“You could buy a computer with software starting from $35,000 instead of $120,000. A few more systems were sold, then in late 1983 they had a real breakthrough when a PDP-11 desktop digital mini-computer came out called the PRO 350, followed by the Pro 380. The year in Australia stretched to another year, and another. A good mid-range PC plus Wilcom software now costs around £5,000, confirms Bill. It took another nine months before they sold their first system including hardware to the Lion Brothers in America (“the largest embroidery company in America at the time”) for $120,000, then another system to Hiraoka in Japan before selling a system to Geoffrey Macpherson in the UK for £50,000 – the computer it ran on cost about the same, making it a hefty investment that few could afford at the time. They named the company Wilcom – Poncom didn’t have the same ring, laughs Bill – and showed the first digitising system to the public in September 1980. Looking back, it was an interesting combination of Robert’s vision and my technical approach.” Breakthrough Moment We were the first to use computer graphics to do embroidery design. Robert and I looked at digitising from an engineering point of view: we were conceptual. They would do that stitch by stitch for this type of design. “They used to have to make six enlargement drawings of the design and draft in every stitch and then they put that on a mechanical machine and point out each stitch. “It used to take forever to make a new design,” comments Bill. The first project they worked on was automatic lettering at the company owned by the Pongrass family, RK Badge Embroidery Company, in Sydney. Robert’s really visionary and entrepreneurial, so he got really excited and went back to Australia to find a way to fund something.” Funds in place, he invited Bill to Australia for a year to try and make something commercial out of his master’s work. Next time Robert was in Canada he went and spoke to the professor, who directed him to Bill, who says: “He was quite enthused by what we were doing. Robert asked around and mutual friends mentioned the Canadian professor who was working on computers and embroidery. “But they wouldn’t find any, because it didn’t exist”. “They wanted to modernise it so they went looking to buy computer-controlled equipment,” explains Bill. You’ll make someone a good wife someday.”Īt the same time in Australia, Robert Pongrass and his family had bought an embroidery company. My friends used to tease me: “Oh, Bill, you’re doing a master’s in embroidery. “I thought: ‘That’s kind of novel.’ It was a mixture of electronic design, mechanical design and software. He was offered a number of projects but the one that grabbed him was an embroidery machine project. In the 1970s Bill was doing his master’s degree in mechanical engineering in Canada, looking at how to control machines with software. “It was a trade secret and you learnt it from your father or grandfather.” “At that time digitizing, or punching as it was called then, was a black art and wasn’t written down,” explains Bill Wilson, co-founder of Wilcom. Thirty-five years ago, an outsider wanting to get into the embroidery industry had the odds stacked against them. Images talks to the founder of Wilcom about revolutionising an industry. The embroidery industry was a closed shop until Bill Wilson developed the first industry-specific software. As published in the UK “ Images Magazine”, September 2015 issue.
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