New Jersey - Shima Seiki U.S.A. has announced that it will be closing its New Jersey, USA offices at 22 Abeel Road in Monroe Township, NJ at the end of December 2021 and relocating its headquarters to its Los Angeles, California operation.

Reflect back on its 35 year journey in the US, Shima Seiki recounted how it opened its NJ Offices in 1986, to service its customers where knitwear manufacturing was still heavily prevalent in the Northeast. During the 80’s, many manufacturers hadn’t outsourced their production overseas yet, and there were still many knitting facilities across Philadelphia and New York. Since then, in the late 80’s, many brands have shifted manufacturing overseas to reduce costs and cut corners, but Shima Seiki say it also noticed the downfall in knitwear due to them losing touch with the true craftsmanship towards knit design.

"Since then, we released the world’s first WHOLEGARMENT – fully automatic apparel 3D Knitting machines in 1995, which caught the attention from many brands and companies, and was named “Oriental Magic,” from being able to knit a single sweater from yarn in only 30 minutes," the company said. "This had a historical impact on the industry with an innovative solution of “eliminating sewing.” This technology allowed knitted goods to be produced with less labor, which was crucial to reshore production back to the US where labor costs are high. This technology, which is now over 25 years old, has undergone continuous improvements and innovation to be where it’s at today, and is known as the most sustainable forms of knitting today.

"In the 2000s, we started doing a little bit of sampling and production at our facilities to showcase a business model for US Knitters to understand that reshoring production is achievable with WHOLEGARMENT. Since then, we’ve generated a decent amount of interest and demand, which was quickly adopted by many of our forward-thinking machine customers to offer a more sustainable product for their customers.

"Now that we have established knitters in the US that offers WHOLEGARMENT production, and so we no longer had the need to showcase a business model factory and winded down our sampling and production services around 2018.

"During these amazing 35 years, we’ve held numerous seminars, sample showcases, events, and parties at this location. Although many knitters have disappeared in the Northeast, we’re starting to see a huge revival in domestic manufacturing, not only in fashion applications but also across various industries including home goods, automotive, medical, and more! Please note that we are looking into a new facility in New Jersey, and will keep you up to date on our new offices, in order to continue servicing our customers in the East Coast."