Hailed as the next big thing in decoration, DTG and sublimation continue to improve – but the majority of decorators haven’t bought in. Is the time finally right for your shop?
Last year, online fashion accounted for nearly 20% of retail e-commerce sales in the United States – a total of more than $458 billion. This massive sum of business is changing expectations for apparel customers, who thirst for on-demand personalized garments that can be manufactured in small quantities and delivered at incredible speeds. “Online shopping has turned the idea of supply and demand on its head,” says Omer Kulka, VP of marketing and product strategy for Kornit, which manufactures digital inkjet printers for the apparel decoration industry. “Instead of selling what we’ve already manufactured, we’re being asked to manufacture what we’ve already sold.”
The truth is this emerging model can be difficult to capture with screen printing and other manual decoration methods. By contrast, digital techniques such as direct-to-garment printing (DTG) and sublimation are perfect for it; they deliver quick, customized designs with one-piece minimums, conveniently leaving room for constantly changing apparel trends.
DTG and dye-sublimation aren’t that new; their primitive origins date back decades, and their current commercial forms are old enough to have been Bar Mitzvahed. But the belief is these techniques are on the rise. In fact, the digital decoration techniques were ranked first and second in the Wearables State of the Industry survey when decorators were asked which techniques would exhibit the most growth in the next five years.
That’s a look into the future; the current reality is a different story. Only a third of decorators offer sublimation, while a quarter offer DTG – both figures declining from 2016. (Embroidery, heat transfers and screen printing rate much higher.) Only 13% of decorators plan to add either of these techniques this year. Buyer recognition of these digital techniques also lags significantly behind other methods.
Equipment manufacturers continue to refine these technologies, aggressively seeking ways to make them faster, user-friendly, durable and cost-effective. Still, manufacturers and decorators agree that several challenging factors remain: the up-front investment and everyday cost of printing, a steep learning curve with new technology, production bottlenecks and the necessity of bringing in steady business to maintain the machines.
And yet, with all that said, digital decoration techniques have proved they have a purpose and place in apparel shops. “The online revolution is a major force that’s pushing everyone into space where we have the technology to make decorators more profitable – if they’re willing to make the leap,” Kulka says.