From the Sector

The adidas TERREX HS¹ is one of the first knitted products to be made in part with Spinnova technology. At least 30% of the fabric in this mid-layer hiking hoodie comes from wood-based SPINNOVA® fibres (other fibres)* and 70% from cotton (organic).

Adidas is committed to helping End Plastic Waste via a three-loop strategy that consists of using recycled materials, materials that can be made to be remade and in the case of Made with Nature, products created in part with natural ingredients, such as the adidas TERREX HS¹.  

The first product to emerge from this partnership, the adidas TERREX HS¹ mid-layer is a piece of multi-functional gear that works on the trails and then rolls up into its hood for easy storage or to create a pillow on longer adventures. It was designed using UNITEFIT – an all-gender fit system created with a spectrum of sizes, genders, and forms in mind.

Made in part with Spinnova technology , a minimum of 30% of the fabric in the adidas TERREX HS¹ comes from wood-based SPINNOVA® fibres (other fibres)* that are made by grinding wood pulp with water into a paste and then spun into a textile fibre.

The product also works with the material’s natural color. Since no dyeing or bleaching is applied, in turn this uses less water compared to the standard dyeing process.

* (Rayon) in US, (New type of cellulose fibre) in China

Carbios has signed an agreement with On, Patagonia, PUMA, and Salomon, to develop solutions that will enhance the recyclability and circularity of their products.
 
An important element of the two-year deal will be to speed up the introduction of Carbios’ biorecycling technology, which constitutes a breakthrough for the textile industry. Carbios and the four companies will also research how products can be recycled, develop solutions to take-back worn polyester items, including sorting and dismantling technologies, and gather data on fiber-to-fiber recycling as well as circularity models.
 
The challenge the four brands share, is that their ambitious sustainable development goals can only partially be met by conventional recycling technologies which mostly target bottle-to-fiber recycling. Future regulations will require more circularity in packaging and textile. Yet the market consensus is that there will soon be a shortage of PET bottles, as they will be used for circular production methods in the Food & Beverage Industry.   
 
Carbios’ innovative process constitutes a technological breakthrough for the recycling of polyester (PET) fibers, which are widely used in apparel, footwear and sportswear, on their own or together with other fibers. PET polyester is the most important fiber for the textile industry with 52 MT produced, even surpassing cotton at 23MT. The biorecycling process uses an enzyme capable of selectively extracting the polyester, recovering it to recreate a virgin fiber. This revolutionary technology makes it possible to recover the PET polyester present in all textile waste that cannot be recycled using traditional technologies.
 
PET plastics and fibers are used to make everyday consumer goods such as bottles, packaging and textiles. Today, most PET is produced from fossil resources, then used and discarded according to a wasteful linear model. By creating a circular economy from used plastics and fibers, Carbios’ biorecycling technology offers a sustainable and more responsible solution.

ITM 2022 hosted textile technology leaders in Istanbul for 5 days, presenting the latest innovations in every field of textile from weaving, knitting, yarn, digital printing, finishing to denim. The ITM 2022 Exhibition, where a business volume of over 1.5 billion Euros was created in 5 days, accelerated the Turkish and world economy.

Organized by the partnership of Teknik Fairs Inc. and Tüyap Tüm Fuarcılık Yapım Inc., ITM 2022- International Textile Machinery Exhibition was held at Tüyap Fair and Congress Center between 14-18 June.  ITM 2022 Exhibition, attended by 1280 companies and company representatives from 65 countries, was visited by 64,500 people from 102 countries, consisting of 44% international and 56% domestic visitors.

Turkey became a Supply Center at the ITM 2022 Exhibition
The successful sales graph achieved at the ITM 2022 Exhibition proved that the difficulties experienced due to the pandemic for the last 3 years have been left behind. Turkey has become a supply center for European, Middle Eastern and African countries, especially with the disruption of the supply chain in Far East countries, including China. The profile of the professional visitors visiting the ITM 2022 Exhibition revealed that in the new world order that has shifted after the pandemic, the trade network has also changed hands and new players have appeared on the scene. The fact that manufacturers from all over the world such as Andorra, Angola, Honduras, Peru, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Egypt, Iran, and Oman purchased a large number of machinery and signed collaborations at the ITM 2022 Exhibition has proven this.

Exhibitors of ITM 2022 enlarge their stands for ITM 2024
Many company officials, who stated that they have achieved a sales graphic far above their expectations starting from the very first day of the ITM 2022 Exhibition and that they have hosted visitors from all over the world, decided to enlarge their stands at the ITM 2024 Exhibition. During the exhibition, companies visited the registration application points and applied for ITM 2024 participation.

The next meeting of the ITM and HIGHTEX Exhibitions will be held in Istanbul between 4-8 June 2024.

• Printing Expo Online is expanding again by doubling the size of Zone 2 with new exhibitors and feature zones making it one of the largest virtual trade shows in the world.

Visitors will be able to visit the new Zaikio underground catacombs that are accessible from several portals around the show. Click on a New York taxi, a London Phone Box or a funky Hot Dog Van and you will be transported into the Zaikio cavern environment where visitors will be able to watch application videos, arrange demos and sign up to this amazing new cloud-based platform.

Another addition to Zone 2 is the new Software Technology Centre (STC). This feature area will grow over time to show a wide range of software solutions that are available on the market.

Joining Printing Expo Online in the STC for the launch is EFI Fiery, who are showing their full portfolio of software solutions.

Design’N’Buy are also a new exhibitor in the STC with their all-In-One Web2Print software solution that helps users leverage technology, people and processes for the multi-fold growth of your printing business.

Also moving into the STC will be PrintIQ who offer the modern print shop a solution for businesses that need to be able to grow and scale as needed without slowing down or sacrificing quality.

Another new addition to the show is the introduction of the Global Print Trade Club. This initiate is free to all Print Service providers around the world and offers the opportunity to network on a global scale.

New to the exhibition is Kornit Digital with their multi storey showroom which will shortly be opening its doors where visitors will be able to view Direct to Garment and Direct to Fabric printing equipment, technical data, case studies, clothing designs and applications as well as visit the Kornit dedicated auditorium where live streaming content will be shown of Kornit Digital’s Fashion weeks as they happen throughout the year.

Another addition is the new application journey added to the Xeikon Innovation Centre at Printing Expo Online. Visitors will now be able to experience a virtual tour of a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and garage where Xeikon will show applications for commercial, label and Wall Deco products that can be produced on their digital print engines.

Printing Expo Online is open 24/7 365 days a year and has now welcomed over 60,000 visitors from all over the world and continues to grow not only its footprint and total visitor numbers, but also its relevance as an important resource tool for Print Service Providers from around the world that, for whatever reason, are unable to attend live events.

The ReHubs initiative brings together key European and world players to solve the European textile waste problem by transforming “waste” into a resource, and to boost textile circular business model at large scale.

This collaboration is set to turn the societal textile waste issue into a business opportunity and to fulfil the EU ambitions of the Green Deal, of the mandatory texile waste collection by end 2024 and the transition into Circular Economy.

In 2020 EURATEX launched the ReHubs initiative to promote collaboration across the extended textile value chain and considering all perspectives on chemicals, fibers making, textiles making, garments production, retail and distribution, textiles waste collection, sorting and recycling.

In June 2022 ReHubs completes a Techno Economic master Study (TES) which researches critical information on the feedstock (textile waste) data, on technology, organizational and financial needs to recycle 2.5 million tons of textile waste by 2030 and to effectively launch the ReHubs.

EURATEX’s ReHubs initiative plans to pursue fiber-to-fiber recycling for 2.5 million tons of textile waste by 2030
According ReHubs Techno Economic Master Study (TES), the textile recycling industry could generate in Europe around 15,000 direct new jobs by 2030, and increase need for nearshoring and reshoring of textile manufacturing.

The textile recycling industry in Europe could reach economic, social and environmental benefits for €3.5 billion to €4.5 billion by 2030
“Transform Waste into Feedstock” announced as first project supported by the ReHubs, and aiming at building up a first 50,000 tons capacity facility by 2024.

Europe has a 7-7.5 million tons textile waste problem, of which only 30-35% is collected today.  

Based on the ambitious European Waste law, all EU Member States must separately collect the textile waste in 2 years and half. While some countries are designing schemes to face the waste collection challenge, currently no large-scale plan exist to process the waste.

The largest source of textile waste (85%) comes from private households and approximately 99% of the textile waste was made using virgin fibers.

Euratex  assesses that to reach a fiber-to-fiber recycling rate of around 18 to 26 percent by 2030, a capital expenditure investment in the range of 6 billion € to 7 billion € will be needed, particularly to scale up sufficient sorting and processing infrastructure. The economic, social, and environmental value which could be realized, potentially total an annual impact of €3.5-4.5 billion by 2030.

Once matured and scaled, the textile recycling industry could become a profitable industry with a total market size of 6-8 billion € and around 15,000 direct new jobs by 2030.

Next steps of the ReHubs initiative

• A European textile recycling roadmap proposing Objectives and Key Results to recycle fiber-to-fiber 2.5 million of textile waste by 2030
• A leading collaboration hub with large players and SMEs from across an extended European textile recycling value chain
• A first concrete portfolio of 4 launching projects:
  - Transform textile waste into feedstock
  - Increase the adoption of mechanically recycled fibers in the value chain
  - Expand capacity by solving technical challenges for thermo-mechanical textiles recycling
  - Create capsule collection with post-consumer recycled products

The 1^st project addresses current sorting technologies which have limits to identify materials with sufficient accuracy for the subsequent circular recycling processes. The “Transform Waste into Feedstock” project will focus on further developing and scaling such sorting technologies. The project group led by Texaid AG aims on building up a first 50,000 tons facility by the end 2024.

Lectra, whose connected industrial equipment and software facilitate the digital transformation and Industry 4.0 transition of fashion, automotive and furniture companies, announces its selection for the new Euronext Tech Leaders stock market index. This brings Lectra into the community of European technology leaders identified by Euronext as innovative and high-growth companies.

The new Euronext Tech Leaders market index, launched on June 7, comprises 100 European technology companies listed on the Euronext markets, which meet various performance and growth criteria. With the launch of this initiative, Euronext aims to offer better visibility and new services to selected European technology leaders.

Lectra is one of the 41 French companies that are now members of Euronext Tech Leaders. The company, founded in 1973 on a close relationship with fashion industry players, has also for the last three decades worked globally with automotive equipment and furniture manufacturers. In its three strategic markets, Lectra sells connected equipment that optimizes the cutting processes of fabric, leather and other soft materials used by manufacturers, and markets software and services that streamline their production processes while enabling them to be more agile and make considerable material savings.

In fashion, through the use of market data – made accessible and exploitable by the Internet of Things, the cloud, artificial intelligence and big data – Lectra’s software solutions also enable a better understanding of consumers’ behavior. They therefore facilitate strategic decision-making for brands, manufacturers and distributors at the key steps in the value chain of design, production and distribution. In this industry, the impact of Lectra’s solutions on reducing material consumption is even greater because it takes effect as early as the garment design stage.

Technology and innovation are therefore at the heart of Lectra’s strategy, with the company aiming to become a key player in Industry 4.0 in its strategic markets by 2030.

Archroma launches Smartrepel® Hydro SR liq, a new PFC-free* technology for the repellence of water-based stains.

The innovation has been developed in line with the principles of “The Archroma Way to a Sustainable World: Safe, efficient, enhanced, it’s our nature”.

Smartrepel® Hydro SR liq is the latest addition to a range of micro-encapsulated, highly biodegradable, non-PFC based technology offering durable water repellency to all cotton and synthetic fibers, and their blends.

The new Smartrepel® Hydro SR liq has been specifically developed for soil repellent finishes aiming to offer protection against water-based stains such as coffee, red wine and ketchup, in applications such as home textiles, table clothes upholstery, car seats and interior textiles.

The new grade offers the signature Smartrepel® high performance standard: a symbiosis of water protection, soil repellence, breathability and durability – with the soft hand-feel that is sought after by consumers.

The Smartrepel® product range supports the increasing adoption of eco-advanced materials and production processes by textile producers and brand owners adhering to standards such as ZDHC, bluesign and Oeko-tex.

The story started with a huge market demand for the industrial synthesis of Indigo during the late nineteen century. The first Industrial Synthesis of Indigo, Indigo Pure BASF, was successfully manufactured and introduced into the market by BASF in July 1897. It was a significant achievement for the German Chemical Industry.

Over the years, the product has made revolutionary changes to the supply chain. New technologies enabled the transformation of Synthetic Indigo Powder application to pre-reduced DyStar® Indigo Vat 40% Solution. Being the pioneer in the market, the pre-reduced solution set an important industry milestone when it was first launched in 1998.

DyStar’s innovation remains a core catalyst in our chemistry research and development journey. When the DyStar® Indigo Vat 40% Solution was introduced, the core intelligence lies behind the benefits from Sustainability to Health and Safety. The technology transforms Indigo into its soluble Leuco form, making the Indigo dyeing process more sustainable, efficient, and stable in production. In addition, workers in Denim Mills can be assured of product safety as well.

Similarly, in recent modules under Cadira® Denim, DyStar introduced the first salt-free Indigo dyeing process in history. The applied technology completely eliminates hydrosulphite in the application of Indigo.

TEXAID as a professional collector and sorter with roots in Switzerland contributes to this ecosystem to enable the textile-to-textile recycling.  The creation of Swiss Textile Recycling Ecosystem marks a key milestone in the upscaling of Worn Again Technologies’ recycling process technology with technology scale-up partner Sulzer Chemtech in Winterthur. It also supports its ambition to create a circular economy where non-reusable, hard-to-recycle textiles can be reintroduced into supply chains to become new fibers.

To cause a paradigm shift in the fashion industry and realize true circularity requires all members of the value chain to be on the same page and working towards the same goals. The Swiss Textile Recycling Ecosystem is a network comprising fabric and textile manufacturers, waste collectors and sorters, as well as retailers, brand owners and technology providers – all coordinated by Swiss Textiles. All these parties will cooperate to make their shared vision of a more sustainable fashion industry a reality, where used textiles can be recycled into new textiles.

TEXAID as a stakeholder in the Swiss Textile Recycling Ecosystem and as leading textile recycling company with over 40 years of experience will support the initiative through collecting, sorting, pre-processing and providing pre- and post-consumer feedstock to the Demonstration Plant. At its headquarters in Schattdorf (CH), TEXAID will investigate possibilities to automate the sorting and pre-processing of textile feedstock for recycling. Currently, TEXAID processes more than 80,000 tons of end-of-use textiles and footwear every year all over Europe and the US.

This year, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles again joins forces with NellyRodi™, the renowned French agency for international forecasting, to present the design theme for 2023 – ‘ALIVE’ – together with three trends: HUMAN CAPITAL, ROUSING COMMITMENT and UNREAL REALITIES.

Nature is a keyword in HUMAN CAPITAL
This direction reflects how people want to reconnect with the environment by choosing a local approach, short supply chains, raw and natural materials, and traditional techniques. For instance, 100% plant-based materials, as well as metalised fringed jacquards and gold yarns are used to illustrate this concept.

Inspired by everyday basics and daily essentials, the trend uses a soft, luminous white palette mingled with muted and amber shades of vegetal dyes. Designs also incorporate figurative hand-drawings, archaic bestiary, stylised wildflowers and geometric patterns.

ROUSING COMMITMENT celebrates creative self-expression
The trend combines a lively play of mix-matching patterns and colours. This embraces the integration of neutral shades through touches of metallic silver and fluorescent colours to represent the urban life.

Foamback and other fabrics influenced by sports materials, as well as extravagant jacquards, silicon embossing and bouclé fabrics draw out feel-good factor of the theme. Prints using modern twists on traditional patterns, lettering plays, exuberant florals and bold geometrics, also deliver the desire to live freely by sharing joy and happiness with others.

The fantasy of UNREAL REALITIES
In order to push the limits of imagination, science and technology, consumers tap into digital realms to connect with other realities, augmented worlds and futurist utopias that draw out the potential of today’s technology. Metalised rainbow colours highlight the magic and wonder under this virtual reality theme, while surrealistic photoprint shapes, misty landscapes, blurry effects and fantastical nature adds a futuristic touch.

The theme adopts iridescent gleam of semi-transparent voiles, muslins, recycled synthetics and added pearly or glazed aspects. Soft, light meshes, honeycombed or blistered surfaces and cloudy seersuckers elevate the textures in the fabrics.

The trends are decided by a committee led by the NellyRodi™ Agency (France) and formed by top forecasters including Mr Vincent Grégoire (France), the agency’s Consumer Trends and Insights Director; Mr Shen Lei (China), Founder and Chief of Interior Architects Design; and Ms Tracy Jen (Taiwan, China), the Host of ‘Eremito’; as well as Ms Sakina M’sa, the beloved French fashion designer and entrepreneur.

In order to integrate exhibitor and industry resources more effectively, the organisers of Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles have announced that the Spring and Autumn editions will be merged this year. The two fairs will now be held concurrently from 15 – 17 August 2022 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center.