Solstice: Please could you tell us about Kornit, and how the company has evolved over the years? 

Mani: The company was founded in 2002 by a team that previously worked in the digital printing field. The company applies the same technology used in digital printing to digital textile printing, which has developed more slowly than the field of digital printing. Kornit has accumulated valuable experience with DTF and DTG printing since its founding and is striving to revolutionise the fashion tech industry with cutting-edge technology, processes, and software solutions.

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Solstice: Kornit is revolutionising the fashion industry by creating DTG (direct-to-garment) printers and providing a complete digital printing solution, something that the majority of our readers won’t know anything about. How did the idea for the printers come about and how do they work?

Mani: Kornit is aware of the many difficulties facing participants in the DTG business and fortunate enough we were at a position being to solve them. Customisation, print-on-demand has become the fashion trend in recent years. Yet, minimum orders required by traditional screen printing has unnecessarily lengthen the lead time and increase the upfront development costs for brands and retailers. Our DTG technologies aims to address these problems. Our DTG technologies enables rapid, local, printing on demand, minimum orders are completely eliminated along with the traditional wastages of screen printing, such as over- or under-ordering and their consequences, like having to mark stock down or losing out on customer business. This could significantly cut the cost for the industry while facilitating greater customisation and thereby enabling greater customer satisfaction as a whole.

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Solstice: How will the use of DTG printers positively affect manufacturers’ businesses, especially with the company’s recent acquisition of Custom Gateway? 

Mani: The software expertise of Custom Gateway facilitates the connection of retailers with local manufacturers which is instrumental to a timely and seamless print on demand experience for end users. Manufacturers’ businesses will ultimately benefit from the positive end users experience.

 

Solstice: How will your products make the manufacturing of garments much more sustainable?

Mani: By enabling printing on demand, retailers would be able to eliminate traditional wastages related to over- or under-ordering as well as their consequences, like having to mark stock down or losing out on customer business. By having local printers fulfil orders on-demand, the industry would also be able to cut out emissions related to freight transportation.

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Solstice: What are the advantages of the on-demand production of fashion garments?

Mani: On-demand production of fashion garments enables higher degree of customisations and thereby increases customer satisfaction, as well as reducing lead time and wastage thereby saving significant costs for participants in the fashion industry.

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Solstice: You’re also embedding yourself within the fashion event industry, by hosting your own Fashion Week platform, Kornit Fashion Week, with designers from all around the world, including Nanknits. What was the reason for doing this and how has it been going so far?

Mani: Kornit Fashion Week is instrumental for us and our designer partners to demonstrate how we can disrupt the fashion status quo and to change through a rive to a cultural transformation. Our latest exhibitions has showcased what creators can really accomplish with the unique technology that Kornit develops. We are building a better way to handle fashion that can give everyone – creators, designers, and consumers – everything they need while reducing our impact on the environment with streamlined supply chains.