Impressions - May/June 2024 - 20

The Future of AI in Decorated Apparel is Now!
It seems like only yesterday generative artificial
intelligence (AI) and AI in general were being
described as the technology of the future. But if
the experience of the first two Impressions Expos
of 2024 is any indicator, the future is now. Whether
it was on the conference side of things, the Shop
Talk stage or across the show floor as a whole, it
seems AI is now everywhere.
Among the dozens of conference sessions taking place at
the Long Beach show, for example, were a number of AIspecific
offerings, including an introduction to the
Midjourney AI platform (midjourney.com) with Marshall
Rick Roth (right) and AI expert Michelle Moxley.
Photo courtesy of Impressions Expo
Atkinson of Atkinson Consulting (atkinsontshirt.com); an " Intro to AI for Artwork " session
with renowned designer Dane Clement, president of Great Dane Graphics (greatdanegraphics.com)
and vice president of Art and Creative Process for GroupeSTAHL (groupestahl.com); a session
titled " Simple Systems and AI Tools to Modernize Your Print Shop " with the Shirt Agency's
(shirtagency.com) Cole Lundstrom and Gavin StGeorges, founder of seps.io; and the panel
discussion " AI and Automation for Decorated Apparel Operations. "
Similarly, among the many discussions hosted by the Ink Kitchen's (inkkitchen.com) Rick Roth
on the Shop Talk stage were those titled " The Future of AI in the Garment Industry " and " Basics
of AI and the Garment Industry " with long-time AI proponent and practitioner Michelle Moxley.
In the words of Marshall Atkinson: " You've probably heard AI is going to replace people,
right? That's totally bogus. However, people using AI are going to replace people not using
it, because somebody is going to be able to out design you, and they're going to be able to do
it faster because they are using this tool. " You can't say you weren't warned! - A.C.
Things were busy over at the Flexfi t booth (above), where the
company was also celebrating its 50th anniversary; at right, an
activation highlighting some of the advantages of the Flexfi t
NU. Photo courtesy of Impressions Expo
company bring a great looking both, but it also boasted an outstanding
activation highlighting its Flexfi t NU line-a recently
released baseball cap style with a front panel specifi cally designed
for easy embroidery decorating, especially.
Last but not least, a shout out to the many companies large and
small making the eff ort to incorporate materials and/or introduce
entire product lines specifi cally confi gured for sustainability.
Among these were Flexfi t and its LYOCELL tech, a botanic textile
sourced from an award-winning closed-loop production plant;
Allmade's (allmade.com) use of responsibly sourced cotton and/or
recycled plastic bottles throughout its many T-shirt and hoodie off erings;
Gildan's (gildancorp.com) Comfort Colors' proprietary dyeing
process, Pigment Pure, on off er at Impressions Expo Long Beach
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ImpressionsMagazine.com May/June 2024
and expressly designed to reduce water and energy usage during the
manufacturing process; Augusta Sportwear's (augustasportswear.
com) use of ecoRevive technology (featuring 50-percent recycled
polyester) in its Pacifi c Headwear and Ventura Collections product
lines, including the new Ladies Ventura Cardigan and eco-Revive
beanie; and Los Angeles Apparel (losangelesapparel.net), which in
addition to consistently developing new products using leftover and
scrap fabric, continues to ensure nearly 100 percent of its production
and shipping byproducts are recycled, including scrap paper, boxes,
plastic and pretty much everything else that goes into manufacturing
its garments.
Th e list goes on and on, a fact of which the entire decoratedapparel
industry should be proud. Let's keep it up! 

http://www.midjourney.com http://www.atkinsontshirt.com http://www.greatdanegraphics.com http://www.groupestahl.com http://www.shirtagency.com http://www.seps.io http://www.inkkitchen.com http://augustasportswear.com http://augustasportswear.com http://www.losangelesapparel.net http://www.allmade.com http://www.gildancorp.com http://www.ImpressionsMagazine.com

Impressions - May/June 2024

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