Full Disclosure – My name is Kyle and I’m the owner/founder of RBTR.
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Hi everyone! As a lot of you already know, one area of focus for us over the past couple years has been digital textile printing. Specifically, bringing the technology to high-end outdoor fabrics. We’re still getting started really, but luckily some of our efforts are beginning to bear fruit, so we wanted to share it with you.
One thing we’ve been working on since the start of this year is an X-PAC variant that’s suitable for printing. By printing, I mean that we’re able to start with a base X-PAC fabric and from there create any pattern OR any color for the finished material.
At first this was just an idea in that we didn’t really know if it would work at all. But with several rounds of sampling, testing, and working with DP directly (thanks to Hale and Co), we’ve been able to come up with something that actually works.
The custom variant is called V15 and has the following stack:
- 150D Polyester face with C6 DWR
- 0.25 mil PET film
- 50D Poly taffeta backing
In case you’re wondering what that looks like…
In addition to being a print ready, V15 also eliminates the X-ply grid in favor of a plain weave. We did this for a couple different reasons, but namely because we felt the X-grid was a protruding abrasion/wear point that didn’t really need to be there. Also, as pointed out by a known pack vendor, it can be a pain to cut multiple panels so that the grid is always pointing the same way when sewn into the final product. Not sure I can say No grid = No pain, but it certainly makes things easier.
We’re starting with V15 as a good balance of durability and weight between VX21 and VX07, but we’re already working on other custom print ready variants…
Now to the good stuff. Like, why should you care about Printed X-PAC? First, we’ll be printing and stocking X-PAC in colors both inside and outside the standard DP color wheel. But if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also be able to create and order ANY color X-PAC on-demand with no minimum. Said another way, you can now order as little as one yard of X-PAC in ANY color you want, all at a reasonable price.
If you’re so inclined, you can also pick up an X-PAC color map. This is a linear yard of fabric with over 1300+ color swatches and corresponding ID codes. Once you have the color map, you can use it to pick your colors by taste OR to locate color matches to existing gear. For example, you have a ULA pack and want to DIY an X-PAC hip belt pouch that perfectly matches. With the color map, that’s possible.
So that’s it for now. We do have a lot more coming in the next few days like patterns and even custom image upload capability. We’ll keep everyone updated here with those developments.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We want to make this as awesome as it can possibly be, so we’d love to hear from you. Thanks!
– Kyle
