From the Sector

Archroma is bringing the entire portfolio of 5,760 Archroma Color Atlas colors to swatchbook, a platform for material digitalization and sourcing.

The new partnership provides fashion, apparel and textile designers and manufacturers with an elevated standard for color accuracy that meets the needs of today’s increasingly technology-driven and integrated supply chain. This will help the textile and fashion community to improve sustainability, whilst lowering costs and shortening turnaround times.

The Color Atlas by Archroma® was launched in 2016 to provide fashion designers and stylists with off-the-shelf color inspiration that can be implemented in production with just a few clicks.

Designers will use the 5,760 Archroma Color Atlas colors on swatchbook to rapidly develop accurate digital colorways and visualize their final product. They can then share these digital swatches with their manufacturing partners, providing access to the swatchbook metadata, which can include information such as the materials’ composition, weight and color.

This will streamline the overall design and production process for color-critical fashion and textile products, allowing for faster turnaround. Digital materials supported by trusted coloration technology also reduce the need for samples and eliminate physical swatchbooks, bringing environmental benefits and lower costs to brands and suppliers.

All 5,760 Color Atlas by Archroma® colors are now available free of charge to subscribers on the swatchbook platform.

ITMA 2023 was a successful platform for the flat knitting machine manufacturer STOLL to present its latest new developments. The business unit of the KARL MAYER GROUP will be following up this fair on 3 July with the launch of a further innovation package. With the solutions contained in this package, STOLL will be offering its customers additional added value when using their flat knitting machines - in line with the concept of bundling innovations.

The new features include an optimised central lubrication system that reduces both maintenance effort and oil consumption, this as standard from July 2023 for all models of the CMS and ADF series produced in Reutlingen.
Compared to the previous optional variant, it ensures more efficient and comprehensive lubrication. All needle bed elements, from the holding-down jack to the coupling part and intermediate slider to the selection jack, are now supplied with oil. The machine itself recognises whether lubrication is required. Independently of this, the lubrication intensity and oil distribution can be adapted to the individual machine conditions by setting various parameters, if required. To ensure that the required amount of lubricant is reliably supplied, a message is sent if the level is too low.

In addition, a new oil drain container as standard equipment for all CMS and ADF models catches used oil from the needle bed under the machine. This prevents soiling of floors or knitted fabrics. The emptying of the container can be efficiently managed by an adjustable reminder function. The neat and at the same time sustainable solution does not require cleaning agents or hoovers and offers the possibility to reuse the oil after cleaning through special filters, if necessary.

Users of CMS and ADF belt take-down machines can benefit from optimisations around the belt take-down. Thanks to the new STOLL innovation package, this can be turned forwards and backwards by means of a switch as standard in order to easily eliminate fabric wraps and thus reduce maintenance times. In addition, a mirror, which is also fitted as standard, ensures a simple visual check of the belt take-down.

Another solution of the STOLL innovation package from July 2023 includes new cams that enable split-stitch implementation without cam box modification. This reduces manual effort and thus conversion times and costs. The feature is standard on all fine gauges ADF and CMS machines.

For the W machines from STOLL, there is now a further inlay yarn carrier, the Qt, in addition to the previous Qw yarn carrier. The extension means that the number of inlay yarn carriers used in a system can be increased from the previous one to three. No additional system is required for the weft yarn, and the process steps weft yarn insertion and knitting take place in the same system.

MAS Holdings, a global apparel & textile manufacturing and tech conglomerate, headquartered in Sri Lanka, secures a stake in HeiQ AeoniQ™ as part of its Plan for Change initiative to support the development of next-generation cellulosic filament fibers to replace polyester and nylon.

HeiQ from Switzerland and MAS Holdings entered a partnership for MAS to secure a stake in HeiQ AeoniQ GmbH, a subsidiary of HeiQ Group that will produce HeiQ AeoniQ™, a climate-positive cellulosic yarn.

With this investment, MAS Holdings becomes the first manufacturer to partner with HeiQ AeoniQ™ in their efforts to provide a sustainable alternative to polyester and nylon. The investment to be made by MAS Holdings is part of the group’s strategy to drive a positive environmental impact. The MAS Plan for Change aims to generate 50% of the company’s revenue through sustainable products by 2025, revolutionizing the textile industry with a focus on innovation, sustainable sourcing, and pioneering circularity at scale.

With the closing of this deal, HeiQ and MAS agreed to a 5-year Offtake Agreement for 3,000 tons of HeiQ AeoniQ™ yarn in 2025 and 5,000 tons per year from 2026 to 2029, valued by HeiQ in the aggregate to US$ 100 million. MAS will finalize this commitment within a stipulated time period after achieving milestone 1, and a mutual plan for commercialization. HeiQ and MAS firmly believe that rapid scaling is key to facilitating the fast adoption of sustainable, circular technologies such as HeiQ AeoniQ™.

The HeiQ AeoniQ™ pilot plant in Austria is manufacturing this revolutionary continuous cellulosic filament yarn since Q3 2022, with up to a 100 tons capacity to be upscaled up to 300 tons by the end of 2023.

The HeiQ AeoniQ™ production scale-up is planned to have its definitive boost by early 2026 with the construction of an entirely new gigafactory capable of a 30,000-ton output per year, in a 250M USD estimated investment.

Polyester and nylon, two oil-based fibers, virtually non-recyclable, account for about 70% of all the global textile production, they take between 350 to 1000 years to degrade in nature, are currently close loop recycled at less than 1%, and are at the origin of 35% of the microplastics that can be found in today's oceans. HeiQ AeoniQ™ was innovated and is being hyper-scaled up to change this course of action.

With total sales of EUR 1,543 million, generated by over 30 production and sales units in Europe, Asia, and America, Radici Group closed its 2022 financial year with slight growth over 2021. EBITDA reached EUR 157 million in 2022, and net income for the year was EUR 80 million.

“We are moderately pleased with the 2022 figures,” Angelo Radici, president of RadiciGroup, commented. “Despite an unpredictable and challenging year, we were able to achieve positive results. Although the rise in energy costs began to be felt in January, we managed to maintain our position in the first three months of the year due to a significant increase in demand. From the second quarter onwards, the European market experienced a significant slowdown due to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which exacerbated the already soaring costs of energy and raw materials. The situation was completely out of hand and made worse by the fact that some raw materials were not available. This created significant challenges for us, especially in the chemical sector. We even had to stop operations at our Novara plant in the latter part of the year. Products similar to ours in the nylon supply chain from China and the US were being sold at a price lower than our variable cost.”

The president continues: “At Group level, our internationalisation strategy helped us mitigate geopolitical risks in various countries. As a result, we were able to offset the challenges in the European chemicals and textile markets by leveraging our global presence in High Performance Polymers, where our numbers have held strong. As we began 2023, we regained our footing. However, the global economic and industrial scenario for the rest of the year remains highly uncertain, and forecasts are notably cautious.”

Even in these difficult times, the Group has continued to invest. In 2022, the High Performance Polymers Business Area completed the acquisition in India of the engineering plastics branch of Ester Industries Ltd, a listed company. Additionally, it began installing two new production lines in Mexico and Brazil, and confirmed plans to install a new extrusion line at the Villa d’Ogna production site in the province of Bergamo. These choices align with the Group’s goal of enhancing its worldwide presence and boosting competitiveness in high-potential growth markets. In a year where energy and raw material costs were certainly problematic, operating in geographically diverse markets and with varied applications proved to be an important tool in addressing the challenges. In this vein, a new production site spanning over 36,000 square metres has recently been inaugurated in China. The move is aimed at doubling the production capacity in line with the market’s growth expectations.

Extending the time horizon to 2018-2022, the Group has invested over EUR 277 million to enhance the competitiveness of its companies, implement Best Available Techniques, improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions, and conduct research and development activities aimed at introducing sustainable processes and solutions. These efforts include the research and development activities of Radici InNova, which are heavily focused on the circular economy.

Leaders assembled at the renowned forum for sustainability in fashion to mobilise action and usher in a transformative phase for the industry.

Hosted in the Copenhagen Concert Hall, on 27-28 June, Global Fashion Summit convened over 1000 revered representatives from brands, retailers, NGOs, policy, manufacturers, and innovators to transform ambition into action. The Summit was presented by Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), the non-profit organisation that is accelerating the transition to a net positive fashion industry, under the patronage of HRH The Crown Princess of Denmark.

This year’s theme ‘Ambition to Action’, galvanised participants to transform ambitions into concrete actions that can drive the industry towards more sustainable practices, both socially and environmentally. Under this premise, the event presented content experiences focused on tangible and evidence-based impact, with over half of the programme dedicated to educational and action-oriented business case studies.

This edition included more speakers and content than ever before, with the dynamic and action-orientated sessions spanning across four different stages. The Summit also facilitated more than 10 strategic roundtable meetings that brought together executives and policy makers for productive dialogues on how to address pressing sustainability issues and act accordingly. The content integrated the five priorities of the Fashion CEO Agenda, alongside critical challenges and tangible opportunities relating to some of the key forces that are shaping the fashion industry today: data, policy and storytelling.

Attendees heard from 137 speakers including HRH The Crown Princess of Denmark; Antoine Arnault, Image & Environment, LVMH Group; Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director & Founder, JW Anderson and Creative Director, Loewe; Virginijus Sinkevičius,  Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, European Commission; Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, Chief Delivery Officer, Maersk; Aude Vergne, Chief Sustainability Officer, Chloé; Nicolaj Reffstrup, Founder, GANNI; Fanny Moizant, Co-Founder & President, Vestiaire Collective; Noel Kinder, Chief Sustainability Officer, Nike; Óscar García Maceiras, CEO, Inditex; Dr. Lewis Akenji, Managing Director, Hot or Cool Institute; Rachel Arthur, Advocacy Lead, Sustainable Fashion, United Nations Environment Programme; and many more.

Innovation Forum connected fashion companies with sustainable solution providers
This year’s Summit also presented an Innovation Forum, enabling small and large companies to meet with 26 sustainable solution providers – equipping them with the concrete tools to quickly turn words into meaningful actions. More than 350 facilitated business meetings between fashion companies and sustainable solution providers took place during the Summit.

Global Fashion Summit: Boston Edition will take place on 27 September 2023, which will mark the second time the Summit has been hosted outside of Copenhagen in its 14-year history.

This season, adidas Originals and the progressive Ukrainian label KSENIASCHNAIDER have come together to present a collaborative collection featuring a host of unconventional garments, footwear, and accessories.

Founded in 2011 by Ksenia and Anton Schnaider, KSENIASCHNAIDER is a Kyiv-based independent fashion house centered on creating boundary pushing ready-to-wear, denim, and upcycled apparel and accessories. Drawing on Ksenia’s design language and Anton’s engineering logic, the partners’ eponymous label continues to challenge established conventions to boldly project a new vision of the future.

The collection is anchored by a host of garments which blend the Ukrainian house’s signature aesthetic with adidas’ instantly recognizable brand codes. First, an array of denim pieces – including jeans, jackets, and shirt dresses – are elevated with frayed edges, voluminous cuts, and idiosyncratic details. Second, fresh takes on a timeless adidas classic stand out as adiColor tracksuits, corsets, and dresses are reworked in a patchwork finish.

The adidas Originals x KSENIASCHNAIDER collection launches on July 1st.

Perlon® - The Filament Company - headquartered in Munderkingen, Germany, which specializes in the manufacture of synthetic filaments for the Paper- Technical Textile - Brush- Personal- and Dental industry, buys Shaun Filaments in Goa, India.

Shaun Filaments is a leading Indian producer of different types of filaments mainly for the Asian market. Perlon® herewith expands its Asian presence and market leadership in the following business segments: Paper Machine Clothing, Advanced Technical Textiles, Technical Brush Filaments and Personal Care.

“With the acquisition of Shaun Filaments, we are expanding our presence in the Asian market and creating a company that is geared towards the global filament industry of the future and we are expanding our market leadership in all segments. Shaun Filaments is a perfect fit for the Perlon® Group with its long-term experience, strong reputation and knowledge in the production of filaments for the Asian market.” states Florian Kisling, CEO of Perlon®.

The Perlon® Group will take over Shaun Filaments with all employees and production lines located in the Shaun Filaments factory in Goa, India.

Archroma, a leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, and Somelos, a vertically integrated textile group in Portugal, have joined forces to advance sustainable cotton processing with a new water-saving dyeing and finishing process that generates no wastewater.

Conventional cotton dyeing and finishing requires substantial water and chemical inputs and produces a large volume of wastewater. Long-lasting wash-down effects in particular, traditionally require two water-intensive processes: one to get the color intensity and one to achieve the washed-down contrast. Relying on such resource-intensive processes is of particular concern in nations affected by drought and water scarcity, like Portugal, the home of Somelos since its founding in 1958.

To address this challenge, Archroma and Somelos have now developed the New Dry Dyeing/Ox Finishing process for the production of bottoms and shirting in cotton fabrics. Based on Archroma’s Pad-Ox dyeing process, which combines oxidation and fixation into one step, and the latest technologies for washdown effects, including ozone and laser treatments, it delivers water savings of up to 97% compared to conventional cotton dyeing and finishing.

The New Dry Dyeing/Ox Finishing process only uses water to prepare the dye and oxidation baths. Archroma Diresul® RDT liquid pre-reduced sulfur dyes ensure easy washdown and direct fixation—with no need for pre-washing—delivering shorter processing, cleaner production and high wash -fastness.

The Sorting for Circularity USA consortium project welcomes new partners and expands its North American geographical scope. Fashion for Good is pleased to announce the addition of lululemon as an external brand partner, joining the existing seven brand partners. They also welcome their new implementation partners Helpsy, United Southern Waste Material, Goodwill Industries International Inc., and its members Goodwill of Colorado, Goodwill Industries-Suncoast, Inc., Goodwill of the Finger Lakes, and Goodwill of San Francisco Bay. Additionally, Fashion for Good is pleased to recognise adidas as the project's lead sponsor, facilitating the complete realisation of the project scope.

Fashion for Good, together with Resource Recycling Systems, launched the Sorting for Circularity USA consortium project in January 2023. The project will conduct an extensive consumer survey to map the journey of a garment from closet to end of use, and present a comprehensive snapshot of textile waste composition generated in the United States. The insights gained from this 18-month project will help to scale collection, sorting, and recycling innovations and inform decisions on necessary investments and actions.

Within the first 6 months, the project has expanded to cover 6 key states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Colorado. Additional implementation partners have also signed on to support the fibre composition data analysis: Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) Association, Helpsy, United Southern Waste Material, and Goodwill Industries International Inc., with its members Goodwill of Colorado, Goodwill Industries-Suncoast, Inc., Goodwill of the Finger Lakes, and Goodwill of San Francisco Bay. Resource Recycling Systems will drive the dissemination and analysis of the consumer survey together with New York State Center for Sustainable Materials Management and Syracuse University Center for Sustainable Community Solutions, and execute the textile composition analysis using Matoha’s near infrared devices with advisory support from Circle Economy.

Demonstrating the importance of pre-competitive collaboration in tackling the industry’s biggest challenges, lululemon joins Eastman, H&M and Nordstrom as key project partners, together with Fashion for Good corporate partners adidas, Inditex, Levi Strauss & Co., and Target. Adidas' lead sponsorship ensures a deeper analysis of USA textile waste infrastructure and the identification of valuable opportunities for advancement.

In the USA, textile waste is the fastest-growing segment of the country's waste stream, with 85% of discarded textiles ending up in landfills*. Understanding the composition of material, volume and location of used textiles is crucial for capturing them and sorting them for the best and highest quality end use. Moreover, the range of national and regional geographies within the Sorting for Circularity project series enables for nuanced cross-country comparisons - revealing differences in the textile waste generated and infrastructure required.

Sorting for Circularity, a framework co-developed by Fashion for Good and Circle Economy, aims to (re)capture textile waste by unlocking the feedstock potential for recycling, expedite the implementation of game changing automated sorting technologies such as near-infrared spectroscopy and advanced textile-to-textile recycling, and drive circularity within the fashion value chain. The project builds on the success of Sorting for Circularity Europe and India, which revealed insights on material composition, volume, and location of used textiles and provided a solid foundation to accelerate textile recycling in those respective geographical locations.

*United States Environmental Protection Agency (2019). National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling.

Over 1.2 million people came together to Move For The Planet, a new global initiative by adidas that harnessed the collective activity of sporting communities across the world.

Over 173 million active minutes were tracked overall across countries in the adidas Running app with adidas pledging to donate €1 to Common Goal for every 10 minutes of activity logged across 34 sports between June 1-12 – up to €1.5m.

The contributions will support projects around the globe that educate and engage communities through sport. One such organisation selected by adidas and Common Goal is the ISF Cambodia (ISF), a charity with 16 years of experience using education and sport to change lives.

The specific project will enable the installation of solar panels to light their football fields – creating safer spaces for girls and the wider community to practice in whilst at the same time, using renewable energy.

In addition to the solar panels, together with Football for Future and Common Goal, adidas is facilitating education on environmental sustainability through sport for ISF with a focus on helping the organization to raise awareness of environmental action in the community.

This will complement ISF workshops on environmental protection, the use of single use-plastic and waste management processes, enabling the children and young adults involved to be positive role models for their community.

Move For The Planet is part of adidas’ wider sustainability initiatives as the company continues its mission to make what’s best for the athlete. Earlier this year, adidas announced that it is ahead of schedule in its journey to replace virgin polyester with recycled polyester in its products wherever possible by the end of 2024. In 2022, 96% of all the polyester adidas used was recycled.