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Short answer: Cala AI now operates as Mercer. Mercer is an all-in-one platform for fashion design and collaboration, with AI design tools from US$19 a month and production services on its Enterprise plan from US$499 a month. The F* Word does a narrower job: it turns a sketch, photo or brief into a factory-ready tech pack, first draft in 8 to 10 minutes, for teams that work with their own factories.
Mercer describes itself as an all-in-one platform for product design from concept to production. You can start from inspiration photos, sketches, CAD files, tech packs or AI images. Its AI tools generate designs and product variations, edit images with an AI paintbrush, and can be trained on your brand's past collections. Teams store images, 3D and spreadsheets in one place, comment and add measurements on files, assign tasks and share print-ready PDFs. Production management, costing, logistics and access to a manufacturing network come with the Enterprise plan.
Mercer's FAQ says you own what you create and that customer data is not used to train its foundational models. Source: mercer.design and its pricing page, checked 8 November 2026.
The F* Word is not a design suite or a manufacturer. It takes a sketch, photo or brief and produces a factory-ready tech pack with a bill of materials, points of measure and construction notes, first draft in 8 to 10 minutes, and runs validation checks on specs, tolerances and the BOM before handoff. It also creates moodboards as the input to that spec. There is a free workspace, and Pro is US$299 a month.
| Mercer (formerly Cala AI) | The F* Word | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | All-in-one design, collaboration and (on Enterprise) production platform | AI workflow tool that turns designs into factory-ready tech packs |
| AI design | Generative design, product variations, AI paintbrush, brand-trained models | Moodboards and design direction as input to the spec |
| Tech packs | Not listed as a feature on its pricing page | Tech pack with BOM, points of measure and construction notes, first draft in 8 to 10 minutes |
| Production | Manufacturing network, costing and logistics on Enterprise | Works with your own factories; exports the spec for them |
| Price | Designer US$19, Studio US$69, Studio Pro US$159 a month; Enterprise from US$499 | Free workspace; Pro US$299 a month |
| Best for | Teams that want design tools and, on Enterprise, sourcing and production in one place | Teams with their own factories whose bottleneck is getting specs right |
Yes. CALA now operates as Mercer; its website says "Formerly Cala" and ca.la redirects to mercer.design.
On its pricing page (checked 8 November 2026): Designer US$19, Studio US$69 and Studio Pro US$159 a month, and Enterprise from US$499 a month. There is no free plan.
Mercer's pricing page does not list tech packs as a feature. You can start a design from an existing tech pack, add measurements and notes to files, and export print-ready PDFs; production services come with the Enterprise plan.
When the bottleneck is the spec that goes to your own factory. The F* Word turns a sketch, photo or brief into a factory-ready tech pack with BOM, points of measure and construction notes, first draft in 8 to 10 minutes, and checks it before handoff.
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