease of use, flexible configuration, and a forward-looking roadmap. That includes low-code or no-code functionality and a technology stack that can scale with business growth. Integrations and interoperability are more valuable than any one tool.
Keep your innovation grounded in your actual use cases. You don’t have to adopt every new technology or feature. There are plenty of features in both platforms that we don’t use. We stay focused on what we want to enable at the time and whether it serves our users by improving efficiency and accuracy. Everything else can be considered as it becomes relevant. Keep the focus on what your teams actually need and can benefit from.