Kornit Digital invites the fashion industry to unleash its creativity and embrace innovation 

The on-demand apparel printing company Kornit Digital has today kicked of its milestone 3 day event Konnections ’26 in Hollywood, Florida, which brings together more than 500 companies —  from global brands to print production, and supply chain innovators — to shape a new playbook for on-demand manufacturing.

Founded in 2002, Kornit is a global leader in sustainable, on-demand digital printing technologies for the apparel, garment, and textiles industries with offices in Israel, the U.S., Europe and Asia. 

In the UK, it works with the likes of ASOS and Boohoo helping them to boost both sustainability credentials - the machines use no water and create no pollution unlike traditional screen printing - and provide greater supply chain agility.

TheIndustry.fashion sits down with the CEO of Kornit, Ronen Samuel, to discuss his vision for a thriving industry, how fashion needs to break free from the nostalgia of a past that is no longer relevant to today’s consumer, and why Kornit is best placed to bring the industry together. 

What is your vision for the fashion industry? 

We want to help unleash the creativity of the fashion industry. Fashion has stayed behind the digital evolution, trying to force the consumer to continue to behave like they did in the past, in a different world. Our vision is to enable brands and retailers to thrive and for the consumer to enjoy the clothes they are wearing.

Can you tell us more about digital printing solutions. Why should the fashion industry embrace this technology?

Digital printing on fashion and textile is relatively new. Kornit started 23 years ago with a vision to change the industry to create more relevant, and more sustainable products. But we had limitations. Fashion was used to the analog way, which is screen printing, and for a long time digital was used more for customising designs. But today we are very happy to say that digital printing has exceptional quality and is easier, cheaper and faster to use. We have over 1,000 customers today that are doing customised, agile production. 

Why is agility so important in today’s market?

The fashion and textile industry is at a very pivotal moment right now. For many years it worked in a very traditional way, by predicting what the consumer was going to wear and producing items in very large quantities. But the internet and social media changed this. There is a $1 trillion cost today of excess inventory, with items going to waste, or products being discounted — all because of wrong forecasting. This is the main issue that on-demand production and our workflow is solving. You produce only what is being sold, because the product is relevant to the consumer. 

It is also hard to trust international supply chains today. The new definition of the world is unpredictability, with geopolitical tensions impossible to forecast. And the volatility will continue - so you need to build a supply chain that is agile. That means producing much closer to the consumer, so that you can control your supply chain and react much faster to changing market trends.

How does Kornit enable brands to be more agile? 

By offering not only the printing technology but an entire solutions ecosystem, we help brands and retailers to shift to on- demand production. Zumiez, one of our U.S. customers, for example, is a mid-sized retailers with 600 shops that uses our solutions to print apparel daily and immediately ship it to market, with fast replenishment based on customer reactions. We have many of those kind of examples, like US-companies ‘Life is Good’, ‘Tillys’ and ’47 Brand’.

But you also work with partners such as ASOS?  

This is a different type of customer, for whom we enable on-demand manufacturing anywhere around the world. So your brand might be based in Australia, but if I’m ordering from New York, the product will be produced close to New York to reduce delivery time and cost of shipment. This technology is called KornitX.

You recently tapped former ASOS CEO Nick Beighton as a strategic advisor. Can you tell me more about this?

I met Nick seven years back when he was the CEO of ASOS, and we kept in touch. Even after he stepped down as CEO, he believed in the vision of on-demand manufacturing, and we decided to bring him onboard as an advisor. From August onwards he will become a board member to help drive the adoption of on-demand production for brands. I cannot disclose any more future plans yet, as they involve some of the biggest brands that we are working with. 

I believe you are unveiling some new technologies at Konnections ’26?

Yes, we are going to unveil a breakthrough technology called Atlas MATRIX, a very innovative product that can print on any fabric, on any apparel, even on polyester, and sublimated polyester  - without having dye migration issue. It is truly fabric agnostic.

This is a breakthrough as we can now meet the performance requirements of the sports market - and we see athleisure and sports as a major growth engine, as many people are starting to wear it daily. 

We are also going to be announcing a few more innovations related to the sports market soon.

You’ve also recently started printing digitally on footwear. What is the opportunity here?

We unveiled a new technology that has the capability to print directly on the shoe upper, while still meeting the tough requirements of sports shoes, including durability.

Now the likes of Nike, Adidas and other big brands can do more on-demand, customised and shorter run production, which is one of their biggest issues. You can also do any type of design, unlike screen printing where there are a lot of limitations. At Konnections I am actually going to be showing a new design, something very unique - a real breakthrough for the footwear industry. 

Kornit's Atlas MATRIX solution

Tell me more about Kornit Konnections, why should the fashion and apparel industry pay attention? 

This is the third edition and the biggest yet, and we are bringing the entire ecosystem together - from leading sports and fashion brands, to software partners, fulfillment providers and investors - to show industry players that they actually can change their supply chain, become more agile and more sustainable.

It’s going to be a very busy agenda, we have more than 20 sessions with keynote speakers from some of the leading companies joining us, including Shark Tank’s entrepreneur and investor Daymond John and Nick Beighton, who will share his experience scaling ASOS and the importance of agility.

On top of that, we are going to have a showcase of solutions, including Kornit solutions such as Kornit Apollo, which is the largest production machine, so everybody can test it and get comfortable with it.

What makes Kornit best placed to lead this conversation?

We have had this vision for the industry from the beginning, 23 years ago, but we know that we cannot do it alone. To be successful we need to connect all the dots, so we're investing to educate the fashion ecosystem, to let them know that they can do better, in a different way.

What do you hope your attendees will get from attending?

The most successful thing will be that some of the brands walk out at the end to say now is the time to change. We have found the right partners, and we will continue the discussion on how to change our supply chain.

Find out more about Kornit Konnections ’26

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