The Sustainable Apparel Coalition, ZDHC Foundation, Textile Exchange and Apparel Impact Institute are teaming up to align resources. Sustainable voices in the Knitting Fair are banding together as part of a hastened paradigm for change.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition, ZDHC Foundation, Textile Exchange and the Apparel Impact Institute unveiled new partnerships intent on “accelerating impact and driving new efficiencies for the industry,” according to a statement.
The announcement came on the third day of the annual SAC global member meeting, which brings together brands, retailers, manufacturers and academia. But earlier conversations with Textile Exchange’s managing director LaRhea Pepper and an accompanying statement indicate that the idea of an alliance was already being mooted.
“COVID-19 has been a very negative backdrop to so much industry news, and it’s true that it has accelerated our views on the potential for transformational partnerships, but together we’ve been contemplating deeper integrations for years. The timing finally seems right,” explained Amina Razvi, SAC’s executive director.
Each organization declared its roles and commitments in letters of intent over four areas like program and tools, impact management and funding, global implementation and administration and infrastructure.
Regarding the first area, the organizations will specifically aim to connect complementary frameworks, like the Higg Facility Environmental Module and ZDHC’s Roadmap to Zero program and the Higg Brand and Retailer Module and TE’s Corporate Fiber and Materials Benchmark.
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Although it is vague what exactly co-funding and resource sharing will look like, they are expected to be defined more concretely by year-end. As nonprofit search engine Guidestar showed, the SAC alone reported $3.7 million in net assets, a year prior to the Higg Co. technology business spin-off in 2019. Retailers like C&A are major contributors.
“Our ultimate objective is to increase efficiency near term to accelerate our collective impact,” said Frank Michel, executive director of ZDHC.
“There are some very exciting points of complementarity possible, and I think we have the right initial organizations at the table to do that,” added Lewis Perkins, president of AII.
With 4 to 6 percent of the European Union’s environmental footprint caused by the consumption of textiles, according to a 2017 report from Global Fashion Agenda and Boston Consulting Group, greater alignment across the textile value chain is a necessity especially as the EU, for example, shapes its Green Deal with policies specific to the sector.
On top of the environmental pressure, a new social impact narrative urges reform at the factory and farm levels.
Pepper commented, “For so long, the mainstream conversation has underemphasized the role of fiber production and textile manufacturing, not to mention what happens at the farm-level itself. We’re excited about what these new partnerships can mean for the industry driving holistic and scalable solutions.”
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While in coming weeks the coalition aims to offer up engagement opportunities for the stakeholders across the value chain, it will have to work hard to dispel critics.
Over the past few weeks, experts and independent researchers have expressed frustration about duplication of industry efforts and hampered progress over the years, given the pace of change needed.
This latest alliance is one of many that aims to ward off naysayers. In August, all four organizations were revealed as part of “Fashion Conveners,” which is described as a global coalition “working individually and collectively to accelerate action through high-level partnerships, developing strategies and initiatives across the various sub-sectors of industry.”
The Conveners also count the Responsible Business Coalition at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, nonprofit Fashion for Good and the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, which was originally convened by U.N. Climate but is actually an industry-led coalition.
Asked for comment about the recent alliance, Elisa Niemtzow, vice president, consumer sectors and membership at sustainability-focused nonprofit Business for Social Responsibility said, “They’re not trying to create a supergroup, but to [instead] bring together the right synergies.”
The competition in the knitting industry will become more intense in the future. Speeding up technological progress, adjusting product structure, increasing product added value, implementing brand strategies, and comprehensively enhancing industry competitiveness will undoubtedly be the direction of future knitwear development. Local governments formulate corresponding policies and measures in a timely manner, which can play a more active guiding role.
Source: WWD
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In addition to the challenges it created, the pandemic has also accelerated more than one trend in the fashion industry, including the textile sector’s crucial role in spearheading innovation.
As the first wave of COVID-19 cases was spreading internationally and the importance of customers’ safety and health care came to the fore, a number of storied textile firms in Europe pushed ahead amid lockdowns and brought to the market a new family of performance-driven fabrics with antiviral qualities.
They were believed to become a new market standard along the same lines as odor control, wrinkle-free and natural stretch treatments, offering a response to the fears and preoccupations of the average fashion consumer in 2020.
Looking forward to 2021 with prospects of several vaccines being distributed globally, consumers might show less interest in antiviral fabrics, even less so as fear of getting infected by just touching or trying on clothes seems to be an issue of the past when less evidence was provided by the scientific community on whether fabrics and other materials could themselves represent a means for contagion.
Consumers have also become more educated about the risky behaviors they should avoid, and that isn’t primarily touching garments as the dominant means the virus spreads is airborne.
In the last few months, though, more suppliers have developed antiviral finishings and treatments, signaling that the potential of such fabrics remains large — and brands seem to be taking note.
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Fabio Tamburini, chief executive officer of Cotonificio Albini, the Albini Group’s production arm, which developed the ViroFormula family of antiviral fabrics in partnership with Swiss company HeiQ, said several brands spanning from luxury to contemporary have embraced their fabrics, including Italy’s Xacus and storied Hong Kong-based Ascot Chang, among others.
“Although the vaccines will allow us to get back to a normal and safe life as we were used to, we’re convinced that consumers will still be looking for antiviral fabrics,” he said, noting that increased travel and the use of public transport will drive consumers to look for safety in their fashion purchases.
“We’re still convinced that the antiviral properties are required market-standard in the future even when the pandemic will be fully controlled. The main goal for every [fashion] company is to respect and satisfy its clients’ needs and after all these difficult months, everyone wants to get back to its usual routine feeling safe,” he said.
At the Marzotto Wool Manufacturing company, which launched antimicrobic fabrics made of natural yarns treated with the ViralOff finish developed by Sweden-based Polygiene, ceo Giorgio Todesco ascribed their success to a shift in customers’ perception, with more attention given to technical performance.
The executive underscored that the ViralOff fabrics have been particularly appealing to retailers that provide their sales associates with uniforms, for brands in the Asian market and more generally in the contemporary fashion segment.
Along the same lines, Lecco, Italy-based Luxury Jersey, which also tapped into HeiQ’s Viroblock finishing like the Albini Group, saw a spike in demand by companies in the ath-leisure market, with around 10 brands already making prototypes.
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The company’s general manager Federico Boselli projected a less rosy scenario for consumer attitudes even after the vaccine is distributed and overall he believed that “consumers will be keener on hygiene and will pay more attention to microbes in general.”
To this end he forecast “a widespread circulation of antimicrobic clothing,” echoing the sentiment of Alberto De Conti, head of the fashion division at Germany-based chemical company Rudolf Group, which has conducted lab tests on its RUCO-BAC AGP technology introduced in 2005 and proved it boasts antiviral properties on the family of coronaviruses.
De Conti believes these fabrics will continue to play a pivotal role based on customers and brands alike seeking hygiene finishings, even though a vaccine might reduce their demand.
The executive also touched on another crucial factor: “Because of a proliferation of misleading information, the market has been increasingly expressing interest in reliable and understandable test results. The textile market is looking for real performance that can be communicated to customers rather than short-sighted marketing gimmicks,” he said.
To be sure, no company can casually claim antiviral properties in Europe and the U.S. and these companies have made clear these fabrics are no substitute for PPE, nor do they prevent the risk of contagion.
While some expect the market for antiviral fabrics to grow, thus fostering R&D activities and a reduction of their production costs, Todesco was less confident that demand will continue to surge in 2021 even if, he said, there will always be specific sectors to target, such as workers’ uniforms.
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Source: WWD
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