Case Study: Bemis Brilliant® Color Reflective Material

Leading Children’s School Bag Brand Chooses Bemis for Brilliance and Color Reflective Material

CHALLENGE

satch, a brand within Fond Of portfolio of brands, was interested in adding a product that would provide brilliance and color reflective qualities to their line of children’s school bags.

satch wanted an attractive and functional alternative to the standard silver daylight reflective material that was widely used for this type of application. The designers at satch felt the silver daylight was far too overpowering and lacked a stylish quality that the satch brands are best known for. satch designers set out to identify a company that offered a high brightness reflective material that also offered it in a variety of color choices for their children’s school bag line. Their research showed that although there were solutions that would meet their design needs, the level of brightness that Bemis Associates offered far exceeded what was available on the market at that time. Knowing that there was a product that offered such a significantly higher level of brightness reflective material underscored the need for satch to move away from their existing low brightness material upgrade to a higher quality and brightness for their school bags. satch was determined to remain focused on their key ingredients when developing a new product; those being fashion, function, and price. This engagement would result in providing their customers with a high brightness colorized material on their children’s school bags that would be exceedingly fashionable at an affordable price.

SOLUTION

When Bemis Associates, a leading global manufacturer of thermoplastic adhesives, coatings, tapes, and specialty film products for bonding, purchased Safe Reflections, which manufactured products with visibility in work wear active wear and fashion, it allowed Bemis to combine its industry-leading adhesive with Safe Reflections’ patented Brilliant® Color Reflective technology. At that time, Bemis began creating the next generation of bondable aesthetic films for the apparel market.

Bemis’ color reflective materials are ideal and critical for the consumer market, in particular apparel, and other applications where a non-certified high brightness reflective material is needed. satch designers gave Bemis custom colors they wanted Bemis to match that would work well with satch designers’ selected fabric colors for the upcoming seasons. For example, a petroleum blue or minty green were among the custom colors satch designers chose to feature. Bemis began production of a custom color and dying process to match Fond Of designer’s preferred color tone.

The testing and decision process took to about 12 months. The engineers at Bemis were successful in matching the colors that met Fond Of designers’ preferences. The result was a colorized high brightness reflective fabric with a polyester backing that can be sewn right onto the fabric.

Once the color match was approved, the team at Bemis was asked to provide some colorized samples so Fond Of could take those samples and produce sample school bags to show their salespeople.

Fond Of really liked the color options Bemis created. Since Bemis’ Brilliant® Color Reflective material delivers high brightness in multiple colors for a stronger, more vibrant, versatile choice for any application, satch decided to adopt the new unique technology into their production of middle school age school bag product line. The Brilliant® product line is extremely unique and has become very popular with high end athletic wear retailers, particularly with industry fashion designers.

RESULTS

satch is now producing and selling this product to their middle school bag customer base. Their first orders were in the hundreds and continue to increase.  Bemis has significantly increased their sales from a few years ago. They found a high adoption rate among their market audience. The company is very pleased that they can now offer a distinctly styled, attractive product that offers the highest quality safety feature.

Bemis Brilliant® Color Reflective gives the designers at satch the freedom to create stylish children’s school bags that do not look like a typical school bag. It is highly functional but also aesthetically superior. When designers were confined to only working with silver material, it inhibited the ability to create a line of attractive, and fashionable school bags. The Brilliant® Color Reflective is truly a solution where function meets fashion.

The feedback Bemis received from satch was extremely favorable and a partnership was formed.

Bemis’ future plans are to maintain the interest and necessity of producing high brightness colorized fabric for children’s school bags to keep them safe, and to expand their Bemis’ color palette. Currently, satch offers 5 different colors with creative names such as Minty Green and Lila Hurley. They continue to develop and test new designs and color matches.

Being selected as one of satch’s key partner’s is a major feather in Bemis’ cap since the satch brand is known for its highly innovative approach to design and many industry leaders consider them to be the benchmark for others to follow. They are driver of innovation and a leader in their marketplace.

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