Today, we’re committed to (re)introducing you to our most important partner: the French group KARIBAN BRANDS!
You may already know that KARIBAN BRANDS comprises six customisable clothing and accessory brands, designed to support companies in their daily operations.
From flocking t-shirts for an event to imagining full professional outfits geared to the needs of its teams and offering customised gifts to its partners, the KARIBAN BRANDS offer has expanded significantly over the years, always with the goal of improving customer satisfaction.
Almost 30 years after the creation of Kariban, the group’s first brand, TopTex is as proud as ever to distribute their innovative, technical and stylish products. So we want to tell their story and take you behind the scenes of their profession: creating high-quality clothing.
Let’s discover a passionate company, exploring the beginnings of KARIBAN BRANDS, the firm commitments guiding their teams and the secrets behind the collection design process!
What is KARIBAN BRANDS ?
The story begins in 1996 when Laurent Marti founded Kariban.
Just two years after acquiring the renowned distribution company TopTex, Laurent Marti realised that the advertising textiles at that time did not fully meet market expectations.
He then imagined his own brand, taking inspiration from classic ready-to-wear styles. He questioned why companies did not have the option to put their own stamp on comfortable and trendy clothing with smart finishes. And so the Kariban brand was born with the belief that quality, technical expertise and style combine to produce high-impact professional attire.
The gamble paid off for Laurent Marti who wrote the first page in an epic story. His ambitions grew for Kariban and the offer expanded with new products which were gradually segmented by brand:
- Kariban : corporate wear
- PROACT® : sportswear
- WK. Designed To Work : workwear
- K-up : headwear
- Kimood : luggage & accessories
- Kariban Premium : clothing for business and representation professions
Since 2019, these brands have been grouped together under KARIBAN BRANDS to form a comprehensive line of white-label clothing and accessories to customise to various wants and needs.
The perfect blend of modern vision, precision and conviction, KARIBAN BRANDS won over customers and established itself in the promotional textiles industry. To tie in with these strong founding values, the group’s development was increasingly geared to eco-design and eco-responsibility: key commitments for the KARIBAN BRANDS teams and us all.
So how is a garment designed and produced at KARIBAN BRANDS? What is the most important factor in this process? Read on to find out!
One group, four pillars: creativity, technical expertise, technology and transparency
Laurent Marti took inspiration from “classic” fashion and urban attire when imagining his first textiles brand for companies. But in the B2B segment, expectations are even higher! We’re talking about clothing able to dress, protect, remain resistant to wear and tear, and sometimes intensive washing. Put simply, a professional garment must first be strong and practical, as well as attractive and comfortable.
When crafting high-quality clothing, everything must be carefully thought out. For KARIBAN BRANDS, four main pillars guide the product production process:
Creativity
Laurent Marti’s observation in 1996 still holds true today: it all begins with the market. The KARIBAN BRANDS teams know that the best way of understanding what customers want is to observe and listen within the market itself. Therefore, customer and sales feedback and the continuous observation of trends are precious mines of information; an essential path to identifying innovative, perfectly suited and genuinely useful products. Ultimately, the key lies in the balance between creativity and market reality.
Technical expertise
Once the clothing and accessory ideas are approved, they must be brought to life and imagined in as practical a way as possible by standing in the shoes of the end users. This is where the pattern makers come in! And while they’re assisted by their tools, their best weapons remain their know-how and precision. For example, proportionality must be used when making a sweatshirt in various sizes. On larger sizes, the sleeves will be longer. But there’s more: the cut and all of the seams must be revised to offer ease and comfort around the trapezius muscles, shoulders and armholes.
Every detail counts and technical expertise is therefore essential.
Technology
Imagine: 16 people communicate daily within the KARIBAN BRANDS design unit teams. If we add the service providers involved in the product design cycle, then logistics and the marketing and sales departments, this amounts to myriad discussions which must be efficient and responsive with no loss of information.
Fortunately, KARIBAN BRANDS employs PLM or “Product Lifecycle Management”. This powerful technological tool combines with other software to guarantee security, reliability, speed, traceability and the monitoring of discussions throughout the production process.
Transparency
The K-loop circular economy project, in-conversion cotton, organic and recycled materials – you get the idea. Ethical and eco-friendly projects are important for KARIBAN BRANDS whose CSR commitments will always come with objective guarantees.
The audits and checks are carried out by impartial third-party bodies. This allows group brands to offer reliability and transparency to their customers when proving that their initiatives are real and verifiable.
Three steps to kick-start a collection design
The four pillars set out above guide the collection design process, which begins 14 months before the official launch. Let’s go through the various steps, one by one:
Step #1: “Collection Meetings” to determine the pieces in the future range
The go-ahead is given in October the year ahead of the launch by the “Collection Meeting”. At this stage, the teams observe ready-to-wear as a whole: trends, fashionable colours, key pieces, etc. They also consult the sales teams which scrutinise customer orders and feedback to improve the end result.
The aim? To pool valuable information in order to understand the future professional clothing market and factor this in where possible.
A second meeting takes place a few months later in order to approve the ideas set out in October. Now, the development of the future range can officially begin! Now, the development of the future range can officially begin!
Step #2: Designing the first prototypes to bring the imagined pieces to life
It’s time to move from idea to production: prototypes, fittings, adjustments, etc. The pattern makers work to bring the imagined concepts to life. With instruments, technologies and digital, they use a wide range of tools, including the famous French curve ruler, to measure, mark out and draw patterns. From the cut to the proportions and drape, everything is observed, adjusted, re-fitted and corrected until the garment is considered impeccable.
Step #3: Checking the pattern and all features
But it doesn’t stop there! A range of features are meticulously checked. A sample fabric disc measuring 11 cm in diameter is taken using a round fabric cutter. This is used to indicate the weight (expressed in g/m2) which will advise customers on the thickness of the piece. Care is also considered: the garments are machine-washed and tumble-dried to ensure their stability and identify the care instructions to indicate on the label.
Another key point in the world of B2B textiles: colour! For example, a company that selects uniforms for its teams expects that the colour of each piece be identical. And colours must not fade over time to ensure they remain similar even if the same product is ordered several months apart. The check is performed using a “lab dip”, which could be described as a series of dyed swatches that are used as references. The aim is to provide manufacturers with extremely precise colour codes, which will then be approved using a spectrocolorimeter. This ensures that there is no colour difference between different pieces of the same model, even those invisible to the naked eye!
Of course, these are just examples because many other components are analysed by the KARIBAN BRANDS teams during this design process. These high standards, technical expertise and precision allow the group brands to imagine and design premium quality clothing and accessories. To browse the KARIBAN BRANDS offer, consult the 2023 catalogue:
All KARIBAN BRANDS brands and collections are available on TopTex.co.uk. You can search by brand and by product type by using the filters. If you need help with your selection, be sure to contact our advisers!
Most importantly, stay in touch to discover the future KARIBAN BRANDS collections: Premium and eco-friendly ranges or ones specialised in a specific industry. The group brands work hard to offer their customers ever more technical, sustainable and stylish options!