From the Sector

"Fulfillment Hub” presentation will feature collaborations with major brands, thought leadership sessions
Kornit Digital (Nasdaq: KRNT), a worldwide market leader in digital textile printing technology, has announced the details of its presence at PRINTING United 2019, taking place in Dallas, Texas, October 23-25, 2019.

PRINTING United brings the North American public debut of Kornit’s Konnect software, a cloud software analytics platform that provides users a single comprehensive user interface to monitor and manage their productivity. This empowers customers to receive real-time data about their operations, prioritize, assess costs, troubleshoot, and set goals from the convenience of their laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

SEEK is edgy, clear and unpolished. It’s all about cool statement designs, the new classics, denim and sportswear. SEEK is the trade show for the fashion community that knows the facts, prompts sales and meets the needs of the new generation of decision-makers. Compared to other trade shows, SEEK is particularly unconventional and the antidote to boring.

At the start of the season in January SEEK will be showcasing one thing more than anything – relevance. SEEK epitomises values like honesty, loyalty, consciousness of quality, local proximity; and the brands that exhibit at SEEK are on exactly the same page. The BRIGHT brands relevant to retail are now fully integrated.

FOCUS TOPICS

• Responsible Future
  Sustainability is part of SEEK’s DNA and has always informed how the team and community operate. Over 80 sustainable brands make up the brand portfolio, including players like Veja, Dedicated, Sandqvist and Kings of Indigo.
  The SEEK team places great value on personal contact with customers and puts a great deal of love into the details and in honest collaboration with all stakeholders.

• Retail Experiences
  There is no other comparable brand portfolio at any other trade show. SEEK’s unique brand mix is becoming even more dynamic, reflecting retail concepts that have had international success. In the world’s most in-demand stores, such as End Clothing (London), Voo Store (Berlin) and Caliroots (Stockholm), EUR 500 designs are placed next to EUR 50 t-shirts and bought by the same customers. That’s the status quo – end consumers decide on and bring the range to life

• #FASHIONTECH at SEEK
  Digitalisation remains one of the most important topics in the industry. For this and other reasons, formats of #FASHIONTECH will take place at SEEK. For the first time, topics relevant to SEEK will be initiated in the style of talks and masterclasses at #FASHIONTECH. SEEK is taking a fundamental look at topics such as Brand Building, Social Media and Gaming.

   

Heimtextil will launch the new 2020/2021 trend season with the general theme “WHERE I BELONG”. For the official Heimtextil Trend Preview, Stijlinstituut Amsterdam director Anne Marie Commandeur  introduced the new design themes. The presentation in the run-up to Heimtextil (7-10 January 2020) took place at the Textile Museum’s Textile Lab in Tilburg, the Netherlands on 11 September 2019 and was streamed worldwide.

This season, Stijlinstituut Amsterdam is responsible for the Trend Book content and Trend Space implementation at the upcoming international trade fair for home and contract textiles. Alongside Stijlinstituut Amsterdam, London-based studio FranklinTill and Danish agency SPOTT trends & business contributed to the 20/21 global forecast for perspective-related interior design. Together with the Heimtextil management team, these Trend Council participants gave insights into future styles during a workshop.

At the annual international Trend Council workshop, identity was an ever-present topic: part of a broader discussion on gender and cultural diversity, on tolerance and curiosity. Today, the self-identification process seems more complex than ever. Identities are now formed through experiences that take place simultaneously, on different levels. Locally, nationally, globally, both online and offline. Identity therefore can consist of many different layers. In fact, individuals can all have multilayered identities.

Heimtextil Trends 20/21 Overview:

MAXIMUM GLAM

Pleasure seekers revel in layering theatrical influences and glamorous showtime aesthetics, forging a fantastic marriage between the crafted and digitally rendered. Textiles show a ‘more is more’ attitude through a mash-up of glam, gradients and spectrums, fake fur, pile and fringe, jacquard weaves and fantastic prints. The flashy, kitsch colour range becomes brutally glam thanks to electric sheen, synthetic shimmer, digital glitch and artful blur. A riot of clashes and rebellion.

PURE SPIRITUAL

Idealists seek perfection and purity, restoring equilibrium by connecting with the uber-natural. They embrace technology for good while shifting between realism and mysticism in pursuit of a personal haven. To address a renewed bond with nature, organic matter, raw materials and pure textiles are selected which show nature’s traces, organic structures and irregularities. Shades are created from the earth and cultured by man. An elemental and pure range reflects the source of their existence.

ACTIVE URBAN

Urban dwellers confront the challenges of the fast paced, shape-shifting, man-made environment by searching for utilitarian, adaptable solutions. They value tech performance while making smart use of  available and renewable resources. Functionality is prioritised, while looking cool and working well remains key. Interior/sportswear hybrid textiles show smooth surfaces and a fun mash-up of graphic textures. The palette shows uniform blue, asphalt grey and caterpillar yellow.

HERITAGE LUX

Preservers of historic legacies treasure sensuousness alongside the uncanny, enlightenment together with darkness, for a whole new immersive experience. This new narrative translates to a love for luxury and splendour, decoration and embellishment. Finding beauty in history and nature through ornamental patterning and alluring surface enhancement. Reflecting on ancient history results in a palette featuring enigmatic blood red, sapphire and a lustrous mother-of-pearl.

MULTI-LOCAL

Hyper-locals go global, celebrating inclusivity over appropriation, honouring traditional craftsmanship and adjusting the world’s gaze to embrace exchange, creative integrity and diverse identities. Indigenous style meets global influences. This is a celebration of crafted and decorative pattern, from tribal and folkloric to geometric and abstract. Textile colours become part of a wider cultural narrative, linked to local community, cultural heritage and private identity.

You can find more Information here

For the circular knitting machine manufacturer Mayer & Cie. (MCT) this year’s ITMA ended with a satisfactory result. From 20 to 26 June 2019 the company had five machines on show at the leading industry trade fair in Barcelona. The industry leader’s focus was on sporting uses, with one exhibit dedicated to Mayer & Cie.’s innovative ideas. Digital offerings that Mayer & Cie. put together under the name knitlink rounded off the presentation. The platform includes a web shop, remote maintenance options and recording and evaluation of machine data for the customer and is to be further expanded in the future.

Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, will be at ITMA to launch its latest innovations and system solutions aimed to help textile manufacturers with optimized productivity and/or value creation in their markets.

Archroma offers a wide portfolio of dyes and chemicals aiming to increase sustainability and innovation along the entire value chain, from fiber to finish.

Archroma is reputed for its continuous flow of ground-breaking innovations, such as the EarthColors®, a range of dyes made from non-edible natural waste from the agricultural and herbal industry, Inkpresso®, a digital printing system that enables ink mixing on site and on demand, Smartrepel® Hydro, a nature-friendlier protection that keeps cotton, polyester and polyamide textiles dry, the Color Atlas, a revolutionary color system comprising of a physical and online library of 4,320 new colors developed on cotton poplin.

More recently, Archroma introduced the purest indigo, Denisol® Pure Indigo, an aniline-free* synthetic pre-reduced liquid indigo launched in 2018, Appretan® NTR, a new nature-based binder for nonwovens, and Fadex® AS New, a new “super UV protector” for automotive & transportation textiles, both introduced in May 2019.

At ITMA, Archroma will present 24 solution systems and 5 innovations, and will hold “Innovation & Solutions Sessions” at its booth to present them.

The systems and innovations presented by Archroma have all been selected for their compliance with “The Archroma Way: safe, efficient, enhanced, it’s our nature”. The approach finds its origin in Archroma’s deep belief that it is possible to make the textile industry sustainable.

• Herzog: Organic start of Industry 4.0 scenarios with an app
• Mahlo: Better production results with digital help
• Lindauer DORNIER: An addition to personalized services

On the occasion of a VDMA press conference themed “ITMA countdown” in Frankfurt, speakers from member companies Lindauer DORNIER, Herzog and Mahlo showed how Industry 4.0 solutions are going to impact the textile process chain and what technologies visitors can expect to see at ITMA 2019. The products examples of the respective companies made clear that Industry 4.0 is no end in itself but helps to improve production processes and results and supplements the range of services.

Interview 1

Interview 2

Two successful events made in Bangladesh where fashion and innovation have, once more, come together to champion change and foster sustainability.

Bangladesh has a mission: to fetch its share in the global 130 billion dollars market of smart apparel by 2025. To reach this goal, the country aims to foster modern, innovative, technology-driven apparel manufacturing and to constantly engage in supply chain conversations.

A fitting stage for these conversations was the 2nd Bangladesh Fashionology Summit that took place on day 1 of the Bangladesh Denim Expo – held on 02-03 May 2019 at the International Convention City Bashundhara. This was a platform for thinkers, innovators, experts, educators to share innovative ideas on this edition’s main theme: “Digitalization – the Next Destination”. Sessions were provided to learn more on how innovation, specifically digitalization, fits in the world of the fashion industry.

Further to an increase in cost of production, the industry is even more compelled to focusing on finding added value for products. Here is where the smart clothing market comes in, an opportunity on which a thriving community of thinkers will commit to lead the “current-generation” garment production into the “next-generation” apparel manufacturing by using latest digital technology.

The Summit has also provided a Tech Innovation Zone (Tech Innovators: Trustrace, Shimmy Technologies, Infinited Fiber, Seachange Technologies, Reverse Resource) in collaboration with Fashion For Good, a platform for innovators to meet with the other components of the eco system, and an Exhibition Zone (Exhibitors: Pivot88, Lectra, Sindabad.com, Pacific Associates, Earlycavehuman, Foursource Group GmbH, A2i-Access to Information, GoBlu, Rudholm Group, QuizRR, BRAC, SNV, SR Asia, Swiss Contact) for companies to showcase their latest innovations, paying special attention to information sharing.

• Clean Technology. Smart Factory.

Remscheid – Oerlikon invites all visitors to this year's ITMA in Barcelona on a journey into the future of manmade fiber production. From 20 to 26 June 2019, the world market leader will show all its guests its vision of a sustainable and automated manmade fiber production in a virtual 4D showroom at its 1,000 m² stand in Hall 7, A101: "Clean Technology. Smart Factory." is the motto of the future. And this is only a stone's throw away from reality at the stand. Because today Oerlikon is presenting four world premieres for efficient machine and plant concepts in a new, innovative industrial design. Together with numerous other innovations, all this forms the new DNA of the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers segment.

The challenges for the manmade fiber industry are manifold and Oerlikon shows its customers solutions:

1. Choosing the right business model
Price pressure on fiber and yarn manufacturers is growing due to global market consolidation. Here it is important to position oneself correctly. Are you producing polyester, nylon or polypropylene for the niche market and skimming off good margins with innovative products and ingenious material properties, or are you looking for business success through economies of scale in the volume market such as the constantly growing apparel sector? Oerlikon has the right answers for both business models. And the most important thing: the market leader supplies all solutions from a single source. See for yourself at the world premieres of the machine and system concepts of WINGS FDY PA6, BCF S8 Tricolor and the revolutionary eAFK Evo texturing machine.

2. Finding alternatives for good personnel
Finding good operators in the manmade fiber industry is becoming increasingly difficult, even in emerging industrial nations such as China, India and Turkey. The solution is obvious. What, for example, the automotive industry achieved years ago with the 3rd Industrial Revolution is now also taking its course in the textile industry. And at the same time it is even shifting up a gear. In the next step, automation in combination with digitization will lead to new, sustainable production. Oerlikon will be showing how automation and digitization interact at ITMA. Self-learning machines and systems, artificial intelligence (AI), remote services and edge computing are just a few of the key words in the digital half of the new Oerlikon Manmade Fibers DNA.

3. Guarantee quality and traceability
The qualities of the fibers and yarns must meet the highest demands and their production must be traceable throughout the textile value chain. This no longer only plays an important role in the automotive industry, where safety is of paramount importance. Other branches of industry that use fibers, yarns and nonwovens also want to know where the raw materials they produce for consumer articles come from. Legal regulations are demanding this more and more frequently. Oerlikon offers optimal solutions with its DIN ISO certified manufacturing processes. More than half of the world's manmade fiber producers are convinced every day that the qualities produced on Oerlikon Barmag, Oerlikon Neumag and Oerlikon Nonwoven equipment are right – and all visitors to ITMA can do the same on site.

4. Efficient and sustainable production
In the future, the materials produced from manmade fibers must become part of a further improved global recycling economy. The recycling of polyester – with over 80% market share the most frequently used manmade fiber in the world – has not only been on the agenda since today. Oerlikon already has solutions at hand: from PET bottles to fibers and filaments, to textiles and carpets. ITMA is the next step. With the VacuFil® Oerlikon in cooperation with the subsidiary company BBEngineering presents the world premiere No. 4 – a recycling solution within a running polyester production with a waste-free approach.

Vision becomes reality
The Oerlikon Manmade Fibers segment thus demonstrates what the ITMA in Barcelona promises as the world's leading trade fair for textile machinery and plant construction: "Innovating the world of textiles – sourcing for a sustainable future". In Hall 7, A101, this is already reality.

At the Texprocess trade fair in Frankfurt/Main, Germany (May 14th to 17th 2019) VEIT Group will present on more than 400 m² the latest highlights in the areas of ironing, finishing, pressing and fusing in the garment industry as well as automotive and interior sectors.

"Pressing for Excellence" is the corporate slogan of the VEIT Group. In addition, this year's motto at Texprocess is "LOVEIT" which is a wordplay on "love it" or “love VEIT”. In the words of VEIT Group President Günter Veit: “Our motto stands for the passion that we have for the engineering of our products, our love of perfection and our devotion to our customers. This is the basis of their trust in our products. We want to offer our customers value not only now, but also for the future which we believe will be more digital and more sustainable. Both Industry 4.0 readiness, as well as the good of operator and environment are essential components of our product development efforts.”

Among the large portfolio of high-performance technology presented at the trade show, there is a significantly improved shirt finisher SF 26. With the new model SF 26, VEIT manages to further increase both the functionality and the ergonomics of the shirt finisher. For the customer, this optimisation in application technology is reflected in higher quality of the finished product and simplified operation.

Combined with the improved FS shirt folding table series – a highly successful product – VEIT offers true streamlining potential while maintaining high quality levels when folding shirts, blouses and polos in 3 versions.

Reacting to the customers’ demands, VEIT has equipped their popular BX fusing machines – BXT, the universal solution for shirts and outerwear – with a separate feeding belt and a 7” colour operating panel. These changes make the BX fully industry 4.0 ready and helps to further improve the ergonomics and energy efficiency.

In order to increase flexibility in the shaping of textiles, VEIT will present a new solution for high-quality finishing of the elbow seam in the area of BRISAY machines – the BRI 860 VC sleeve seam finish pressing machine. The 8430 universal multiform finisher was enhanced to cover an even wider range of applications. It can now also be used for finishing, among other items, also polos, T-shirts, blouses, blousons and jackets.

In addition to the innovative machine highlights, VEIT has also developed special solutions for customers' investment decisions. "More and more companies that are making investments are not only looking at the purchase price, but rather at the total lifetime cost of ownership," explains Vice President Christopher Veit. VEIT is presenting two interesting offers to meet this trend:
Customers may choose to buy a machine according to the “Pay Per Piece” system, which means that they pay for how much the machine is used, instead of a full up-front investment. This reduces the investment risk and allows more flexible reactions to especially to scalable business opportunities. Alternatively, when purchasing a machine the traditional way, customers can limit operating costs, extend the machine’s lifespan and achieve improved machine availability by signing a service contract. With its global service and partnership network, VEIT Group can offer this service worldwide.

• 8^th edition to be held as the “Fair & Convention for Hightech Textiles” at the Carlowitz Congresscenter Chemnitz for the first time on 9 – 10 June 2020 – Textile themes from the LiMA exhibition for lightweight design are being integrated in the new format

 
The “mtex+” is raising its profile and is moving to an attractive setting. The 8^th edition of the international exhibition entitled “Fair & Convention for Hightech Textiles” will be held in the new Carlowitz Congresscenter at the heart of Chemnitz for the first time on 9 and 10 June 2020.
 
“The “mtex+” is a trade event that experts from various sectors greatly appreciate on account of its emphasis on dialogue and in-depth contacts – and because everything is on the spot. The modern, exciting ambiance at the new venue facilitates our desire to create the best possible atmosphere for cooperation in a trusting environment,” Dr Ralf Schulze, Managing Director of C3 GmbH, the organising company, explains. “In its future form, the “mtex+” will act as a source of ideas and inspiration for developers and manufacturers as well as for users of all kinds of high-tech textiles, specifically including composites, to a greater degree than in the past. Textile composite materials are becoming increasingly important for many processors. That’s the reason why we’re transferring the textile themes of the LiMA lightweight design exhibition, which has been held alongside the “mtex+” in the past, into our new trade fair format. Lightweight textile design in all its facets will be one of the major emphases at the “mtex+”.”    
 
The major topics covered by the 8th “mtex+” will include process development, textile engineering, digitalised value-added chains, services with potential for use across different sectors as well as recycling. The highlights of the programme will include workshops on effective and sustainable production, smart textiles, acoustic textiles, a special exhibition on health and protective textiles as well as an entertaining network evening entitled “Excellent connections”.

The North-Eastern German Textile and Clothing Industry Association (vti) believes that this concept exactly matches the needs of its target audience. “Chemnitz is located at the heart of the Central German industrial and research region, which is developing with great dynamism,” says vti Managing Director, Dr.-Ing. Jenz Otto. “Any firm that presents its products and services here will find itself in a very interesting market. Located not far from the border with the Czech Republic and Poland, the “mtex+” will also act as a dialogue forum for potential cooperation partners across sector and international boundaries, both for these and other Eastern European countries.”
 
The “mtex+” will continue to be held in Central Germany’s industrial city of Chemnitz every two years in future too. 159 exhibitors from seven different countries (in conjunction with the LiMA lightweight design exhibition) attended the 7th edition in the spring of 2018. 22 percent of the approx. 1,000 trade visitors came from abroad.