Screen Printing - February/March 2016 - (Page 4)
e dito r i a l i n s i g ht s
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SHARK SITINGS
Why the investment cash flowing into the garment industry
may not necessarily be good news.
I
n the late 1980s, corporate America took a sudden, keen interest in garment screen
printing. Brand owners and the garment mills that cranked out the blank goods began
to appreciate the immense marketing potential of licensed apparel, and both groups
wanted bigger pieces of the pie. They acquired many of the largest sportswear printers,
but the recession of 1991 deflated lofty growth expectations; then NAFTA and its cost
efficiencies proved too tempting, so off the high-volume work went to places where
labor was cheap. By the late 1990s, what remained for American printers was mostly
custom work that was usually designed, sold, produced, and distributed within
individual communities. That appeared to be the end of Wall Street's fascination with
printed apparel.
But over the past few years, the money people have rediscovered us. Not because they are interested in the thousands of small businesses across the nation
doing custom printing, but rather in a handful of online entrepreneurs that sought
to create entirely new channels of distribution. Perhaps the only thing more astounding than the size of the investments has been the pedigree of the people writing the
checks. Consider:
* Teespring has generated about $56 million from several venture-capital firms
including Andreessen Horowitz (a group that backed Twitter, Skype, Facebook, and
others) and Khosla Ventures (Airbnb, YouTube).
* Zazzle obtained about $50 million in financing from firms including Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers (AOL, Amazon, Google).
* CustomInk received $40 million from Revolution Growth (Groupon, Resonate).
Meanwhile, scores of like-minded startups emerged - Redbubble, Viralstyle,
Woot, Represent, Skreened, Threadless, and more. Amazon itself got into the decoration business with its Merch program, aimed at helping video game and app developers
bring branded goods to market, but promoted to all types of content developers.
Some of these companies operate on a mind-boggling scale. (Teespring alone
is said to be shipping 12 million garments a year.) Most outsource a significant part
of their production, bringing lucrative contract work to some shops. Artists are finding
new paths to market; consumers are finding apparel that appeals to their unique interests. (Or rather, thanks to big data and targeted social media advertising, it is finding
them.) Consumer demand for domestically printed apparel is once again soaring.
So what's not to like? It's a question of how today's custom printers fit into these
new supply chains. Clearly, investors look at screen shops the way they once viewed
cab companies, booksellers, and music stores. "The venture capital community sees
this as the next multibillion dollar industry that hasn't yet been disrupted," says Mark
Coudray, longtime Screen Printing author, who has given a lot of thought to the matter
(and who, in the interest of disclosure, has been marketing social media consulting
services to printers).
Some may look at the proliferation of similar business models and see a parallel
to the dot-com crash of the late 1990s. Others might point to the difficulties of CafePress, one of the first online custom printing sites, which went public in 2012 and at
press time was trading at about 20 percent of its price at IPO.
Disruptors don't always succeed. But now is an excellent time
to learn about these companies and the financiers who are
betting they will.
4
screenprinting
EDITORIAL
Steve Duccilli
Senior Vice President of Content
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Robin Donovan
Contributing Editor
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Adrienne Palmer
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Kiersten Wones
Assistant Editor
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Kelly N. Kofron
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Barbara Montgomery
Contributing Writer
Linda Volz
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Andy Anderson, Jeff Arbogast, Albert
Basse III, Reynold Bookman, Bob
Chambers, Don Curtis, Dean DeMarco,
Michael Emrich, Craig Furst, David
Gintzler, Ryan Moor, Bob Roberts,
Jon Weber, Andy Wood
Editorial Advisory Board
SALES
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Murray Kasmenn
murray.kasmenn@stmediagroup.com
770-578-2577
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Christine Baloga
Audience Development Manager
Kari Freudenberger
Director of Online Media
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - February/March 2016
Screen Printing - February/March 2016
Contents
Editorial Insights
Pressing Issues
New Products
Are You Confused about CPSIA Regulations?
Clothing Becomes Electric
The Power of Pigment
Understanding the Garment: Selection, Testing, and Prep
Distributor/Dealer Directory
Classifieds
Ad Index
Who’s in Charge here?
Screen Printing - February/March 2016
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