Impressions - May 2018 - 19

A snapshot of people who are leading
the decorated-apparel industry
toward the cutting edge.
By The

Staff,

Jennifer Morrell, Kristian Strang

Dan Harris

CEO,
BELLA+CANVAS
Dan Harris' philosophy on innovation may
surprise you. "A lot of people look around at
everyone else and just add existing silhouettes and fabrics into their line," says Harris,
CEO, BELLA+CANVAS. "We don't add
styles because customers are asking for them;
we produce styles or fabrics that aren't even
on their radar. We tell them what the next big
thing is because we are always ahead of it."
Harris says a truly innovative product doesn't
have to be over the top in nature. Sometimes,
innovation can be surprisingly obvious, such
as the need for a true black heather in the
marketplace (i.e. the company's Black Heather
line), or a clothing collection that releases a
new style each month at wholesale scale to
fit the modern way consumers shop (its Fast
Fashion collection).
But BELLA+CANVAS' innovation hasn't
stopped there, as it has introduced its PRISM
collection and Airlume cotton, the former
stemming from a desire to meet customers'
appetites for apparel texture and dimension,
and the latter resulting from the goal of making
the market's softest combed, ring-spun cotton.
"We control every element of our fabricdevelopment process, from the raw materi-

als to the knitting, to the dyeing, resulting
in a fabric that has our BELLA+CANVASspecific DNA," Harris says. "The level of detail that goes into this is incredible."
The PRISM collection has added heather colors, which Harris describes as new, yet
familiar, with seemingly endless decorating
possibilities and fresh, exciting colors.
For a company innovating at such a breakneck pace, it may be hard to evaluate which
pioneering effort will have the biggest impact.
For the record, Harris says that distinction
probably goes to Fast Fashion.
"With this new model of trends hitting the
wholesale market faster," he says, "customers
will be able to constantly refresh their product
assortment and always have the latest fashion
silhouettes and colors."
- Jennifer Morrell

Lily Hunter

Product Manager,
Roland DGA
It's the voice of the customer that Lily Hunter,
product manager, textiles and consumables
at Roland DGA, follows when it comes to
innovation. Such an approach has led Roland
to great success in multiple industries. The

company, long known for its wide-format
inkjet printers used in the sign and graphics
industries, has made a splash in the apparel
industry with its Texart printers, specifically
the Texart RT-640.
Today, Roland printers are used for apparel
decoration and include multiple technologies
to decorate a host of accessories, including
belts, shoes, buttons and more. The company's inks, including Eco-UV, TrueVIS and
Eco-Sol MAX eco-solvent inks, have since
become prominent in the textile industry.
And Roland isn't stopping there. "A lot of
fabric manufacturers are introducing polyester products that mimic the feel of cotton,
linen and silk - materials that can be sublimated," Hunter says. "With this expanded selection of polyester options, we should
see a corresponding increase in demand for
dye-sublimation as a decorating method. We
expect to see demand increase, not only in
the apparel/textile market, but for interior
décor applications, as well. Dye-sublimation
is also growing more popular for these applications because it doesn't require water to 'fix'
the inks onto the fabric, making it a cleaner,
more sustainable solution."
- Kristian Strang

MAY 2018

P.19

Impressions - May 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - May 2018