Vapor Apparel expanding operations at Navy Yard

A startup company in North Charleston is expanding to take over space left vacant by the American College of the Building Arts at 10 Storehouse Row at the Navy Yard at Noisette.

Vapor Apparel makes on-demand performance apparel using a digital printing process that binds ink at a molecular level. The company was started five years ago at the homes of fellow Clemson University graduates Christopher Bernat and Jackson Burnett.

The company is a subsidiary of SourceSubstrates, which includes Vapor Apparel and Source Custom. Vapor Apparel grew quickly and moved into the Navy Yard at Noisette just as the redevelopment of the old Navy base began to take shape in North Charleston.

“We were the first renters in this building,” Bernat said at the company’s headquarters at 10 Storehouse Row. “The day we moved in here, we did not have a front door.”

They did get a front door and soon were up to 10 employees, including two new hires this year. When the American College of the Building Arts relocated most of its offices, classrooms and workshops to 21 Magazine St., the company saw a chance to consolidate some of its off-site work, including the repackaging of blank shirts that it sells to printers.

The company, which saw sales increase 20% in 2008 and expects a 15% increase this year, also sells uncut fabric for a highly specific market. Burnett said the company has identified five different streams of revenue and has tempered its growth with its ability to deliver a consistent product to a broad customer base.

“That’s how we’ve grown over the past year in a recession,” Burnett said.

Vapor works with a single source of fabric from a mill in Bogota, Colombia. Bernat said the close working relationship with a single mill ensures quality control and a focus on specialization that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

“It’s a true partnership,” he said. “They get North American accountability and South American prices. It costs more than China, but, frankly, you can sleep at night.”

The company’s core business is a process called sublimation, by which molecules of the fabric are opened with heat, infused with ink and then closed to encapsulate the color and pattern. The result is a nearly indestructible garment printing process that takes seconds to produce any print, typography or message that a customer can dream up.

“You’ve basically tattooed the surface molecule,” Bernat said. “At the end of the day, we are experts at mass customization. They (New Balance) came to us because of sublimation.”

With digital printing, the company can customize short runs of apparel, with a minimum order of 36, and long runs with an unlimited maximum.

That quality and ability to turn around short- and long-order runs has garnered the attention of some big names, including New Balance, Boy Scouts of America, MTV, VH1, Four Seasons and Army Wives.

“We kind of maintain our market point by being digital print experts,” Bernat said. “We’re digital print experts who happen to make apparel. This is where the Internet and a data-flow background really brings the world together.”