David Borg runs the digital marketing for Coloreel, a Swedish innovator with some very clever technology that is set to revolutionise the textile market. We caught up with him to ask him more.

Tell us a little of the background behind Coloreel and how the idea came to life?

It began back in 2003. Our founder, Joakim Staberg, had the idea to help drive innovation for large businesses. In one of these projects, he identified several huge challenges within the textile industry and started working on a solution.

The idea itself was instant thread colouring using digital printing. After some years of realizing the potential and enormous effort this project required, it was decided in 2009 to focus solely on the development of this solution.

It was in 2016 that we started commercial product development, so it has taken a lot of steps but it is where we are today.

What is unique about it?

Coloreel technology is a ground-breaking innovation that enables high-quality coloring of textile thread on demand. This opens up amazing new design possibilities. Coloreel’s first product based on the technology is a thread coloring unit which is created to be used with industrial embroidery machines. In the future, the technology can also be used for sewing, knitting, weaving and more.

What is so special about Coloreel technology?

This technology enables new possibilities for designers that are either impossible or very hard to achieve with today's standard embroidery technique. In short, with inkjet, you can print multiple colours directly onto one thread, so it is now easy to achieve sharp transitions with colours in embroidery. It enables designers to achieve something new - they can deliver better quality and designs and without the need for a lot of stock. It also avoids downtime, which is the inefficient time that is wasted when a machine is in set up. So there is now no downtime with the colour changing so it enables complex designs and it saves a huge amount of time. You also do not have to switch out threads all the time. In fact, just one thread that can become unlimited colors.

How did you achieve this innovation?

With all our knowledge and expertise gained through this journey, we are confident that everything is possible. Pure commitment has kept us going for many years, eventually reaching results far better than we initially knew would be possible.

We have had crucial help from many different specialist suppliers to achieve the final solutions of the Coloreel unit. But most of the development was done inside the company. Of course, we needed help from elsewhere, in particular with the printing module.

As a result, we had a lot of help to mass produce the printing module with Ricoh, who have that expertise and the technology as well as being a large and stable partner. The successful results we have achieved together represented a long process of collaboration as it has been in development for a long time. But now Coloreel has moved onto the next phase as it is now in production. The next step is final validation and testing to get this product into the market.

What kind of applications is it suitable for?

Apparel, shoes, caps, bags, uniforms, dresses, textile interior,

anything that uses embroidered textiles really.

What is the cost? And is it available globally?

The European list price is €20,000 and we are focusing on the European market first. Our revolutionary product has generated a lot of interest from the market, which is a pleasant issue for us. We are trying to meet the demand of units from all over the world but we want a distributor for each market, to give the best possible service to our customers. We are currently working on several leads for other markets, and we have a lot of companies approaching us all the time.

Right now, we are focused on embroidery, but we are interested in the sewing, knitting and weaving market. What we already know is that a lot of ideas will come from the market itself as people see the potential of the technology, so it is exciting times.

Check out this video for more information or contact David at info@coloreel.com