Screen Printing - April/May 2017 - 6

PRESSING ISSUES

RYONET AND PARTNERS
LAUNCH ALLMADE APPAREL
Ryonet and a group of 10 founding partners have launched Allmade
Apparel, a blank T-shirt brand crafted from sustainably sourced
materials and founded to benefit orphans around the world.
The project began when Zac McCarthy of Go Exchange, a division of the Global Orphan Project, approached Ryan Moor, CEO
and founder of Ryonet, at an industry tradeshow. McCarthy was
looking for a partner for his T-shirt initiative benefitting orphans
worldwide. "Wow - a T-shirt that could change the world before it
even was printed," Moor says of his initial reaction. Another goal
of the initiative was to create jobs that would pay Haitian workers
a livable wage.
The brand has now launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise
funds for an initial production run of 67,000 shirts. The cotton
and tri-blend shirts are produced with American-grown cotton,
polyester made from recycled bottles, and modal (a sustainable
alternative to rayon). They will be sewn in a Haitian factory where
workers are reportedly paid five times the national average. Proceeds benefit the Global Orphan Project.
Patrons can claim a number of "perks" in return for their donations, including blank and screen printed shirts, screen printing
course discounts, a "screen printer for a day" experience, a trip to
Haiti, and the opportunity to name an Allmade shirt color. Allmade
expects to begin shipping products in May 2017.
Allmade partners include Barrel Maker Printing, Pirate Ninja
Printshop, Superior Ink Printing, Nothing Too Fancy, Printed
Threads, Maui Screen Printing, SandiLake Clothing, Denver Print
House, and Synergy Media.

POLYMERSHAPES RESUMES
INDEPENDENT OPERATION

PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD
SALES GROW

Polymershapes has begun operating as
a standalone company after its previous
owner, SABIC, sold the business unit
to Illinois-based investment group
Blackfriars. SABIC acquired the unit from
General Electric in 2007, in a reported
$11.6 billion transaction.
Polymershapes, a distributor of plastic
sheet, rod, tube, and film products, will
operate from its headquarters in Huntersville, North Carolina, under the leadership
of its new president, Kevin Short.
Short brings 12-plus years of experience working at Blackfriars and as a
former president of the International
Association of Plastics Distributors. The
existing Polymershapes leadership team
will stay on, as well.

IPC has announced that its North
American PCB statistical program
sales for December 2016 were 5.9
percent higher than the data from the
same month in 2015. The company
reports that year-to-date shipments as
of December were up 2.9 percent,
while December shipments alone
increased by 12.3 percent compared
to November.
Printed circuit board bookings in
December decreased by 2.2 percent
(a book-to-bill ratio of 0.98), lowering
year-to-date bookings growth to
-0.7 percent.
IPC reported in December that the
market for flexible circuits has
outpaced the market for rigid PCBs.

SCREENPRINTING

GRIMCO ACQUIRES ALPHA
IMAGING TECHNOLOGIES
Grimco, a wholesale sign supply
company, has announced the acquisition of Alpha Imaging Technologies,
a Boston-based distributor of wideformat printing equipment and supplies. Grimco President Keith Pittillo
says in a release that the move will
bring the company a stronger presence in the Northeast. He adds that
the company "welcomes" the current
Alpha Imaging staff and suppliers.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - April/May 2017