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by zokier13 hours ago |
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upvoteby vessenes5 hours ago|
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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.

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upvoteby doctorhandshake13 hours ago|
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I think this is an uncharitable view of the information on offer. The linked page similarly brands the technique with a trademarked WHOLEGARMENT label, claiming it’s a world first, so it doesn’t seem a stretch to see how these folks got to claiming it’s novel and making a bit of a todo about how it’s different. It also seems to have some business model implications that on first approximation look less than favorable, so I think that helps to justify the need for a position paper like this.
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upvoteby yorwba12 hours ago|
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According to the Shima Seiki history page: https://www.shimaseiki.com/company/dna/history/ it was a world first in 1995. That doesn't make it novel anymore in 2026.

I would nonetheless find it interesting to read an "ultimate guide" explaining how the knitting machines work, but this ain't it.

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upvoteby dogtimeimmortal8 hours ago|
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These are not cheap machines! Looking around online, i found a lot of 4 Shima Seiki machines listed for $40k! If someone is interested getting into knitting, I would recommend starting with some cheap hand-crank machines from a brand like Sentro. You will learn a lot more, and there is a lot you can do with knit tubes. If absolutely don't want a tube, you can get a so-called panel machine. I think you can find one on Amazon or Etsy - i forget the listing i saw, but it was like $500(much less than a Shima Seiki).

Here are a couple useful sites to get started:

https://machineknitting.fandom.com/wiki/Machine_Knitting_Wik...

https://www.knittingparadise.com/forums/machine-knitting.20/

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upvoteby tecleandor11 hours ago|
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But the site doesn't say anything about being new, and in fact says it was invented in 1995:

  When Was 3D-Knitting Invented?

  The concept of 3D-knitting was first envisioned and then developed by the
  Japanese company SHIMA SEIKI. They launched their first WHOLEGARMENT knitting
  machine at the ITMA trade fair in 1995.
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upvoteby criticas7 hours ago|
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No, the bottom of the page says they subcontract production. So it's an infomercial for a company that markets sweaters they may or may not design. And they disclose that in the article, if very subtly.
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upvoteby meigwilym12 hours ago|
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Then perhaps the poster is drawing attention to the clever marketing, rather than the machine itself?
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