At last year’s Gerber Ideation conference in Miami, I asked Kirby Best, OnPoint Manufacturing’s Chairman, why the company had not implemented digital printing, considering his deep background in digital book printing when he was running Lightning Source. The on-demand personalized apparel manufacturer, located in Florence, Ala., was at the time basically an automated cut-and-sew operation with customers shipping in printed fabric ready to cut and sew. He told me he was waiting for a direct-to-fabric printer that could print to a variety of fabric types at speeds that could keep up with the company’s manufacturing line.

OnPoint chairman Kirby Best explains the automated manufacturing line in its Florence, Ala., factory to fashion designer Gabi Asfour, founder of threeASFOUR during a recent plant tour.

During the conference, at a Kornit session both Kirby and I attended, Sharon Donovich, Product Marketing Manager at Kornit Digital, suggested that such a solution was “coming soon.” “That inspired me to keep in touch with the company to determine whether this new printer would meet our needs,” Best commented.