I’ve just returned from the Impressions – Long Beach show, regarded as being the best (and certainly the most national) US apparel-deco trade shows. As well as walking every meter of the show across its 2 halls multiple times I also went to a heap of presentations and seminars. There were some recurrent themes that emerged from the show. My top 3 were:
DTF, DTF everywhere
From every angle DTF was all over the show – a torrent of announcements were made about new printers, new application techniques for softer finishing, inline cutters, artwork optimisation and countless other angles. From every angle the DTF solution is being refined and polished. There is a lot of capital going towards this application method. On the flip side there is still a fair amount of anxiety around ink density on the garment and how to get a more comfortable, flexible and breathable print.
POD moving up market – Screen is moving down market
There is the appearance of an evolving contest ground as Screen Printing leveraging new levels of screen exposure automation, new inks and pre-registration systems drives down job fixed costs and so MOQ size whilst DTF and DTG moves up market to higher unit counts as efficiency and speed improves. The reality is a lot more nuanced. It is only at the edges that the production technologies are competing with the more common scenario being screen producers adding DTF to add sub 50 MOQ capability with greater color matching capability (perfect for corporate work).
Automation, workflow and profitability
It wasn’t so visible on the arena floor but automation, workflow and profitability was a recurring theme in the presentations and seminars that sat around the show. It was coming from a few different angles a) artwork automation and processing files to get better results for the customer, particularly for DTF production covering topics like knocking out blacks, half tones b) manufacturing automation covering integration of DTF lines, automated screen making and DTG hardware – basically trying to reduce labor through removing steps in the manufacturing process and then c) profitability being pushed by speakers such as Nicole Paper at embellishr who was pushing the experience of running a large screen printer and deep insight into printer per hour and shift profitability and how that created a better business outcome.
All in all a really good show and one I really recommend.
