Chico’s Announces New Products That Further Showcase Fabric Innovations, Solutions For Women

FORT MYERS, Fla. — February 20, 2019 — Chico’s today announced the launch of multiple new apparel offerings using fabric innovations and solutions that build on the brand’s heritage of combining style with exceptional function, giving women even more reason to love the clothes they’re in.

No Stain, No-Iron shirts powered by Stain Shield™ technology are now available in seven colors and prints in boutiques and online at Chicos.com. Styled like Chico’s bestselling no-iron collection of classic button-up shirts, the no-stain, no-iron shirt repels a variety of everyday substances such as cola, salad dressing, ketchup, coffee and even red wine. Spots easily flush away with water. The Stain Shield repellant lasts up to 30 washes.

No Stain White Jeans powered by Stain Repellent Bright White™ technology will be available in boutiques and online in Spring 2019. In addition to repelling stains for up to 20 washes, the new technology helps prevent yellowing in the wash, ensuring crisp white denim for up to 25 washes.

As part of Chico’s ZENERGY® collection, active wear with UVA and UVB protection will be launched in Spring 2019. The new tops and bottoms will use No Sun technology that provides UPF 50+ protection and repels UVA and UVB rays.

“We are delighted to offer these new products, which use innovative technology to enhance our customers’ wardrobe with clothes that provide style, fit and function,” said Shelagh Stoneham, Chico’s senior vice president of marketing. “We know our customers value excellence in these areas just like they value our most amazing personal service, and we will continue working to deliver on her expectations.”

The new product launches announced today build on Chico’s legacy of fabric and fashion innovations and solutions for women. These include Chico’s widely acclaimed wrinkle-free and packable Travelers™ collection; No Tummy pants and denim powered by So Slimming™ technology, which are equipped with proprietary flattening panels that smooth the midsection; No-Iron shirts that can be tossed in the wash and don’t need to be steamed or ironed; and denim and sweaters featuring Coolmax™ technology, which keeps the wearer cool and comfortable.

Posted February 20, 2019

Source: Chico’s FAS Inc.

Techtextil North America 2019 Exhibitor Preview: Aurora

YORKVILLE, Ill. — February 20, 2019 — While other U.S. textile manufacturing plants have shuttered or moved overseas, Aurora Specialty Textiles Group Inc. (Aurora) has spent the last five years investing in a new state-of-the-art, North American manufacturing operation strategically equipped with next-generation wide width (up to 130″) bleaching, finishing, fabric skewing and coating technologies.

That investment is paying off for their customers. With its new technologies, convenient location and streamlined operations, Aurora is ideally poised to help their customers meet and surpass market demand for their products.

Visitors to Techtextil NA 2019 can learn more about Aurora’s next-gen capabilities by visiting Booth 1823, February 26-28, 2019, at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, N.C. The product groups for Aurora include Woven Fabrics, Knitted Fabrics, Nonwovens, Coated Textiles, Canvas Products and Research & Development.

“The products we bleach and finish have a vast number of end applications,” said Dan LaTurno, president of the company. “It could be anything from tape products to bedding to personal safety products. In addition, our industrial belting fabric is the best in the industry.”

Aurora’s manufacturing operations are also centrally located in the USA. “We offer best quality paired with brisk turnaround times, quick deliveries and competitive pricing,” said LaTurno. “Our customers can rest easy knowing that they are working with a manufacturer that’s investing in the latest technology, is growing and is here to stay.”

Aurora also offers ease of communication with customer service and sales staff located in the USA and an easy phone call, text or email away. Attending the show from Aurora are Erik Nees, Sales Account Manager; Mark Noles, Sales Account Manager; Dan LaTurno, President; Jack Gaches, Logistics and Purchasing Manager; and Vlad Antal, Product Development Manager.

Posted February 20, 2019

Source: Aurora Specialty Textiles Group

TRSA Member Companies Honored For Accentuating Industry Positives

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — February 20, 2019 — TRSA is increasingly acknowledging members’ exemplary efforts to care deeply for employees, customers, communities and the environment. This recognition will share the spotlight with meetings on Capitol Hill when TRSA conducts its 9th Annual Legislative Conference March 27-28 in Washington.

The Annual Awards Dinner will close the opening evening of the conference. The association received a record 31 nominations this year for awards in five categories.

The ceremony will enable members to honor peers and consider the value of their companies’ own humane efforts. This reinforces the conference as the industry’s main event for companies to support each other, primarily uniting for small-group visits to the Hill urging legislators to support balanced, pro-business policies.

Award presentations will testify to the value of efforts to improve workplace safety, sustainability and diversity; provide excellent customer service; and give back to communities. Operator (launderer) and associate (industry supplier) members were encouraged to enter all categories.

Five companies (see list of all winners below) will be honored in two categories. Each winner will receive a statue or plaque at the dinner, depending on final judging by TRSA committees and subject-matter experts who will assess the positive impacts of each award-winning effort.

Above and Beyond Service Award

Operators:

  • Huebsch Services, Eau Claire, Wis.
  • Miller’s Textile Services, Wapakoneta, Ohio
  • Mission Linen Supply, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Associates:

  • Colmac Industries, Colville, Wash.
  • Ecolab Textile Care Division, St. Paul, Minn.
  • Sigmatex-Lanier Textiles, Suwanee, Ga.

Clean Green Innovation Award

Operators:

  • Mission Linen Supply, Santa Barbara, Calif.
  • Prudential Overall Supply, Irvine, Calif.
  • White Plains Linen, Peekskill, N.Y.

Associates:

  • Ecolab Textile Care Division, St. Paul, Minn.
  • WSI, Cinn.

Company Community Service Award

Operators:

  • Huebsch Services, Eau Claire, Wis.
  • Paris Cos., DuBois, Pa.
  • Quintex Services, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
  • West Michigan Uniform, Holland, Mich.

Diversity Recognition Award

Operators:

  • Service Linen Supply, Renton, Wash.
  • UniFirst Corp., Wilmington, Mass.

SafeTRSA Safety Excellence Award

Operators:

  • Bates Troy Healthcare Linen Services, Binghamton, N.Y.
  • Prudential Cleanroom Services, Mesa, Ariz.
  • Quintex Services, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
  • Superior Linen Service, Tulsa, Okla.

Associates:

  • Kemco Systems, Clearwater, Fla.
  • Meese Inc., Madison, Ind.

In addition, winners were chosen for the Volunteer Leadership Award, honoring individuals active in TRSA who recognize the competitive benefits and overall economic value to their companies of strengthening the industry, including their own competitors. This honor for operators went to Liz Remillong, strategic alliance vice president, Crothall Healthcare, Chesterbrook, Pa; for associates, Mike Diedling, retired applications engineering manager, Pellerin Milnor Corp., Kenner, La.

All members are encouraged to participate in the conference, with early registration pricing ending Friday, Feb. 22, and further discounts for companies with more than one attendee (www.trsa.org/legcon). TRSA President and CEO Joseph Ricci observed that TRSA members participating in the conference fulfill the association’s paramount function of advocating on behalf of the industry. They “tell local stories in educating legislators and staff regarding the positive impacts of regulatory reform, providing critical personal and professional perspectives on the impact of regulations, labor issues and legislation. Legislators, regulators and their staffs want to hear from them.”

Posted February 20, 2019

Source: TRSA

Kim Glas Appointed Incoming NCTO President and CEO; Tantillo To Retire

After a rigorous search process, the board of directors of the Washington-based National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) has unanimously approved the appointment of Kimberly Glas as president and CEO effective April 29, 2019. She succeeds Augustine D. “Auggie” Tantillo who recently announced his retirement.

Glas brings more than 20 years of experience in government policy development and advocacy to her new role. She served as the deputy assistant secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods and Materials at the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Obama Administration, where she oversaw efforts to improve the domestic and international competitiveness of the U.S. textile and apparel industries. Glas also worked closely with the United States Trade Representative, key agencies and Congress to advance various critical trade policy issues including changes to the CAFTA-DR agreement.

“I am honored and excited for the opportunity to lead NCTO and to work on behalf of this innovative industry,” Glas said. “I am grateful to Auggie for his leadership and all his support and friendship over the years, and am deeply appreciative to the NCTO membership for this incredible opportunity.”

Tantillo’s knowledge, built over a 38-year-career in the Washington policy arena most often while directly representing the textile industry, was a valuable asset to NCTO and the textile industry. “Due to his vast institutional knowledge and skill in navigating policy matters in Washington, Auggie will certainly be missed,” said NCTO Chairman Marty Moran. “On behalf of our entire membership, I want to express our gratitude to Auggie for his dedicated and important service to our industry.”

“It has been a tremendous privilege to represent an industry that has made such an enormous contribution to the U.S. economy and the U.S. workforce,” Tantillo said. “I will always be grateful for the confidence that the domestic textile sector has shown in me as the head of this important organization.”

January/February 2019

Elevate — New ITG Identity

Following last year’s integration of Mount Holly, N.C.-based American & Efird (A&E) and Greensboro, N.C.-based International Textile Group (ITG) under the leadership of Platinum Equity, ITG has announced Elevate Textiles Inc. as its new name and corporate identity. Elevate — which replaces ITG as the parent company of American & Efird, Burlington, Cone Denim, Gütermann and Safety Components — will establish its global headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Existing Greensboro and Mount Holly offices will remain as divisional headquarters for the brands.

The combined group — with 37 facilities and more than 15,000 employees — offers a broad range of textile products including apparel fabrics, denim, technical fabrics, and industrial and consumer sewing threads.

January/February 2019

Crypton® Enters European Market

Crypton®, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., reports it is expanding into the European performance fabric technologies market. Its fabrics for both residential and contract markets will be produced in Europe by carefully selected fabric manufacturers, and warehoused in Belgium. Executive Vice President Hardy Sullivan will oversee the initiative along with all of Crypton’s international operations.

“We have long been evaluating Europe as a growth platform and have spent considerable R&D efforts to provide best in class performance that meets the stringent European test requirements,” said Lance Keziah, Crypton CEO. We’re excited to enter the market ….”

“We look forward to connecting with prospective European distributors, mills, and jobbers, as well as dialoguing with designers and specifiers,” said Guy Parmentier, vice president of international sales.

January/February 2019

Coats Acquires ThreadSol, Sells North America Crafts Business

England-based Coats Group Plc has acquired India-based ThreadSol for $12 million. ThreadSol, a provider of material management solutions for the apparel industry, is now part of Coats Global Services. The deal expands the scale of ThreadSol’s artificial intelligence and Big-data-based software solutions, which complement Coats’ existing suite of software solutions for the apparel and footwear industries.

In other company news, Coats reports it has sold its North America Crafts Business — which includes the Red Heart, Coats & Clark, Aunt Lydia and Susan Bates brands — to Spinrite, Listowel, Ontario. Spinrite manufactures branded and private label products including craft knitting yarns. Spinrite will take ownership of Georgia-based manufacturing sites in Toccoa, Douglas and Albany, as well as a distribution center in Albany, along with approximately 560 employees. The initial cash consideration payable upon closing the transaction is $37 million.

“The sale of our standalone North America Crafts will have a stronger future with Spinrite,” said Rajiv Sharma, CEO, Coats Group. “It also allows us to focus complete attention on our high performing business-to-business global Apparel and Footwear, and Performance Materials segments.”

January/February 2019

IBM Predicts Recycling Advancements

BornemanBy Jim Borneman, Editor In Chief

As part of its annual “5 in 5” predictions, IBM Research predicts “five innovations that will change our lives within five years.” The majority of the predictions focus on — in its words — “creating a simpler, safer and less wasteful food supply chain.” But the fifth prediction, stands out as an innovation that could really impact textiles.

According to IBM: “In five years, the disposal of trash and the creation of new plastics will be completely transformed. Everything from milk cartons and cookie containers to grocery bags and clothing will be recyclable, and polyester manufacturing companies will be able to take in refuse and turn it into something useful again.”

Current systems for recycling polyester are complicated because mechanical recycling only works for clear, clean containers. And to become useable material, the recycled content needs to be combined with new polyester (PET). Not to mention the challenges of blended products like polyester/cotton fabrics.

The IBM solution relies on the development of Volatile Catalyst (VolCat) technology:

“IBM researchers have discovered a catalytic chemical process that digests certain plastics (called polyesters) into a substance which can be fed directly back into plastic manufacturing machines in order to make new products. VolCat begins by heating PET and ethylene glycol in a reactor with the catalyst. After depolymerization is complete, the catalyst is recovered by distillation from the reactor using the heat of reaction. The solution is filtered, purified, and then cooled, and the solid monomer product is recovered by filtration. The recovered liquid, along with the catalyst, is then reintroduced into the depolymerization reactor in an energy-efficient cycle.”

Feeding the VolCat process is much less complicated. Bottles and containers — clear and colored, and dirty or clean — can all be used as feedstock with no preprocessing. VolCat technology separates the contaminants including food residue, glue, dirt, dyes and pigments, from material that is useable for new PET.

Because the feedstock can be mixed, the recycling process for consumers also is simplified. Waste goes in one bin and out to the curb for pick up. And since the dyes and pigments are treated as waste, colored PET now can be processed.

Plastics Today referenced this as “molecular sorting.” The brilliance of VolCat technology is that even with all the mixed chemistries and trash in the feedstock, the process isolates the polyester ignoring everything else.

The process handles the sorting on the molecular level replacing sorting and washing on the feedstock side. IBM Researchers behind VolCat technology foresee polyester plants and recycling facilities deploying the technology around the world to reduce petroleum usage, while reducing landfill and ocean contamination — a topic of growing interest.

There is no doubt that there is an appetite for sustainable, green solutions in the man-made fiber industry.

Just look at the success of Unifi’s REPREVE® — it’s a story worth telling.

January/February 2019

January/February 2019: Textile Activity At A Glance

By Robert S. Reichard, Economics Editor

BFBarometers

January/February 2019

2019 Off To A Solid Start

Jim-Phillips-colorBy Jim Phillips, Yarn Market Editor

Many spinners have been delighted by the smooth transition from 2018 to 2019. “A lot of times, depending on how the holiday season went, you see a relatively significant drop-off at the beginning of the year as retailers take inventory and see what they need,” said one spinner. “If apparel and home fashions sales were not up to par, for example, you would see a period of inventory adjustment before a lot of new orders came in. But not this year.”

“A strong economy and confident consumers resulted in holiday sales growth that was the highest in six years,” noted one industry analyst. “Retail sales rose by more than 5 percent from the start of November until Christmas Eve,” she said.

Such solid holiday sales translated into immediate good news for spinners. “We’ve had a really good start to 2019,” said one North Carolina spinner. “We have some limited capacity at the moment, but not a lot. We have a solid block of business booked. We’re not the only one. Things are pretty tight everywhere. We are delighted with the way the year has begun and anticipate continued success.”

Industry Endorses U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)

NCTO has said it fully endorses the new USMCA trade pact. In a recent release, NCTO Chairman Marty Moran, CEO of Jefferson, Ga.-based Buhler Quality Yarns Corp., said: “On behalf of the U.S. textile industry, thank you to President Trump, Ambassador Lighthizer and the entire U.S. negotiating team for your hard work in getting USMCA done. The new deal is better than NAFTA for the U.S. textile industry in many aspects, and NCTO is pleased to endorse it. NCTO was in continuous communication with U.S. negotiators during USMCA talks, urging them to preserve and enhance the North American textile supply chain, and the deal reflects many of NCTO’s priorities.”

In 2017, U.S. textile-related trade exports to Canada and Mexico totaled a combined $11.8 billion, according to NCTO.

The organization noted that USMCA was a better deal for U.S. textile companies as a result of:

  • A standalone chapter for textile and apparel; NAFTA does not have a separate chapter covering textile and apparel rules of origin;
  • Stronger rules of origin for sewing thread, pocketing, narrow elastics and certain coated fabrics; and
  • Stronger rules for customs enforcement.

Despite being signed by all three nations, the new agreement is likely to have a rocky road to Congressional ratification. According to McClatchy, an owner of multiple news media in the United States: “Corporate leaders across America watching President Donald Trump fight with Democrats fear their chances of securing the newly revised trade agreement with Mexico and Canada is slipping away.”

The media company’s DC bureau reported the recent extraordinary 17-minute argument between Trump and senior Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer revealed the challenges Trump faces in trying to reach any consensus in Congress. “Those concerns are real,” said John Murphy, senior vice president for international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a McClatchy interview. “It arises from the reality that Canadian and Mexican markets are incredibly important to U.S. business and agriculture. They’re not just our two largest export markets. They buy more U.S.-made manufactured goods than the next 10 countries on the list. It’s supremely important.”

It is well known that multiple members of Congress have opposed certain sections of the new agreement since its inception. Trump has threatened to cancel NAFTA to try to ensure its replacement is ratified.

Unifi Recognizes “Champions Of Sustainability”

One of the leaders in sustainability in the industry is Unifi Inc., manufacturer of REPREVE® sustainable fibers. According to a recent Unifi release, “Now in its second year, Unifi Inc.’s Champions of Sustainability awards continue to recognize brands, retailers and textile partners that demonstrate the shared goal of making our planet a better place to live. This year, a total of 68 companies are being recognized as Champions of Sustainability — a 36 percent increase from last year’s total. Thanks to help from partners like these, Unifi has now recycled more than 14 billion bottles that are used to make its Repreve performance fiber.”

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January/February 2019

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