What were PPFMag.com’s noteworthy stories since our last issue?
These headlines grabbed the industry’s highest attention.
Paint Protection Film Magazine Nominated for ASBPE Award
Chris Collier’s work in PPFMag was named a finalist in the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) Award Competition in the category of Group Profile. Collier was selected as a finalist for his article Installers Assemble: PPF Veterans Rally Rookies Forward, which appeared in the magazine’s Fall 2021 issue.
“This is our first nomination for PPF-Mag, and I couldn’t be more excited for the magazine and for Chris Collier’s hard work to be recognized,” said editorial director Tara Taffera.
Key Media & Research, parent company to PPFMag, was nominated for seven additional awards for USGlass, the Architects’ Guide to Glass & Metal, and Door and Window Market magazines.
Will BMW’s New Technology Compete with Wrap Businesses?
BMW’s new iX Flow concept car possesses technology that allows the body’s color to shift from shades of white, gray and black. The development begs the question: Will the new technology flood the wrap market with competition?
What’s the Word?
“I don’t think it’s going to be a big killer to the wrap industry because I think they’re only going to implement the technology into higher-end models,” says Hunter Garwood, general manager of All Pro Window Films in Raleigh, N.C. “It’s going to serve a limited clientele. Most of the vehicles we’re wrapping are in the value of $40,000 to $120,000.”
BMW’s technology incorporates E Ink’s electronic paper technology, which can be found on e-reader devices such as the Amazon Kindle. Car wraps comprise 10% of the business at Automotive Film Specialists in Houston, Texas. General manager Mike Norng doesn’t envision BMW’s baby mirroring the versatility of vinyl and says, “You have stripes and other options with vinyl. If a car is only changing its color, you can still do other things.”
What if ?
The headline-grabbing, eye-popping personalization doesn’t seem a threat in the near-term, but what about the long-term?
“If it were to become a threat, the speed of the technology would outweigh the actual labor of installing film on a car,” Garwood explains. “It reduces liability, as far as taking cars apart, wrapping them and putting them back together. Only time will tell over the next five to ten years. I don’t think it’s going to be something immediate. I think it’s something they’re testing to see if they have a clientele for it or not.”
Norng says color changing and color-shifting paint protection film (PPF) offers value.
“It will be the next big thing because it will do two things,” he says. “Color change wraps are only for looks, but PPF wraps will do both. You get paint protection and an aesthetic—you can change color.”
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