In the second of our series leading up to the Long Beach ISS show this week, we give our opinions on what to check out while you are there.

HIRSCH – Booths 573 and 673

Hirsch has a whole pile of things worth looking into. IMHO you should always check out the solid equipment and products of vendors first, new stuff isn’t as important as that. For example if you have an MHM press, take the time to talk to the Hirsch mechanic at the booth and definitely talk to their new MHM tech sales guy, my friend Brian Lessard who knows more about operating an MHM and about printing in general than anyone else you will meet at the show. If you don’t own an MHM, you would be crazy not to at least fully check out the MHM line of presses, they are most solid presses and MHM is the fastest press to set up, bar none.

Hirsch will be showing a new entry level Evo press for the first time. It is the first entry level press MHM has ever sold. Then on the other end of the spectrum, Hirsch will be showing the new Iq Oval press, which is basically almost infinitely expandable. I saw one that was practically the length of a football field when I was at the factory last year. These presses are now in the field and working and are sold in the US of A by Hirsch.

Hirsch also represents Tajima, the most solid embroidery machines. We have three of them and they sew and sew and sew. They are machines to make money. There are a few new pretty cool bells and whistles to the new Tajima machines worth looking at as well. You can also check out some very interesting Pulse production software, they call it  the DG15 “Productivity on the Go” software featuring Pulse Cloud.

Hirsch also sells Kornit Direct to Garment presses. You have to check them out, they keep getting faster and faster with more and more accurate color reproduction. The new thing to check out at the Kornit Booth is the Paradigm II. This is a Kornit DTG press that goes on an MHM S-Type screenprinting press, which makes my head spin thinking about all the cool stuff you can now do. That’s at the Kornit Booth #1047.

Hirsch sells Seit lasers. Now you don’t need a giant one, they have single head lasers.

Hirsch isn’t particularly promoting these, but check out the MSI flash cure units they sell. They are hot….   Seriously they are solid and awesome. We got rid of all of our other ones after we tried one MSI flash.

AMERICAN APPAREL  Booth #1327

You can’t go to any trade show and not check out American Apparel. They define “fashion forward” in this industry and most of the other supposedly fashion forward companies follow their lead. They also are the real deal on Made in USA and on being anti-sweatshop. I visited every inch of their factory last year after ISS and posted about it on the Ink Kitchen. I can tell you that it is a substantial impressive workplace and they are really pioneers, no BS.

Again, the basic shirts are awesome. If you are in Long Beach, take the time to go through the whole line with them and get the newest catalogs. The basic 2001 and 2102 are still great and still in a million colors. The tri-blends are awesome. The track jackets are a consistently great seller for us. For relatively new, I like their club jackets.

American Apparel has the new RSA6320 Ultra Wash Tee. It is pretty cool and you can see them at the show. I’m just going to quote them on what it is: “A relaxed loose-fitting t-shirt featuring a feminine cut, delicate scooped rib neckline and reinforced dual stitch detailing. Constructed from 40-singles ring-spun combed cotton that is taken through a soft-wash treatment producing a lightweight, worn-in feel and superior drape.”

SAATI  Booth #1821

I”m a big SAATI fan. Saati mesh is all we use in my shop and that’s been true for a very long time. It is not just great, it’s consistent. The main reason I like the company is that they never bullshit us, we always get good accurate technical information which I have found particularly helpful in the design of our screen cleaning/reclaim area at Mirror Image. At Long Beach you can actually see their stuff in action. They will have “Chemonstrations” in the booth. Check out their basics and meet the folks there, that is my biggest message to you Long Beachers. For new stuff they have a stretcher that is interesting, an affordable good auto screen coater, and I’m going to be getting an LED exposure lamp soon, that looks like very useful technology.