By Kelly Lawrence – CEO of Lawrence Innovation, LLC

What’s in a t-shirt? That which we call a t-shirt by any other name would smell as sweet? Decoration of garments, accessories and home furnishing has the power to reflect our personalities, emotions, hopes and dreams. Decoration can express our unique style and individualization as one piece in a greater whole. Personalization is all around us. Online sources like Zazzle, Vera Bradley, Taylor Made Golf, Quvel, and Nike recognize our needs to express and enable us to select and customize products with designs, patterns and embroidery to our liking. Have you ever wondered how it happens?

The textile supply chain is a long one. The time from new design concept to the time that design hits the retail shelves in the form of a t-shirt or throw pillow has traditionally taken months to even years. There’s a lot of back and forth, prototyping and waiting. Advancements in digitization has enabled the shortening in a number of processes including how consumers place orders, how designers modify patterns for correct sizing and how textiles are printed and decorated. Digital print and cut and sew processes have been game changing technologies for the textile industry and have the potential to unleash a new and more sustainable business model of sell it and then make it. Executed correctly, this concept could eliminate unnecessary inventories and the ultimate waste of product that didn’t sell off the retail shelf.

Interestingly, The World Textile Innovation Network states that less than 7% of printed textiles utilize digital print processes that enable an on-demand business model. With such a demand to eliminate waste in the supply chain, we asked what is holding the textile fashion industry back from converting to a sell then make supply chain?

Mike Angel, business development manager for ColDesi OnDemand states that the major gaps are in the execution and awareness of technology and processes that have been developed, proven, and succeeding today by many first adopters.

“Brands want to be more sustainable but are not sure who they can trust to delight their customers with quality products. Ones that arrives on a consumer’s door within a few days of order.

One part of this challenge is helping brands create meaningful connections to the back-end of the supply change.

The other has to do with communication. The textile industry is very specialized and there are a lot of workflow nuances to be considered for how to manufacture the backpack you selected from Vera Bradley, for example.

Traditional software systems don’t account for these nuances. We found we can help brands change their supply chain models and deliver an amazing customer experience by understanding these very things.

Coldesi OnDemand enables both the back-end supply chain connections and communications that lets orders be seamlessly completed and billed within mere days,” says Angel.

About Mike Angel

Mike Angel is an on-demand production industry professional who architects strategies and systems for apparel brands and production facilities. Especially those investing in on-demand product offering and fulfillment equipment and solutions. Mike also establishes new ecommerce and logistics technology partnerships that make digital and automated decoration and fulfillment possible.

Businesses continue to move away from bulk decorated orders to avoid inventory obsolescence and the price pressures that come with liquidation of overstock. Smart companies are moving towards more on-demand products with little to no pre-decorated inventory risks.

Coldesi OnDemand provides the expertise, guidance, and relationships to help large decorators, wholesalers and brands to go digital. To go on-demand!

About Coldesi OnDemand Overview

Coldesi OnDemand provides consulting and eCommerce to fulfilment solutions for businesses interested in manufacturing and selling decorated products online. Solutions include workflow automations, production, and fulfillment technology. Learn more at coldesi-ondemand.com.

About Kelly Lawrence and Lawrence Innovation

Kelly Lawrence is a recognized B2B growth expert. For more than two decades, Kelly has helped numerous organizations around the world – large and small - accelerate results including Berkshire Hathaway’s Lubrizol, Fortune Brands’ Moen, privately held small businesses and start-ups.

When you choose to work with Kelly, you gain a partner who cares about growing your business just as much as you do. Driven by the voice of the customer, Kelly converts insights into practical, action plans that yield higher revenues, higher margins and increased ROI for her clients and their downstream customers. She strives to build win-win value chain partnerships and connections that generate demand.

Kelly earned an MBA from Cleveland State University and an undergraduate degree in management from Case Western Reserve University. She is an AIM Institute certified coach, serves Cleveland SCORE as a subject matter expert, and is an associate consultant with Smithers Pira. Learn more at lawrenceinnovation.com.