From the Sector

The machines are quick and reliable, with very little downtime, which is massively important to me as a business owner.”

Kornit Digital (Nasdaq: KRNT), a worldwide market leader in digital textile printing technology, announced United Kingdom-based Kitlocker has implemented two Kornit Avalanche Poly Pro systems for efficient, retail-quality production of branded and customized apparel on demand.

Kitlocker operates within several sectors of the sports and leisurewear market, providing team gear for schools, football clubs, and other sporting organizations, managing e-commerce platforms on behalf of those organizations. Enabling their customers to embellish popular styles on demand, in any quantity, drove them to explore available technologies for speed and versatility, particularly regarding polyester apparel, a cornerstone of sportswear. Kornit’s Poly Pro system is the only single-step digital direct-to-garment (DTG) technology developed specifically for imprinting polyester and poly-blend materials, extending the company’s patented process for waste-free production with durability, precise graphic detail, and the broadest colour gamut to popular sports and athleisure apparel.

“The Kornit Avalanche Poly Pro allows for far superior quality of finish for embellishment compared to traditional print techniques,” says Mike Kent, Co-Owner of Kitlocker. “When we were shopping around for alternatives, it was obvious the sort of single pass, and its ability to print on polyester, was certainly market-leading—there was no alternative that could do that. The machines are quick and reliable, with very little downtime, which is massively important to me as a business owner.”

According to Kent, the technology has enabled Kitlocker to approach new markets that had always been off-limits previously, driving incremental business and building out new product ranges. The process lent itself to simple integration with their workflow and online design tools, empowering customers to visualize their own pieces and receive finished gear, with superior retail quality and precise logo colour matching, in mere days.

“The system allows us bigger print areas, more colours, and more elaborate designs, and our customers to uniquely embellish their garments on a wide range of products from different brands with lots of different kinds of creative outputs,” adds Kent.

“Our systems help brands like Kitlocker sync supply with demand, eliminating waste and making them more reactive to customer needs,” says Chris Govier, KDEU Managing Director. “Kornit Avalanche Poly Pro extends the efficiency, sustainability, quality, and logistical benefits of digitization to the booming sports and athleisure apparel market. Being able to give their customers the widest assortment of gear, customized in any quantity, on demand, is a winning game plan for Kitlocker.”

• DushaGreya is a well-known brand from talented Moscow-based designer, Natalia Dushagreya, who puts her all into her unique creations.

Combining her outstanding creativity with cutting-edge digital printing technology, Natalia has been delighting women with eye-catching, comfortable clothes, which boast unparalleled individuality and vivacity for several years. “The quality of digital prints surpasses that of traditional fabrics, both in the variety of colour compositions and in the contrast and clarity when printing small details or complex geometric elements. Digital technology makes it possible to achieve exceptionally smooth colour transitions, which is almost unattainable when using analogue printing methods. As a designer, I make sure to fully leverage the advantages of digital printing when designing and producing my collection”, says Natalia.

By the time the DushaGreya brand begun, Natalia and her like-minded associate and father, Alexander Kordovatov, already had experience in the field of sublimation printing and knew that printing on fabric for subsequent tailoring would be carried out using this technology. However, no third-party performers could be found that would meet the quality and deadline requirements of the brand, so they decided to purchase new equipment and start printing at their own site. 

Alexander says. “We also found out that Smart-T (Mimaki's distributor in Russia), the supplier of this equipment in Moscow, is highly rated by the industry community and customers due to its professional expertise, first-line service support, and highly qualified engineers.” At the end of 2019, Smart-T installed the highly anticipated Mimaki Tx300P-1800 direct textile printer at the DushaGreya facility. Today it prints fabrics for dresses, skirts, T-shirts, fleeces, jumpers, hoodies, trench coats, and other midwear.

"Mimaki Tx300P-1800 is the only printer in the Mimaki line that allows us to print on natural fabrics without pre-processing,” Alexander comments. “This gives us the ability to produce short, original print runs at no extra cost, which is vital in achieving our goals. The TP400 pigment inks used in this printer have an expanded colour gamut, so the prints are always bright and saturated.”