Scalable Press Uses AI to Help Protect Artists’ Rights in Apparel Business

Scalable Press is a technology-driven print and fulfillment company that helps independent designers sell print-on-demand apparel and other products through their own websites or Shopify or WooComerce e-commerce sites. The company uses cutting-edge automation to keep production quick and overhead low plus artificial intelligence to help protect the rights and profits of artists.

DTG printers at Scalable Press
The direct-to-garment (DTG) printers at Scalable Press can print full-color images on T-shirts. (Photo: Scalable Press)

Scalable Press primarily sells screen-printed, embroidered, of digitally printed apparel. But they are also equipped to print posters and smartphone cases.

The founders of Scalable Press believe artist copyright infringement is rampant in the apparel industry — from corporations that mass-produce designs for T-shirts to individual consumers who use photos and designs without the appropriate permissions.

So Scalable Press now uses Google Cloud APIs and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to pinpoint stolen art and lead the fight for artists’ rights. The AI and machine learning help detect stolen art for apparel designs.

The Scalable Press technology doesn’t just detect infringements of the copyrights of well-known license holders, but also the copyright infringements of new, unknown artists who are just starting to build income from their work.

At first, the company used human moderators to judge when incoming garment designs contained elements that infringed on an artist’s copyrights.

“But as orders for shorter runs of prints started becoming the norm, the amount of artwork that was coming in made it difficult for human moderators to detect copyright infringement,” explains Eric Zhang, VP of Engineering for Scalable Press. “We wanted to find ways to reduce the workload on our human moderators. So, we started using artificial intelligence along with human moderators to check incoming artwork for copyright violations. As humans flagged different types of work, machine software became more proficient at identifying problem images.”

When Scalable Press spots art that may be inappropriately used, they contact the artist and explain how to request the appropriate royalties.

Zhang says their company continually looks for ways to use technology to improve all facets of their operations. He says, “AI is good at some things. Humans are better at other things. And there is less overlap than you might think.”

Scalable Press is equipped with multiple screen-printing presses and direct-to-garment printers in 6 facilities in California, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Indiana.

More than 3,000 Products

If you are an independent designer, Scalable Press is well-equipped to help you add different types of products to your website. In addition to printing each order that comes in, Scalable Press will pack it and ship it directly to your customers — complete with a packing slip with your company’s branding. There are no minimum quantity order requirements and the company can handle higher volumes of orders as your business grows.

In the Scalable Press Product Catalog, you can choose from more than 3,000 products that you would like to have decorated with your art, photography, or designs. Hundreds of different types and colors of T-shirts, polo shirts, tank tops, dress shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, shorts, hats, tote bags, and more can be customized. The catalog clearly indicates which type of products can be used with which garment-decorating processes.

The company’s Artwork Guidelines provide more details on how to prepare files for the different processes: DTG printing, screen printing, embroidery, and dye-sublimation printing.

The blog provides lots of useful advice about how to succeed with e-commerce email marketing or sell seasonal products such as sweatshirts and jackets.

About Scalable Press

Scalable Press was founded in 2012 in San Francisco as an e-commerce company. Today, their six facilities across the U.S. have more than 40 screen-printing presses and 60 direct-to-garment printers.  They deliver custom T-shirts in three to five days and dye-sublimated phone cases within 72 hours.