The last time I attended FESPA was in 2010, when it was also in Munich, a lovely city. Back then, FESPA occupied two halls, and I found this headline from one of the print trade magazines: “FESPA 2010 to be dominated by digital.”

Nine years later, and digital is still dominant, but we were surprised at how much analog technology there was! Screen printing was pretty prominent, as it should be, since the analog and digital technologies will co-exist for quite some time to come. We also saw hybrid analog/digital solutions, like the Digital Squeegee from M&R Digital. It was the first time I had actually seen it in action, and I was surprised at how large the inkjet portion of this machine was. Another similar hybrid solution from ROQ was also on display.

We also saw lots of embroidery machines. What was missing there, and what we expect to see at ITMA in Barcelona later this month, are at least two solutions for digital on demand coloring of thread—Coloreel and Twine—that have the potential to dramatically change the embroidery landscape because they can feed one embroidery head with an unlimited number of colors, dyed to order based on the embroidery pattern. We’ll be interested to see the market reaction—Coloreel has already launched its product and snagged a partnership with thread company Coats; Twine will be launching its solution at the show. As with screen printing, however, we expect to see analog and digital solutions both playing a role for some time to come.