Every once in a while, something new appears on the scene that has the potential to spread like wildfire, breathing new life into the digital-printing industry, which seems under attack by alternative communications media and stiff competition. Photo Tex is just such a new arrival, a removable adhesive fabric that is just starting to make its way into the North American market from the factories of its South Korean inventors.

Walter Gierlach, founder of The Photo Tex Group, the exclusive importer for North and South America, has been in the business of marketing used press and bindery equipment for a number of years. He came across the factory that manufactures Photo Tex on a visit to South Korea a couple of years ago and was intrigued by its potential. He returned to his home near Youngstown, Ohio, with samples and in conjunction with a Canadian business associate, Angelo Antoniadis, director of imaging technologies for Eclipse Imaging in Toronto, began testing the material with a number of print output devices.

"When I received my first sample of Photo Tex, I mounted it on my office window to see how it would work," Antoniadis says. "Since then, I have moved it from my window to my metal door to my wall almost every day. I still have the original piece and it still sticks."

The Roots of the Matter
Eclipse Imaging found a terrific Photo Tex application with its client, Roots, a large Canadian retail chain. Established in Toronto in 1973, Roots has evolved into an internationally recognized lifestyle brand. Starting as a single store with a single product – Roots Negative Heel Shoe – Roots now has more than 200 stores in Canada and is the official outfitter of the 2004 Canadian summer Olympics team.

"We are large-format printers with an arsenal of equipment, including 40-inch and 77-inch large-format litho presses screen printing up to 102 inches ... an Inca Columbia flatbed and a 16-foot Vutek grand-format printer," Antoniadis says. "Right away, we saw an opportunity for Photo Tex with an important client, Roots, the biggest retailer in Canada, as they prepared to promote their sponsorship of the Canadian Olympics team."

Eclipse produced and installed signs for Roots’ flagship store in Toronto, including mounting Photo Tex printed with Olympics imagery on 10 to 12 pillars, each 16 feet high by 40 inches wide. "We even mounted the material on the inside and outside of the elevator doors," Antoniadis says. "The best thing with this product is that you can peel it off and it doesn’t leave any residue." Eclipse also produced a wall- border piece for each of the more than 200 Roots stores, measuring 18 inches by 28 feet, to carry the Olympics theme deeper into the store décor.

Antoniadis is energized by the potential Photo Tex brings to his business, particularly in terms of its ability to add volume across the spectrum of his large-format devices. "It is a unique differentiator for us, and we are particularly excited that this material works equally well across almost our entire portfolio of print output devices. The sky is the limit in terms of the applications we can produce for our customers." He also points out that because of its unique properties, the materials Eclipse produces for its customers using Photo Tex deliver a higher margin opportunity for the firm than conventional, more commodity-like materials.

Professional Graphics’ Randy Colgate, district sales manager, has had similar experiences. Professional Graphics, based in New York, is a reseller of large-format supplies, hardware, media and ink serving the United States. "This fabric can be wrapped around anything from a garbage pail to a kiosk, put on a painted wall, a wallpapered wall, ceilings – the applications are endless. We even used it for one of our hotel clients who decorated the inside of an elevator to look like a jungle."

The Photo Tex Details
Photo Tex is a woven fabric that has a special adhesive applied after being removed from the loom. It is available in 8.5-inch by 11-inch and 11-inch by 17-inch sheets, as well as in 164-foot-long rolls in either 36-inch or 42-inch widths. Gierlach says custom sizes are available, including custom sheet sizes in quantities of a minimum of 1,000 sheets. Currently, dealer pricing has the material at $375 per roll, with quantity discounts available. "I’ve been to the factories; they have literally hundreds of machines available for production and I don’t see any issue with our ability to meet demand as it grows."

He, Antoniadis and Colgate all report excellent results printing on Photo Tex using a wide range of equipment – large-format and grand-format digital devices, offset presses and even a toner-based Xerox DocuColor 12 – and using all kinds of inks, including solvent, dye-based, pigment-based, ultraviolet and litho.

Gierlach sings the praises of the new substrate:

• It doesn’t rip or wrinkle;

• It sticks securely in all weather;

• It’s easily removed from any surface with no residue;

• It’s re-usable and can be applied and removed numerous times, retaining its adhesive characteristics;

• The adhesive is water-resistant;

• The material can be illuminated with back-lighting;

• And best of all, it can be printed using a wide range of printing technologies and inks.

What’s Next?
Colgate says when his clients see the flexibility of Photo Tex, they understand the value right away. "It is giving me a new direction vertically in the market, and I can use it to play effectively in a market that has been stagnant and oversaturated for some time. Photo Tex differentiates me from other companies, with a product that could be put over, for example, a $100,000 wood wall in a library and peeled off with no damage done to expensive wood walls, or even wallpaper."

Gierlach says he’s exploring the automotive industry, starting with using Photo Tex for advertising decals applied to race cars. "And we have also had a lot of interest from high-end auto dealers – Ferraris, Lamborghinis and such – who are using the material for temporary car ‘bras’ to protect the vehicles from damage during test drives. We are even dying Photo Tex in custom colors for that application."