How large is the digital garment printing market and what drives it?

In the United States, digital garment printing is carving a small but growing slice out of the multi-billion domestic garment printing market. The global garment decoration market in 2017 was estimated to be over $440 billion, part of the $25 trillion global clothing and textile market.

What drives the industry is a pervasive, endless demand for custom imprinted clothing and promotional products. All apparel has a lifespan and custom garments often have a finite range of use—think uniforms, events, and corporate promotional attire. If you wear something that bears an image, embroidery stitches, a dye pattern, or even an embossed logo, you consume decorated apparel.

Direct-to-garment is competitive with, and complementary to, screen printing. As DTG technology becomes more refined, the area of overlap between these technologies grows.