MILAN, Italy — October 23, 2018 — Textile Exchange —the global non-profit that promotes the adoption of preferred fiber and materials, integrity and standards and responsible supply networks — today officially released its 2018 collection of textile market reports, which measure and rank the production and usage of fiber and materials with improved social and environmental impacts. The collection includes two in-depth market reports (the Preferred Fiber & Materials Market Report and the Organic Cotton Market Report) both of which focus on the industry’s supply side, analyzing production volumes, availability and emerging fiber trends. The third report (the Preferred Fiber & Materials Benchmark Insights Report) tracks brand-driven demand, measuring usage of preferred fibers and materials among participating brands and retailers, and analyzing strategies implemented by the companies to continue increasing the adoption of more sustainable fibers.

Overall, the reports — released at the organization’s annual conference this week in Milan, where 800 apparel and textile leaders have gathered to discuss the industry’s sustainability challenges and opportunities — found that some of the world’s most renowned apparel brands and retailers are leading users of preferred fibers and materials, managing ever-expanding preferred fiber portfolios while production on the industry’s supply side grows steadily and drives innovation with new alternative fiber sources.

Who Are The Leaders?

Among the 111 textile and apparel companies that participated in the Benchmark Insights report — a 17-percent increase in participants over 2017’s report — H&M ranked as the top user of preferred cotton, preferred down, preferred man-made cellulosics and Lyocell.

“The Textile Exchange Preferred Fiber Benchmark is a great example of driving industry-wide, credible increases in the use of preferred fibers, with traceability from raw material to final product,” said Mattias Bodin, Sustainability Business Expert, Materials & Innovation at H&M. “We use the benchmark and market reports for industry insights and as support in driving traceability initiatives.”

Meanwhile, Nike topped the list of recycled polyester users, C&A lead on organic cotton usage, IKEA ranked as the biggest user of recycled cotton, and Deckers Brands, the makers of UGG, is the top user of preferred wool. Others that placed in the top 10 lists — which are called “Leaderboards” — include: Inditex, the company behind Zara (second largest user of Lyocell and fourth largest user of preferred manmade cellulosics); Target (third largest user of recycled polyester and fifth largest user of preferred down); and The North Face (second largest user of preferred down.)

“The 2018 benchmark leaders show a deep commitment to scaling their global value chains of preferred fibers and to benchmarking their progress against the industry,” said Liesl Truscott, Director of Europe and Materials Strategy for Textile Exchange. “These companies have also made significant investments in developing the supply chain needed to achieve the necessary measures of scale in preferred fiber production. And we are particularly excited about the growth of the 100% club, those who have converted completely from conventional fibers.”

New To The Benchmark Report

This year’s Benchmark report introduces the Leaders Circle, highlighting examples of companies developing strategies beyond usage volume to identify best practices in ensuring fiber integrity and responsible sourcing of their preferred fibers. It features brands and retailers of different sizes and sectors including Patagonia, the popular sportswear brand, as well as giants like C&A, H&M and Tchibo, and others such as Loomstate and MetaWear. Together, the 15 companies in the Leaders Circle represent great examples of emerging best practices for certain fiber categories. (While this year’s leaders were identified using the Benchmark report’s existing criteria, next year that criteria will undergo review and may expand for future reports.)

“As a brand that is purpose-driven and committed to sustainability, we use the Preferred Fiber and Materials annual surveys to benchmark our fiber use and practices against the industry, and gain insights into our internal operations and processes surrounding preferred materials,” said Katina Boutis, Sustainability Director of Loomstate. “The Benchmark insights are an invaluable resource for understanding the global systems impacting these fibers.”

Also new this is year, the report establishes The Founders Club, which includes the 43 brands that have participated in the Benchmark for three consecutive years and who have performed better than average in terms of accelerating use of preferred fibers and materials.

“We have found that companies using our benchmarking data are able to accelerate their progress because the data better informs their decisions and understanding of their position in the marketplace,” said LaRhea Pepper, Managing Director for Textile Exchange.

Growth Steady. Disruption Around The Corner

Such continued commitment on behalf of brands and retailers to accelerate usage of preferred fibers and materials is set against the backdrop of a supply side where growth is steady if somewhat slow, but where innovation is poised to disrupt traditional fiber sources. The report found that Lyocell production increased to 4.5% of all man-made cellulosics, up from 3% in 2016, and recycled polyester held steady at about 14% of total polyester fiber production while preferred cottons (which include organic and Better Cotton Initiative) remained 19% of total virgin cotton production.

The Organic Cotton Market Report showed global organic cotton production grew 10% over the prior year, with the largest volumes coming from India, China, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan. While organic still occupies less than 1% of global cotton production, many countries have growth in the double-digits: Senegal increased by 427%; Brazil by 155%; Uganda by 155%; Benin by 72%; Egypt by 70.3%; China by 52%; and Tanzania by 17%. Paving the way for continued growth are substantial areas of land in transition to organic (a potential increase of 50% over existing hectares) a three-year process to reach certification by farming organically and meeting the required standards.

The call for more organic production is being answered by brands, which are increasingly setting targets and committing to investing in organic cotton. This year’s Benchmark showed that 96% of the 92 companies reporting on organic cotton use have set targets for uptake—a 20% growth over 2017 reporting.

In addition, the report revealed that increased innovation in alternative feedstocks, including bio- based, and recycled content, is certain to bring disruption to traditional fiber sectors. For example, man- made cellulosics saw exciting new category entrants from RefibraTM, NaiaTM and Orange Fiber. And in biosynthetics, biobased polyester, nylon and spidersilk represent emerging fibers, which are being pioneered by Fulgar’s EVO®, and Bolt Threads’ Microsilk. In addition, the number of leather alternatives is growing considerably with Modern Meadow’s ZoaTM, Apple Peel Skin and Vegea gaining traction.

Posted October 24, 2018

Source: Textile Exchange

BOULDER, Colo. — October 24, 2018 — Otero Menswear officially announced its collaboration with cutting-edge tech startup Perfitly to offer an extraordinary new option in online retail: a free 3D-AR/VR, cloud-enabled fitting-room experience. This technology takes the guesswork out of online shopping by allowing anyone to create a 3D body type avatar to see how will look before purchasing an item.

The partnership extends Otero’s commitment to providing appropriate dressing for men between 5’4″-5’9″ in height. Otero menswear was launched early this year with the introduction of the industry-changing 3D Proportional Sizing System to ensure ideal fitting. Each piece in the collection is designed in precise proportion to a man’s height, size, and body-type including details such as collars, cuffs, placket, etc.) to achieve a custom look at accessible prices. As founder Steve Villanueva says: “It is really all about confidence, confidence in your purchase and confidence in your look.”

And Perfitly, founded by Dave Sharma, brings together two key technologies: a smart algorithm using five key body measurements to create an avatar that represents the shopper’s body, and a CAD-based proprietary system that accurately drapes each garment based upon Otero’s product specifications (design, patterns, fabric, etc.). Not only is the experience fun to use for anyone with gaming experience, the technology takes the “Will it actually fit?” question out of online shopping. As Sharma said, “It’s the closest thing there is to trying it on yourself in the fitting room, but the experience is actually better, because you can try on every garment in the store effortlessly, and in minutes.”

How it works: When a man enters five key measurements, Perfitly technology creates a personal avatar modeled to his exact height, size, and body type. He can then choose an Otero shirt and click between the options to see whether an Otero size Medium will fit better than a Large, or easily determine whether he has a Triangle or a Rectangle body type. Each garment’s technical specifications has been entered into Perfitly’s model, so that they are scalable with accurate measurements, and the digital rendering is so detailed that anyone can see how a particular fabric will stretch against muscle and mass. This virtual fitting room experience is seamlessly integrated, so the shopper won’t even have to navigate away from the Otero Menswear website to use it.

And because Otero and Perfitly have the highest privacy standards, each avatar is encrypted and stored on Perfitly’s secured servers, and is accessible only by the customer to see and control. Even Perfitly will not be able to identify their unique avatar. Once again, Otero Menswear is at the cutting edge of apparel design, pushing “a better way to dress,” to new heights with “a better way to shop.”

Posted October 24, 2018

Source: Otero Menswear


LAS VEGAS — October 24, 2018 — Representatives with Adam Block Design announced today that the company has officially partnered with Trees for the Future, a non-profit organization that has planted over 115 million trees worldwide.

“We’re very excited to partner with Trees for the Future,” said Jenny Ruvalcaba, design and marketing manager for Adam Block Design.

Trees for the Future provides training to local farmers on forest garden planning, nursery establishment, planting design and maintenance. The organization provides oversight, and also provides materials such as seeds, nursery bags, shovels, watering cans and wheelbarrows.

“Since the Greek community is all about helping the world, we decided to get involved too,” Ruvalcaba said. “On top of contributing to our clients’ philanthropies, we plant one tree with every order. That’s right: when you order t-shirts, we plant a tree. When you order sweatshirts, we plant a tree. When you order yoga pants, hoodies, totes and tank tops, we will plant four trees.”

Ruvalcaba went on to point out that Trees for the Future help farmers diversify their planting sites, and train them on sustainable harvesting methods. The gardens they help plant provide families with sustainable food sources, livestock feed, products to sell, and up to a 500 percent increase in their annual income.

Once established, trees create sustainable sources of crop shade, soil rehabilitation, food, windbreaks, medicine, mudslide control, timber and more for communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, all while reducing CO2 levels and raising biodiversity worldwide.

“It’s an honor to be a part of this mission,” Ruvalcaba said of Adam Block Design, a company that features a very creative graphic design team, friendly customer service, stylish clothing choices, real silk screens, and high-quality ink.

Posted October 24, 2018

Source: Adam Block Design

TOLLAND, Conn. — October 24, 2018 — Global companies who work with many partners need a secure, flexible system to manage data across their business. “With such a large global product line, understanding milestones for the next season of garments is imperative to success and implementing YuniquePLM will allow us easy access to this data regardless of location,” stated Federico Pagnetti, COO, Citizens of Humanity.

Citizens of Humanity designs, markets and produces Citizens of Humanity denim fashion products in a full vertical facility to ensure the product is unparalleled. Citizens of Humanity is distributed in more than 35 countries including high-end specialty boutiques such as 10 Corso Como, Club Monaco, Trilogy, and Anthropologie; online at Moda Operandi, The Dreslyn, Shopbop.com, Revolve, Need Supply, and MyTheresa.com as well as in luxury department stores Nordstrom and Selfridges.

“We are excited to have Citizens of Humanity on YuniquePLM Cloud and applaud them for taking the next step to decrease development time,” stated Bill Brewster, vice president and general manager, enterprise software solutions at Gerber. “Executing software that is easy to try, easy to buy and easy to consume was our mantra as we brought YuniquePLM Cloud to market.”

YuniquePLM Cloud product lifecycle management software serves as a central repository of critical data and eliminates problems companies often face when using multiple excel spreadsheets, email or tracking documents to communicate throughout the stages of product development and management. YuniquePLM Cloud creates a single version of the truth, connecting a company’s creative process with their supply chain and production processes.

Posted October 24, 2018

Source: Gerber Technology