From the Sector

INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, is partnering with the Waterloo Filtration Institute to deliver the FiltXPO™ technical program on October 10-11, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. The Waterloo Filtration Institute was instrumental in recommending program topics and world-class presenters.

Engineers, scientists, and industry professionals will gain the latest insights into the filtration and separation topics affecting the industry today and into the future. The program features presentations include: filter media technologies, advancements and opportunities in filtration machinery and equipment, innovations in clean air for homes and urban areas, standards and testing, industry trends and new developments, and filtration challenges and opportunities.

The keynote for this year’s event is “IAQ Is the New Black” presented by Suzanne Shelton, President & CEO, Shelton Group. Shelton will share the latest data around consumer views on health, safety, people, and the planet. Participants will gain an understanding of the filtration opportunities and the challenges manufacturers face in communicating the value of their products.

A preview of the subject matter experts includes:

• AAF Flanders – “Air Filter Standards Activity and What It Means for Innovation”
• Ahlstrom – “Expanding Wetlaid Filtration Media Performance Through Innovation”
• Air Techniques International – “Application of Automated Filter Tester in Quality Control Testing: Importance of Consistent Aerosol Particle Size Distribution”
• American Truetzschler, Inc. – “How Really Good Filter Media Is Made”
• CEREX Advanced Fabrics – “The Antimicrobial Nylon Advantage”
• Elsner Engineering Works, Inc. – “When Does Automation Make Sense”
• Hollingsworth & Vose – “Accelerating Membrane Adoption with ROI”
• INDA – “Beyond Porter’s Five Forces – When Regulation Reshapes Markets”
• MANN+HUMMEL GmbH – “Filtration for Cleaner Urban Mobility – Introducing Horizon Europe Innovation Action Aersolfd”
• NatureWorks – “Optimizing Biopolymers to Improve Filter Performance – A Spectrum of Approaches and Opportunities”
• Palas GmbH – “Influence of Temperature and Humidity to Filter Efficiency and Dust Holding Capacity”
• Ptak Consulting – “Residential Filtration – Performance Against Infectious Aerosols”
• The University of Georgia – “Recent Advances in Melt Blown Nonwovens and Filter Media Research”

New this year to FiltXPO are Lightning Talks. Lightning Talks are an opportunity to connect with new trends, products, innovations, and ideas with speakers rotating every eight minutes. Presenting companies include Ahlstrom, Elsner Engineering Works, Inc., Gottlieb Binder GmbH, TSI, and the Waterloo Filtration Institute.

The FiltXPO exhibition takes place October 10-12 and will run concurrently with the technical program.

Ananas Anam, the provider of innovative low-impact textile solutions made from pineapple leaf waste, announced the appointment of Manel Echevarria as the new CEO. The Spanish executive who had previously worked as CEO for Grupo Excens Sports and Lacoste Iberia, as well as in senior executive roles for Swarovski and MontBlanc, will lead the global business from its European research and production site near Barcelona in Spain.

At the beginning of the year, the company reported the successful closing of a funding round led by HALTRA Group, a family-backed sustainable investment firm in Luxembourg and a group of strategic investors, including the French Compagnie Fruitière, one of the leading producers in Europe and major fruit producer in the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific region, as well the global automotive technology supplier Forvia, and Asahi Kasei Corp, a leading Japanese multinational group working in innovative materials and technologies.

“The appointment of Manel Echevarria as a seasoned CEO with an impressive track-record in the fashion and luxury industry marks another important milestone in setting Ananas Anam up for the next phase of growth” says Dr. Christian Kurtzke, Chairman of Ananas Anam. “Following our investment in the development of an impressive portfolio of next-generation innovative biodegradable, traceable and sustainable materials, and into the setup of its network of strategic partners on the supply and shareholder side, Manel will provide the leadership for driving growth and industrial scale of this pioneering sustainability brand amidst a continued challenging global market environment in fashion, interiors and automotive.”

With Ananas Anam’s core portfolio of innovative materials, the company has successfully collaborated with well-known brands including Nike, Hugo Boss, H&M, Paul Smith and Cat Footwear and sustainable-fashion pioneers like Ecoalf to drive innovation in footwear, as well as with fashion brands like Carolina Herrera in the area of bags and accessories, substituting animal leather in the product design with its vegan, cruelty-free, low-impact and sustainable pineapple leaf fibre based textiles. In July 2023, at the Premiere Vision exhibition in Paris, the company presented the next generation of Piñatex as well as its breakthrough innovation Piñayarn as a biodegradable, traceable and sustainable yarn, and introducing Anam PALF, as a commercially available premium textile grade pineapple leaf fibre, opening up a world of new applications and markets.

“Driving the sustainability transformation in fashion, as well as in interiors and automotive has become a key priority on the agenda of brands and OEMs around the world,” says Manel Echevarria, CEO Ananas Anam. “I am proud to have the opportunity to lead the company in this decisive time, and I am looking forward to collaborating with our exceptional Spanish founder, Dr Carmen Hijosa, and Josep Taylor in Spain, with Bruno de Penanster and his team in the UK, as well as with Chuck Lazaro and his team in the Philippines to turn this amazing sustainability ambition and purpose into a reality.”

Giorgio Calculli has been appointed new managing director of ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers. A law graduate with a Master’s degree in training and employment policies, he has been on staff at ACIMIT since 2006 as head of the Association’s training, internal relations and technical department. Calculli takes over as ACIMIT managing director from Federico Pellegata, who after 25 years managing the Association has been appointed CEO of ACIMIT Servizi srl, the company set up by ACIMIT to provide services in support of associated member companies for the promotion of the Italian textile machinery industry in Italy and abroad.

“It has been a truly enriching experience,” asserts Federico Pellegata, “for which I am grateful to our associated members, ACIMIT’s Board, and the Association’s presidents who have served during my years in ACIMIT. However, my commitment to continue to promote the Italian textile machinery sector by no means ends here. As CEO of ACIMIT Servizi, I will continue to work relentlessly to ensure that ITMA, the world’s primary textile machinery trade fair, remains a representative showcase for the success of Italian manufacturers in the sector, as has been the case for the editions of the exhibition held in Italy in 2015 and 2023.”

ACIMIT managing director Giorgio Calculli comments: “I wish to thank the Board of ACIMIT for the appointment and for the opportunity to lend continuity to the work carried out by Federico Pellegata, for whom the success enjoyed at the latest edition of ITMA is only the most evident expression. I will work to further develop the membership base and ensure member companies receive maximum support from the Association in their business activities.”

INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, announced that registration and tabletop exhibit reservations are open for the ninth edition of Hygienix™, November 13-16, New Orleans, Louisiana. More than 450 absorbent hygiene and personal care professionals from around the world will gather for four days of networking, presentations, and business opportunities.
 
The theme for this year’s Hygienix is “Shaping the Future of Absorbent Hygiene.” The event will focus on the market’s continued growth with presentations on sustainability, technology advancements, disruptive small brands, and market data and trends. Hygienix will also offer a workshop on absorbent hygiene systems led by Jim Robinson, Absorbent Hygiene Insights, LLC, Monday, November 13^th. The full Hygienix program will be announced at a later date.
 
INDA is also introducing a new element for Hygienix – pre-conference webinars. Carlos Richer, Principal, Diaper Testing International, will present insights and trends in diaper design in the U.S. market and Heidi Beatty, CEO, Crown Abbey, LLC, will share her expertise in the absorbent hygiene sector.
 
More than 50 companies will showcase their innovations and technologies during the evening tabletop exhibits and receptions. Participants will be able to discuss their needs with technical leaders and source better solutions for their products, Nov. 14-15.
 
Nominations are being accepted through August 7th for the Hygienix Innovation Award™. Three finalists will be selected to present their absorbent hygiene products on Tuesday, November 14^th to hundreds of senior-level professionals. The winner of the Award will be announced at the end of the event, Thursday, November 1^6th.

Amanda Rajkumar [51], Executive Board member and Labor Director of adidas AG, responsible for Global Human Resources, People and Culture, has informed adidas AG’s Supervisory Board that she will not extend her Executive Board mandate beyond December 31, 2023. The Supervisory Board has accepted her decision and agreed on the termination of her appointment as an Executive Board member effective July 15, 2023.

With 28 years of human resources experience in global organizations, Amanda Rajkumar joined the adidas board as Head of Global Human Resources, People and Culture at the beginning of 2021. At adidas, she devised and implemented a People strategy aimed at efficiently harmonizing and unifying employee experience across the company and establishing adidas as a global values-led organization.

Michelle Robertson, SVP Workplaces & Global Functions at adidas, will assume responsibility for Global Human Resources, People and Culture on an interim basis, reporting to adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden.

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.

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.

Dr. Laurie-Ann Agama, Acting Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for Textiles, wrapped up a three-day visit of state-of-the art U.S. textile manufacturing facilities in North and South Carolina, highlighting the importance of trade policies that bolster the competitiveness of the vibrant domestic supply chain that contributes significantly to the U.S. economy and workforce.

Dr. Agama, who advises the nation’s top trade chief on textile and apparel trade policy matters and conducts and oversees negotiations affecting textiles and apparel products, was joined by USTR textile trade officials in touring seven textile manufacturers including: Glen Raven, Barnet, Standard Textile, Parkdale Mills, Beverly Knits, Gildan, and Unifi.

Her three-day tour culminated in an industry roundtable discussion with key textile executives hosted by Unifi, in Greensboro, N.C.

U.S. textile executives spanning the fiber, yarn, fabric, and finished product textile and apparel industries participated in the roundtable and outlined critical policies, such as: the importance of maintaining the yarn forward rule of origin in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and other trade agreements; advancing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) and its importance to domestic manufacturers; closing the de minimis loophole in U.S. trade law; addressing larger systemic trade issues, particularly the use of forced labor, with China; and upholding buy American and Berry Amendment government procurement policies.

“We deeply appreciate Assistant USTR Agama’s visit to the heart of the U.S. textile industry in North and South Carolina this week to meet with U.S. textile executives and experience first-hand the breadth of the industry’s innovation, advanced sustainability practices, capital investments and critical contributions to local economies and the U.S. economy as a whole,” said Kim Glas, president and CEO of NCTO. “The three-day visit by Dr. Agama and the USTR textile team included facility tours of several NCTO member companies, all of which have made major investments in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities that are part of a broader domestic industry supply chain that produced $65.8 billion in output in 2022 and employed 538,000 workers.”

Glas continued: “We are also grateful for Dr. Agama’s participation in the industry roundtable hosted by Unifi and substantive discussions around policy opportunities and challenges. We look forward to working closely with Dr. Agama, the USTR textile team and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai to advance policies that provide incentives for onshoring and nearshoring production and bolstering the industry’s competitiveness, while enforcing policies that address illegal trade practices that undermine this industry.”

“The U.S. textile industry has always been resilient, innovative, and a driving force of our nation’s competitiveness,” said Acting Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles Dr. Laurie-Ann Agama. “For USTR, this local engagement and conversations underscore our need to create trade policies that put workers first and promote inclusive economic growth. The spinning, knitting, and weaving operations of the textile industry are at the center of many communities across the Carolinas. This was another opportunity to hear first-hand how we trade can create jobs that allow workers, businesses, and communities to thrive.”

Renewcell was announced winner of the Sustainable Textile Innovation category of the annual Drapers Sustainable Fashion Awards in London. Drapers, the influential British fashion industry magazine, highlighted that CIRCULOSE® is already in use by global fashion brands, and will continue to a solution for the textile to textile recycling within the fashion industry.

“It is an honor to receive the Sustainable Textile Innovation award from such a prestigious fashion industry publication. Drapers clearly supports the development of solutions the fashion industry so desperately needs, as well as connecting the textile and apparel industry. CIRCULOSE® makes fashion circular by producing a dissolving pulp using 100% textile waste providing the same level of handfeel and quality as virgin materials with no compromise to make fashion circular,” says Patrik Lundström, CEO of Renewcell.

In November 2022, Renewcell opened the first industrial scale recycling facility in Sundsvall, Sweden with production of CIRCULOSE®. In partnership with leading global brands like H&M, Inditex, PVH, Levi’s, and others, Renewcell plans to grow its capacity to 360,000 metric tonnes of annual production by 2030.

“Grow Your Couture” by Piero D'angelo, the winning project of the IMAGINING SUSTAINABLE FASHION (ISFA) competition was announced during a webinar broadcast on 18 May attended by Giusy Bettoni CEO of C.L.A.S.S. Eco Hub, Anna Detheridge President of Connecting Cultures and ISFA ambassadors Valentina Suarez, co-founder and CEO of Universo Mola and Vishal Tolambia winner of the 2022 edition.
 
Piero D'angelo's project was the best among the 110 proposals received after the international call for proposals launched on 27 October 2022.
 
Piero D'Angelo, 36, a graduate in Fashion Womenswear from the Royal College of Art in London and in Textile Design from Central Saint Martins, is a Fashion and Textile Designer with a research focus on biotechnology in the fashion industry. In 2022 he founded his Fashion & Textile Design studio experimenting with a multidisciplinary approach on the importance of natural materials and Biodesign. From 2018 to 2022 Piero D'Angelo was a resident and then Product Researcher & Developer at Open Cell (Biotech Research Park), a biotech start-up community in London. He was awarded the Dorothy Waxman Textile Design Prize in 2015 and semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize in 2020.
 
In his communication project, 'Grow Your Own Couture' D'Angelo imagines a future scenario where it will be possible to grow one's own clothes through living organisms such as lichens that are able to absorb pollution. But the project also wants to communicate a return to nature and above all care and protection towards it. In fact, the user is not simply a user of fashion, but through a kit is part of the process of growth, care and creation of the garment, thus abandoning the traditional paradigms of fashion. The project wants to completely re-imagine the way fashion could be designed, produced and used, proposing not only a product, but also a system that wants to collaborate with nature instead of polluting or exploiting it.