According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, in 2019 fitness apparel grew by 6.5%, and the sale of branded activewear grew by 4.6%, to more than £14 billion.
According to Credence Research, in 2019 polyester was the second-largest segment (16%) of the t-shirt market, worth £26 billion.
If you’re reading this, you likely have customers who demand high-quality, comfortable sports and athleisure apparel.
Increasingly they want gear that makes a statement, reflecting their personality.
They want gear that’s responsibly and sustainably made, reflecting their values and social awareness.
They want gear when they want it, and who’s to know what their mood will be tomorrow, next week, or next year?
Serving these customers means you need agile, reliable capabilities for imprinting polyester and poly blends—but traditional production processes were made for traditional fashion cycles. Screen printing, for example, requires considerable time and labour to set up, produces both wasted materials and (usually) unsold inventory, and becomes less and less profitable as the drive for customization makes your runs shorter and shorter. The sudden shift away from team sports and public events in the wake of COVID-19 surely hasn’t helped in those areas, either.
Dye sublimation offers brilliant impressions on polyester, but limits production to white garments.
Digital production, which delivers photorealistic and precise impressions at the push of a button, has long provided a bedrock solution for print-on-demand efficiency, profitability, and sustainability—but had limited value for polyester printing, as the high temperatures required for curing would result in considerable dye migration, for apparel that came far short of retail quality.
Kornit Digital, however, has cracked the code, delivering digital DTG value without dye migration. Meeting the industry’s most rigorous standards for sustainability, colour matching, and light and wash fastness, Kornit’s Avalanche Poly Pro system offers single-step production on demand, for retail-quality sportswear and athleisure apparel at the speed of e-commerce.
With this new technology, sportswear brands and fulfillers are freed from graphic constraints; if it can be rendered digitally, it can be applied to a garment, without compromising detail.
Production cost is low and consistent, making a single piece profitable.
Respond to demand instantly and without fear of overstock. Capitalize on sudden social media-driven trends, events, milestones, and cultural phenomena, and deliver your wares overnight.
Don’t take it from us; take it from Kornit’s customers worldwide:
“Having the ability to print polyester t-shirts one unit at a time will allow us to gain consumers who want poly rich garments,” said Cindy Olivarez, Director of Operations—Customs and Logistics with GEAR for Sports, a Hanesbrands Inc. company (United States). “Kornit’s Poly Pro system offers the best possible quality to allow GEAR for Sports to expand our direct-to-garment business.”
“We have long printed cotton materials on demand, but delivering polyester t-shirts and sports apparel in a consistent and timely manner remained a challenge,” said Makoto Yamakawa, Image Magic CEO (Japan). “Kornit’s Poly Pro system really does offer the best possible quality, at a speed to match our recent increase in orders.”
Visit Kornit.com for more details, or a private demonstration/consultation
