Kornit Digital and Fashion-Enter launch world’s first true micro-factory for sustainable, on-demand digital textile manufacturing
On 4th March, Kornit Digital and Fashion-Enter launched the UK Fashtech Innovation Centre where they displayed mass customisation capabilities to empower designers, apparel brands, and other creatives.
Kornit Digital delivers sustainable, on-demand digital fashion and textile production technologies and Fashion-Enter is a social enterprise, which strives to be a centre of excellence for sampling, grading, production, and for learning and development of skills within the fashion and textiles industry.
Phil Oakley, UK and Ireland Country Manager for Kornit, said, “At the heart of Kornit’s value proposition is sustainability. Everything we do is about cleaning up the second largest polluting industry in the planet. Technology is a big part of that. If we don’t collaborate with consumers, with brands, with designers and with manufacturers to all think in a way that is going to drive a more sustainable industry – we won’t achieve it.”
He adds, “There’s a real passion for transforming the industry to be sustainable. Everyone’s clear on the challenges that we have with the planet. There is a centralised industry for manufacturing and decentralised for consuming. We need to move to manufacturing locally that allows us to only manufacture what we need.”
Chris Govier, President Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Kornit Digital, says, “We have two folds to our company. One is being a hugely innovative and technologically advanced, extremely driven company and I think our intellectual property is fantastic. Equally everybody that works here has a passion for the greater good. Sustainability is absolutely at the forefront of what we do. It’s the foundation of us as a principle and we have this belief that by being more successful in the technological part of the business and our commercial part of the business, we actually also helped to save the planet and build a better place in a world that we can all live in.”
He continues, “I’m a father of two daughters, 21 and 20 years of age, and they’re constantly reminding me of the impact of my generation and previous generations have had on this planet. Part of my drive is that is that we have to actually enable the awareness of change and I think if people maybe buy one item less but they pay slightly more for but they hold onto it for longer, then that is a real win for us all. That’s part of the absolute change that we’re looking to make.”
“As our partner ecosystem continues to grow globally by aligning with such leaders as FashionEnter, companies are realising just how powerful sustainable, on-demand digital production can be and the countless inherent benefits it provides,” adds Chris. “We are pleased to put these technologies on full display in our new joint Fashtech Innovation Centre and bring on-demand manufacturing back home to the UK. Whether you’re a brand, apparel provider, custom fabric fulfiller, or creative designer wondering how to handle the next major market disruption, grow product lines, create a more eco-responsible and accountable production floor – or just want to waste less – the Innovation Centre will help you
achieve these goals.”
Serving as a fulfilment site and academy for training production, the Centre includes both Kornit Presto direct-to-fabric and Kornit Atlas MAX direct-to-garment systems, as well as numerous graphic design and workflow tools and systems to enable cut-and-sew operations for a comprehensive “pixel to parcel to doorstep” cycle. Consolidating the process into a single location helps maintain full visibility and control of operations and products. Taking this one step further for creators and brands, visitors can experience the KornitX Global Fulfilment Network, enabling customers to create both new sales channels and accessibility to enable production on demand.
Kornit’s single-step digital production technology enables unlimited graphic expression using less floor space, resources, waste, and time—all at higher margins.
“This Innovation Centre makes it possible to capture the full, end-to-end production process in one, single location,” said Jenny Holloway, Chief Executive Officer, Fashion-Enter. “The beauty of having print on demand means there are no minimums, so we can make one garment, or we can make up to 30,000 garments a week from all locations at the same fixed cost. Here, we can also train future generations on the right way of producing garments for today, responsive to demand, with minimal waste—ethical and sustainable. This is the future of fashion and textiles.”
For more information, visit www.kornit.com
