To Expand the Range of Uses for Unique, Printed Gifts, Nerdy Banana Adds Mimaki uJV100-160

Charlie Rodman, founder (bottom left), with members of the Nerdy Banana Team

UV LED capabilities from CMYUK are added to the company’s dye sublimation production portfolio

CMYUK Shrewsbury: Nerdy Banana is a digital agency that creates unique printed giftware.

The company used Epson dye sublimation printing machines to make its products. However, it has now launched Air Bod, a new brand of inflatables, right in time for Christmas.

“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 for eight direct-to-consumer brands, is Nerdy Banana. Charlie started it in 2011, when he began making holiday T-shirts for his friends. The company employs 24 people and fulfills over 200,000 orders annually to more than 40 countries. Super Socks and Dogsy are among the brands.

The company does not just manage its D-to C brands; its in-house agency assists start-ups as well as businesses to make an online impact. They offer web design, video, paid SEO, PPC, brand development, and paid social media.

Warner Bros England licenses it and many other football clubs for its personalised gift. 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 insane. 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’s prowess
Nerdy Banana approached CMYUK because it needed a printed solution to its new inflatable brand Air Bod. This inflatable offers a variety of custom inflatables, including pillows and dolls.

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 them to be washed and returned again. We really put the printer through the mill, and it was all good,” says Charlie.

Mimaki UJV100-161 is a UV LED printer measuring 1.6m in width that can print at up to 1200 dpi. 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. Clear ink can be used to produce a topcoat varnish effect. 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 while you wait experiences. To serve the growing US and Australian markets, the company is currently setting up a 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. It’s fun to give gifts. It’s nice to be able to give someone a laugh and a giggle.”