Charlie Rodman (bottom Left) founder with Nerdy Banana Team
UV LED capabilities from CMYUK are added to the company’s dye sublimation production portfolio
CMYUK Shrewsbury: Nerdy Banana has purchased a Mimaki FX100-160 at CMYUK.
The company used Epson dye-sublimation printers for its production, but the introduction of Mimaki’s UV LED capability has allowed it to create a brand new inflatables brand called Air Bod just in time to celebrate the Christmas season.
“Sublimation is excellent but there are some things you can’t sublimate, which is why we approached CMYUK as it offers products across all ink technologies,” says Charlie Rodman, founder, Nerdy Banana.
Entrepreneurial flair
Nerdy Banana, the umbrella company of eight direct-to-consumer brands is called Nerdy Banana. Charlie, who started making holiday T-shirts in 2011 for his friends, founded Nerdy Banana. The company employs 24 people and fulfills over 200,000 orders annually to more than 40 countries. Super Socks are available in a variety of brands, including Petzopia and Snugzy.
This company does not just manage D-to-C brand names, its agency also helps startups and small businesses to make online impacts by providing web design and video content as well as paid SEO, PPC and brand development.
Warner Bros England licenses it and many other football clubs to make personalised gifts. In 2020 it began a relationship with Selfridges London, Birmingham, and Manchester plus sister brand, Arnott’s in Dublin, to install a physical Super Socks shop in-store where customers can design their own socks, which are printed and sublimated on heat presses while they wait.
“In Selfridges there were queues and people were waiting half an hour just to create this option. It was unbelievable. You see so many personalised gifts now that are so boring, but this is really different, presented in a creative and fun way,” says Charlie.
Mimaki talent
Nerdy Banana approached CMYUK to find a solution printed for Air Bod, its brand of inflatables that includes dolls and pillows.
Charlie visited CMYUK’s demonstration and training facility in Shrewsbury where it print-tested the materials it had sourced for this brand.
“We came up to CMYUK where we printed our materials on the Mimaki. Then we took the materials away for washing and returned them again. We really put the printer through the mill, and it was all good,” says Charlie.
Mimaki UJV100 -160, a 1.6m long UV LED printer with a resolution up to 1200dpi is available. You can use it with tarpaulin and PET film as well as textiles. The two-layer printing capability allows you to print white ink for transparent PET films. However, clear ink may be printed to produce a topcoat varnish. Nerdy Banana opted for a 4-colour model only, as it prints to a white base material and so it didn’t require the white ink option or the clear ink either.
Future expansion
There are plans to launch new brands and expand the retail experience while you wait. To serve the expanding US and Australian markets, the company is in the process of setting up Los Angeles’ warehousing/manufacturing facility. Says Charlie, “We send lots of products out to these places, and with the high cost of shipping, we’re just not going to be competitive enough unless we’re out there on the ground. We’re constantly adapting and want to keep innovating. Giving gifts is an enjoyable experience. It’s nice to be able to give someone a laugh and a giggle.”