Whereas the industrial revolution transformed Britain from an agriculture-based economy into an industrial powerhouse, the digital revolution has stepped into the void created by our disappearing industrial base and steered our society towards a knowledge-based economy relying heavily on the internet and digital media communication channels for its very survival.

Whatever way you look at it we are living in a digital world. We listen to digital music, we take increasingly high resolution digital holiday snaps on our mobiles and SMS them to friends back home while we're still lying on the beach, and when we're at home we watch high definition digital TV from the comfort of our armchair. And if we're not doing that we're downloading digital content from the Internet via broadband, chatting, dating, looking for a job or updating our blogs on social networking sites. So when do we fit shopping into our busy lives? With all that digital content whizzing around, it hardly leaves time to drag yourself away from your media communication channel of the moment. But then do we really need to? We can buy our books, CDs, DVDs, HD plasma TVs, even our clothes online, and we might even venture as far as buying cinema tickets online and actually going to a real cinema with real popcorn, or even book a holiday online and get on a real plane with real seats, albeit ticketless boarding. Does it all sound too familiar?

How has the market developed?

In recent years, many industries such as semiconductors, electronics, digital consumer goods and textile manufacture have been unable to resist the inevitable migration to low labour-cost offshore destinations and the garment decoration industry itself has been no exception to the rule. It has, however, left in its wake a core of niche players, primarily small and medium sized businesses with print shops geared up to handle a particularly robust and expanding part of the garment decoration sector, namely small fast turnaround custom print runs.

Here at RSK Tech we recognised the direction the industry was taking, and in October last year we launched RSK NetShirt, our own online garment designer. RSK NetShirt is a powerful yet flexible online garment designer designed to enhance the user experience and creative scope of do-it-yourself online garment design. It allows customers to design their own unique garments by picking and choosing from an almost infinite combination of products, colours, text fonts, logos and personalized artwork or photos.

But first and foremost it is a business solution which can help companies increase sales and turnover, streamline their workflow, increase employee productivity, reduce costs and boost profitability. RSK NetShirt was designed with three main aims in mind: i. as a design and order fulfilment tool to allow garment decorators to take their existing business fully online and to deliver a superior shopping experience to their customers by launching a fully-fledged eCommerce online store; ii. as a custom garment or product design  tool to be installed on an existing eCommerce website to complement an existing standard catalogue range; iii. to accelerate the return on investment on printing equipment by increasing equipment utilisation and even launching multiple and/or affiliate online stores, again to boost production and associated equipment ultilisation.

What machinery and equipment advances have there been?  

The IT and original equipment manufacturing sectors, and even the very biggest companies have recognised in recent years the crucial importance of the SMB sector to their own company's success, and have all implemented specific SMB business service and product development strategies. In the garment decoration sector, this has led to a plethora of key players launching a broad range of digital and ink jet direct to garment printers and key breakthroughs have been made in areas such as the handling of light colours on dark, image sharpness, washability, etc.

As an early adopter of digital textile printing, it is always useful to watch what is happening in the US, as inevitably, whatever is happening there will soon be replicated here in Europe. It was therefore very interesting to note recently that Hirsch International, one of the largest US suppliers to the decorated apparel sector, has acquired controlling interest in US Screen Print & Inkjet Technology, supplier of the well-known inkjet-to-garment T-Jet printer. As the news broke, Hirsch International's CEO Paul Gallagher made a very public statement about his company's commitment to digital garment printing. The message could not be clearer.

Direct to garment: the benefits

The big benefit that direct to garment printers offer is, of course, their lack of set up costs, which might otherwise soon mount up, and ease of changeover to accommodate small print runs on many different garments for many different clients. 

For the customer, the big benefits are of course convenience. Thanks to direct to garment print technology, coupled with an online garment designer such as RSK NetShirt, the consumer can design and order small quantities of custom garments, right on their doorstep and right from their laptop or PC, without having to pay over the odds, and without lengthy shipping delays from overseas suppliers.

The possibilities

Whilst there is room for everyone, the real winners will be those who can get the balance right between quality, cost effectiveness and value for money, whilst at the same time setting the pace at the forefront of digital printing technology and making the most of the benefits it can bring to the consumer and supplier alike.

In terms of the technology, we only have to look at the giant strides in image quality made by the media industry in the shape of HD digital television, and I think we will see similar progress in the garment decoration industry in terms of ever more sophisticated printing processes and ink technologies.

Like the switchover to digital TV, which has generated huge demand for new HD ready digital TVs, players and recorders, the switch to digital textile printing will create similar demand for printing equipment and software. There will be rich pickings for the companies who get the technology right, as this will generate increasing turnover for the printer and ink manufacturers, as well as the print shops and online store owners who will be offering previously undreamt of creative design and image reproduction capabilities.

For its part, RSK Tech will continue to ensure that it remains at the forefront of software technology both in terms of delivering fully integrated online custom design and ordering solutions, automated workflow and content management software, and output files and interfacing solutions able to deliver content to the very latest high resolution digital garment printers.

Tel: 0800 043 8518 

Email:   sales@rsktech.com

Web: http://www.rsktech.com/

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