Continued design, development, optimization, and testing of seamless garments created using State-of-the-Art Stoll and Shima Seiki knitting machines

Innovaknits, LLC (IK) is a contract manufacturing company specializing in flatbed knitting. We have both product development and production services located in Conover, NC.  IK, in conjunction with North Carolina State University (NCSU) Wilson College of Textiles, is currently in the processes of completing the Option period of our Phase I effort titled “A comparative study of seamless versus traditional seamed mesh garments utilizing industry-standard state-of-the-art knitting machinery” under this topic # N231-002.   The main purpose of this Phase I exploration was to better understand the capabilities of flatbed knitting machines, namely those made by the world-leading companies Stoll and Shima (as named in the original solicitation), to knit whole seamless garments that would replicate a recently developed “cut & sew” mesh Undershirt and Drawers for the Marine Corps.  General conclusions were that state-of-the-art machines of both families can make truly seamless mesh undergarments with little to no waste and less manual labor vs. cut & sew.  These garments were found to be substantially similar in aesthetics and performance to the status quo mesh cut-and-sew garments, and to one another. Based on these Phase 1 findings, IK has proposed a Phase 2 effort titled “Continued design, development, optimization, and testing of seamless garments created using State-of-the-Art Stoll and Shima Seiki knitting machines”.  In this effort, IK will continue to leverage its expertise (30+ years in apparel and technical knitting), the expertise of NCSU (120 years as world leading textile institution), and the combined expertise of BOTH Stoll and Shima Seiki themselves to further the design, development, and testing of the “best” garments possible with these platforms.  Special focus will be placed on the continued design of these garments in such a way that the final items produced are “neutral” to either the Stoll or Shima machine platforms, thus allowing for a larger and more diverse pool of domestic suppliers.   To deliver the “best” garments possible: IK will conduct multiple rounds of yarn optimization by sourcing from multiple established “Berry Compliant” domestic vendors, conduct multiple rounds of  fabric and garment optimizations based on lab results from hundreds of tests (as required in the established MIL-DTLs), work with the government to create garments for all required sizes (XS-XXL) for multiple rounds of fit assessments / refinements, and ultimately deliver 60 x seamless sets (undershirt and drawers) to the Marine Corps for testing and evaluation. In addition to this repeating process above, IK will provide a feasibility analysis using the mesh undershirt and drawer as a demonstration model for the viability of domestic flatbed seamless knitting, provide improved cost estimates at distinct volume thresholds, and provide a plan/model for the government on how to move current applicable cut and sew garments to this technology.