Page 14 - Print21 Nov-Dec 2019

Cover Story
Diversify As commercial print becomes commoditised, with razor thin margins
Ashley Playford-Browne, the
new country manager for Australia and New Zealand at Kornit says,
“I see many great opportunities
in the digital textile space. This is
a booming market thanks to the massive growth in online shopping and the consumer’s desire for everything personalised. Then you look at what’s happening in the traditional retail stores, they cannot afford to get their inventory wrong; too much means margin-crippling sales, while too little means missed sales. We have an amazing print market here in Australia and I truly believe that we can manufacture more locally. The benefits to our industry and the textile market are massive. We are already producing point of sale for the retail industry why can’t we also produce their printed textiles?
“Printers already possess most of the skills required for digital textile printing. They understand digital files, they understand colour, they understand workflow. Printing onto garments is putting ink onto a substrate - just a different one to paper. But unlike printing onto paper, which is a shrinking market, printing digital textile is a growth market, in
fact the biggest growth market there is. Textile is the next digital revolution, printers have already embraced the change in wide format from analogue screen to digital. The next step is textile.”
Andy Yarrow, president, Kornit Digital Asia Pacific says, “The Kornit innovation means print service providers can move into a whole
new field. It means that textiles for clothes and other applications can be produced on-shore again. And it means that they are being produced
your business
and intense competition
for a shrinking market, the emerging digital textile market
stands as a place of immense opportunity. Human beings spend
a humungous amount of money on clothes; for work, for occasions, for activities, for sport and for leisure. We are also spending on other textile products such as tote bags.
Study after study show that megatrends of personalisation shown through the supersonic growth of online companies like
into textile
Kornit Digital has a raft of ready-made solutions for print business owners looking to diversify out of the razor thin margins
in commercial print into the high margin RedBubble and Spoonflower,
world of digital textile printing.
combined with the on-demand world, driven by the likes of Amazon, are impacting the life of consumers, and the companies that supply them.
Fast fashion is now an established concept, although until two or three years ago no-one had heard of it. Fast fashion means quick turnarounds in shorter runs. This places on-shore digital printing in the box seat to exploit the trend.
The fashion industry works at
a furious pace. Trends and styles shift and evolve, and production capabilities must follow suit.
From a single seasonal collection, designers now produce inter- seasonal items, while e-commerce and a desire for individuality drive the demand for one-of-a kind garments. No matter how you turn this, the consumers have spoken their minds. Personalised fashion is here to stay and is redefining industrials short runs. Digital textile printing solutions developer Kornit says the industry demands printing in ever-smaller quantities. Production technology must answer that need.
14 Print21 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
Micro run
Since the one-off trend is becoming
a norm, short-runs simply aren’t enough. The industry is searching to define the solution for personalised fashion. Kornit Digital says it has the answer, with the micro-run.
Shorter than the short run, the micro-run enables an inexpensive run for fabric lengths as small as
a metre. Kornit says the micro-
run means extreme, inexpensive customisation is now available to fashion designers and manufacturers around the world.
It says that, by eliminating many of the traditional pre and post-care steps, the micro-run requires only
a digital file and a single operator.
A single versatile ink adapts to different materials and encompasses a full colour gamut.
The micro-run is a one step solution for small printing jobs, using the Kornit Allegro, which is actually a single step solution for long, short and micro runs. The process is simple: step one, place garment;
step two, press print; step three, ready to cut and sew.