Spring City, Tenn.-based SSM Industries Inc. — a manufacturer of flame-resistant (FR),
cut-resistant and thermal fabrics for military, fire and rescue and industrial applications — will
invest $3 million to add 45,000 square feet of manufacturing space at its plant and 13 jobs to its
current workforce of 90, with an additional 12 positions to be added in the future. The expansion
will allow the company to produce specialized yarns to enhance its protective fabrics portfolio.

“This expansion will take SSM Industries to the next level in the textile manufacturing
industry, and we are excited about the opportunities this expansion will allow us,” said Phil
Chandler, vice president of development, SSM Industries. “I am grateful for the continued support
from state and local officials and look forward to growing our company in Spring City.”

August 2, 2011

Fairfield, N.J.-based SGS Consumer Testing Services — a global provider of certification,
inspection, testing and verification services, and a division of Geneva-based SGS S.A. — has added
azo dye testing to its U.S. textile testing services. The company’s new capabilities will reduce
testing lead time for U.S. retailers, buyers and manufacturers, as they no longer will have to send
products destined for global markets to overseas testing labs; and the domestic testing service
will help U.S. finishers and converters meet demands for shortened production cycles.

Azo dyes are synthetic organic colorants whose molecular structures include an azo group.
They produce a wide range of bright, high-intensity colors, have fair to good fastness properties,
are cost-effective to manufacture and currently account for more than half of all commercial dyes
used. Depending on other chemical features, azo dyes are categorized according to the fibers for
which they have an affinity or their application methods.

The dyes have aroused concern because carcinogenic aromatic amines such as benzidine that are
used in producing the dyes may be released from a finished textile by perspiration or saliva,
causing health risks from skin contact or ingestion. Azo dyes may contain any of more than 20
carcinogenic amines listed under California’s Proposition 65 — which requires the state to publish
a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. These
carcinogens already have been banned in countries including China, Japan, India, Vietnam, and the
European Union; and a variety of products including T-shirts, denim jeans, scarves, dresses, hats
and bed linens have been included in azo dye-related product recalls and other enforcement actions.

“Most retailers and brands recognize the need to be aware of increasing restrictions on toxic
chemicals for their products in the global markets they sell,” said Sanjeev Gandhi, global
technical director, Consumer Products, SGS Consumer Testing Services. “For textile products, a key
area of concern is azo dyes. Being able to source necessary testing from a U.S. company both
streamlines and simplifies the process of protecting yourself from enforcement action that can
damage your brand and result in a loss of sales.”

August 2, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. — July 26, 2011 — The Textile Museum and the George Washington University today
announced an affiliation whereby The Textile Museum will move to the George Washington University’s
Foggy Bottom Campus to become a cornerstone of a new museum scheduled to open in mid-2014.

Exhibitions and programs will be presented to the public in a custom-built, approximately
35,000-square-foot museum building located at G and 21st streets, bearing the names of both The
Textile Museum and the George Washington University Museum. The new museum will include dedicated
galleries for The Textile Museum, with increased exhibition space compared to its present
facilities. Until the new museum opens, The Textile Museum will continue operating at its current
location.

In addition to the new museum, the university today announced that it will construct a
20,000-square-foot conservation and resource center on its Virginia Science and Technology Campus
in Loudoun County, Va., for the study and care of The Textile Museum and the university’s
collections. This center will include storage facilities, a conservation laboratory and facilities
for access to the collection.

The affiliation with the university will allow The Textile Museum to expand its rich
tradition of scholarship, education and fostering cultural understanding as it broadly integrates
its activities into the far-reaching GW academic community.

In this unprecedented arrangement between a university museum and an existing art museum, The
Textile Museum will continue management of its internationally acclaimed collection of more than
18,000 objects, which will be on perpetual loan to the university. The agreement, pending final
approval by both Boards of Trustees, also specifies that Textile Museum staff will continue to
develop exhibitions and programs that align with the current mission, which will remain the same
after moving to the new location.

Posted on July 28, 2011

Source: George Washington University/PRNewswire

WICHITA, Kan. — July 27, 2011 — During the upcoming Outdoor Retailer Summer Market held in Salt
Lake City, Aug. 4-7, INVISTA’s CORDURA® brand team will host a gear drive to benefit Gear to Grow.
A non-profit program, Gear to Grow is dedicated to providing donated gear from outdoor retailers
and manufacturers to other non-profits that promote outdoor recreation. 

As the official collection site, the CORDURA® brand booth (#38213) will keep a collection bin
to gather gear for the program for the duration of the show. Exhibitors are encouraged to
participate by dropping off surplus samples and equipment to the Gear to Grow donation bin during
show hours. Prior to the show, exhibitors can ship donations to the Salt Palace Convention Center,
along with gear they plan to exhibit.

“We are honored to support Gear to Grow by serving a as the collection hub for the gear drive
to help support the organization’s mission of encouraging individuals to participate in outdoor
recreational activities,” said Cindy McNaull, global CORDURA® brand and marketing director. “By
engaging with Gear to Grow and the cause to encourage outdoor recreation, the CORDURA® brand team
is able to put gear in the hands of those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to be active in the
outdoors. Everyone is durable at heart and deserves to have the opportunity to be adventurous.”

Supporting Gear to Grow falls under an initiative of the corporate citizenship pillar of the
CORDURA Cares
^SM program that demonstrates the company’s on-going commitment to the environment.

For organizations planning to ship gear to the gear-drive prior to the show, notify Gear to
Grow at contact@geartogrow.org. During the show, the CORDURA® brand team will post updates
regarding the gear-drive through social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter.

About Gear to Grow

The Gear to Grow program allows outdoor retailers and manufacturers to make
tax-deductible gear donations for the benefit of getting more people involved in outdoor
recreation. Simply put, Gear to Grow brokers gear between the donors and non-profit organizations
whose primary missions entails getting people involved in outdoor activities.  Based in Salt
Lake City, Utah, the Gear to Grow program is a project of the Pacific Mountain Institute, a 501(c)
3 non-profit. The Gear to Grow program began in December 2009 and now serves more than 60 outdoor
non-profit groups throughout the United States since.

For more information on Gear to Grow visit
www.geartogrow.org.

CORDURA® brand Supports Gear to Grow at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2011 Trade Show – 2

Posted on July 28, 2011

Source: Invista

Cambridge, Mass.-based environmental and risk science consulting firm Gradient has published a
white paper entitled “Evaluation of Potential Exposure to Metals in Laundered Shop Towels,” which
analyzes the safety of laundered shop towels used by U.S. workers. Written by Gradient researchers
Dr. Barbara D. Beck, Leslie A. Beyer and Grace Greenberg, and commissioned by Kimberly-Clark
Professional — a supplier of disposable products including paper products, wipers, protective
apparel and other products — the report found the situation to be as potentially hazardous as, if
not more so than, in 2003, when Gradient conducted a similar peer-reviewed study.

In the manufacturing sector — which in the United States employs some 12 million workers,
according to National Association of Manufacturers estimates — workers use shop towels for wiping
equipment as well as their hands and faces. The used towels are typically collected from various
workplaces by industrial launderers that wash them all together and redistribute them to the same
or other workplaces.

Research indicated that the concentrations of toxic metals and chemicals in laundered shop
towels sampled from 26 industrial sites and submitted to an independent laboratory for testing were
significantly higher than in 2003. The conclusion reached was that elevated levels of metals, oil
and grease remain in the towels even after commercial laundering, creating risk of worker exposure
to contaminant levels greater than what is mandated under regulatory agency guidelines — even if
the workers use only one or two towels per day, although average usage is 12 per day. Based on
certain intake pathway assumptions, this exposure could affect workers’ long-term health. The
laundered towels also could introduce new metals into one facility from the facility where they
were previously used.

“The recently released study shows that workers are risking exposure to even greater amounts
of these metals, as well as several additional substances that were not identified the first time
around,” said Rory Holmes, president, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA),
Cary, N.C. “It is imperative that the users of these towels and their employees take a serious look
at their continued usage.”

July 26, 2011

This year, the world-famous summit of the man-made fibers industry is celebrating its 50th
anniversary. From Sept. 14 to 16, 2011, the global community of the man-made fibers industry will
gather at the 50th Dornbirn Man-made Fibers Congress (Dornbirn MFC) in Dornbirn, Austria, in the
state of Vorarlberg near the Swiss border to hear news about the latest research and development,
new products and applications for man-made fibers and related industry sectors.

The Future Of Man-made Fibers

The main subject of the congress concerns communicating the future of man-made fibers. And
the future of this industry sector, mainly in the West, is quite questionable because the
production sites of the global man-made fibers industry have changed drastically:

In the latest edition of Oerlikon Textile GmbH & Co. KG’s “The Fiber Year” report, the
global production of staple and filament man-made fibers is recorded at 65.9 million metric tons,
of which China produced 45.8 million metric tons or 70 percent. India is in second place,
accounting for 6.1 million metric tons, some 9 percent. And even third place is in Asian hands —
namely, Pakistan.

Having this in mind, it is no surprise that the Dornbirn MFC is being held under the umbrella
theme: “Man-made Fibers — the Next 50 Years.” Most of the papers will be dedicated to future trends
and developments.

The past 50 years of the Dornbirn MFC will be highlighted also in a plenary session
presenting different speeches, including one by the former director of the Saxon Textile Research
Institute, Chemnitz, Dr. Hilmar Fuchs, who knows the story of the congress very well.

Other topics will be quite interesting. One panel discussion will cover the reduced
availability of natural fibers and the consequences for man-made and artificial fibers such as
viscose.On the opening day, Friedrich Weninger, Lenzing AG, president of the Austrian Man-made
Fibers Institute, will give a speech, followed by the usual welcome addresses from local
politicians. A presentation by the European Man-made Fibers Association (CIRFS) will cover future
man-made fibers industry developments and the challenges for professional organizations in this
sector of the textile industry. Another interesting paper will be presented by the Hamburg
University of Technology, Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Germany,
discussing possibilities and challenges of biomass for nourishment, raw materials and energy.

100 Presentations

Around 100 individual lectures will be given in all. Main issues in the different panels
include:

• new fiber developments;
• functional fabrics including sports and leisurewear, and medical textiles;
• fibers for industrial/technical fabrics;
• sustainability;
• finishing; and
• European Union research projects.

Furthermore, leaders from various institutes, associations and businesses will discuss future
developments and research projects in their respective organizations.

From September 12 to 16, viscose producer Lenzing will present a workshop in Vorarlberg which
will attract some 900 major customers worldwide.

Close To ITMA Europe In Barcelona

Unfortunately, as has happened before, the Dornbirn congress is one week prior to ITMA
Europe, which will open September 22. Various interested parties and individuals have expressed
their disappointment about this timing. However, the congress organizer, the Austrian Man-made
Fibers Institute, is quite optimistic that more than 700 visitors from more than 30 countries will
attend the jubilee edition of the man-made fiber industry summit. Let’s hope they’re right.

July 19, 2011

Vancouver, Canada-based Naturally Advanced Technologies Inc. (NAT) — provider of CRAiLAR® enzymatic
technology for processing bast fibers — is making progress in its quest to expand its flax
cultivation capabilities in South Carolina.

The company has contracted Pamplico, S.C.-based Carolina Eastern Precision Ag to help it
recruit growers and contractors and provide advice related to NAT’s flax cultivation. First-year
plans call for contracting cultivation of more than 15,000 acres of flax as a winter crop — with
the harvested flax used first to supply Crailar Flax to Winston-Salem, N.C.-based HanesBrands Inc.
under a purchasing agreement announced earlier this year. NAT expects to have a production capacity
of 300,000 pounds of Crailar Flax weekly at a facility it plans to build by first-quarter 2012 in
Williamsburg County in the Pee Dee area of South Carolina.

“This announcement is a culmination of a two-year process that took a significant amount of
effort from South Carolina’s Department of Commerce, the USDA-ARS  [U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service], Williamsburg County, and HanesBrands,” said Jason
Finnis, founder and COO, NAT. “We are confident in the experience and relationships that Carolina
Eastern brings to our team, and we anticipate that their team’s knowledge of the region, from both
the agronomic and economic standpoints, will allow us to quickly and smoothly ramp up production
demand to bring Crailar Flax to market.”

“Crailar Flax fiber is one of the most well-researched agronomic opportunities we’ve seen in
South Carolina in my entire career,” said Charles “Russell” Duncan, a former agricultural extension
agent with Clemson University and current chair of the International Certified Crop Adviser board,
who will head up Carolina Eastern’s activities covered by the agreement. “We are excited about the
opportunity we will be presenting in coming months and hope for a long-term opportunity to be
established among farmers looking for winter crop alternatives.”

In the course of a pilot program in which NAT worked with the USDA-ARS and HanesBrands, the
company identified flax varietals that provide optimal fiber yields for winter cultivation.

“As a winter crop, we found that South Carolina offers significant upsides to growing
varietals of flax that are needed to produce Crailar fiber,” said Dr. Jonn Foulk, a USDA-ARS
research scientist, who worked with NAT in the pilot program. “The climate is ideal, the
fertilization and weed control are minimal and the winter rainfall provides adequate irrigation.
Additionally, production in the southeastern U.S. has the potential to enhance rural economic
growth and to supply a natural domestic source of fiber to industries.”

July 19, 2011