Absolutely no relation to these guys, but I have a hobby knitwear line and a longstanding fascination with Shima Seki. The SS machines are unique, as far as I

Absolutely no relation to these guys, but I have a hobby knitwear line and a longstanding fascination with Shima Seki. The SS machines are unique, as far as I know. They are also SUPER hard to work with -- the software is opaque. The design skills matter. Those design skills have to hook up to the SS machine design system. Hooking yarn is not the same thing as say bending steel - in terms of reliability, ease, variations. Lots of complexity here. There have been some attempts at doing 3d knitting direct to retail, I recall an MIT startup that had a boutique on Newbury street, and eventually went D2C only, as well as some European brands. The SS machines are a little bit of a product in search of a market as far as I can see -- they are amazing, they waste very little product, in theory unique, custom garments can be put out rapidly. In practice, they seem to be used as small-run / custom-run tools -- but the only way to provide that is to have skilled designers and engineers -- hence the middle layer. Yes, I want one.