Innovation That Matters

Digital knitting machine creates on-demand fashion

Work & Lifestyle

Affordable, compact digital knitting machine makes high-quality bespoke garments available to designers for a fraction of the usual cost of production.

Designed by a team with first hand experience of the difficulties of accessing professional quality knitting machines when studying fashion and textiles, Kniterate is meant to bring the capability of creating to everyone. Currently raising funds on Kickstarter, the company is encouraging community campaigns to bring a machine to a neighborhood or group for a truly shared experience of making.

The machine is computer controlled, making it swift and easy to produce complex patterns in a multitude of colors. The accompanying app allows makers to set stitch density, produce small scale runs and test new ideas. Complex items are produced piece by piece, with only basic assembly needed to finish them. Each machine comes with a package of software that includes design templates, stitch choices and the option to share designs with the wider Kniterate community. The first batch of machines are due to ship in April 2018 because the team wants to strengthen the app and software in order to make them as flexible and useful as possible.

Sharing knowledge and experiences is a key component of peer-to-peer economies, with open source designs encompassing everything from all-terrain wheelchairs to a pattern-cutting library. What industries have yet to test out the benefits of an open source approach?

Website: www.kniterate.com

Contact: twitter.com/kniterate