Ep. 105: WTiN 2024 in review

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Ep. 105: WTiN 2024 in review

In the final episode of 2024, the Textile Innovation Podcast speaks with the WTiN content team.

Abi: Hello and welcome to the final WTiN textile innovation podcast of 2024 today I'm joined by the WTI N content team. Hi all, please. Can you all introduce yourselves?

Otis: Hi everyone. My name is Otis Robinson, and I'm the editor and channel lead digitalization here at WTiN.

Lucy: Hi. I'm Lucy, the event coordinator at WTiN.

Jess: Hi, I'm Jess. I'm the Business Innovation lead and the consultancy lead at WTiN.

Joe: And I'm Joe I'm a senior editor in the digital textiles Lead here at WiTN.

Abi: Thanks, guys. So 2024 has been a big year for WTiN Events Calendar. We've hosted eight events across a huge range of topics, including DTF, alternative materials and zero carbon. We also hosted our first ever innovate China event and reintroduced the WTiN innovate textile awards. Lucy, can you tell us why we decided to embark on an in person event in China and how successful it was and what WTiN members gained from the experience?

Lucy: Yes. Thanks. Abi, so with WTiN having many business relations in China, we decided to collaborate with our Chinese event partner, CTIC, and create an event that would give international companies an insight into one of the largest textile markets, and also give our Chinese delegates a chance to further collaborate and understand the Western world with four key themes of textile technology, material innovation, sustainability and digital transformation. The conference brought together industry leaders and business representatives to understand how innovation will shape the next five years in the China's textile sector. The speakers gained a lot of insights from the event. They got to attend the Chinese annual mega event, world textile merchandising conference. They came out with a much stronger understanding of the Chinese market and the insight into how they could collaborate with the Chinese brands and manufacturers that were in attendance.

Abi: Thanks, Lucy. And what's in your opinion, was the significance of bringing back the WTiN innovate textile awards.

Lucy: It was just a great way of showcasing new and upcoming innovations that are currently transforming the textile and apparel supply chain, it was great to celebrate those companies that are helping to shape the future of the textile industry.

Abi: And it's not just WTN events that we focused on this year. We have attended industry events such as performance days FESPA and tech steel Joe, what trends Did you spot at FESPA?

Joe: Seems like quite a while ago now, but DTF was the biggest technology showcase at FESPA, and it sort of started a trend for other events throughout the year. So there were, there was Drupa printing, United hit my Asia and director film printing had a huge presence at each and every one of them.

Abi: And Jess, what did you see performance days that have continued to shave 2024 and what trends do you think we'll see in 2025

Jess: Yeah, it was a really, really good one, like Joe, it feels like a while ago now, but as usual, there was loads of really great exhibitors and conference sessions. But the big one for me was the expanding scale of it. In both the spring and the autumn editions, we had sort of a growth in terms of the scale, the size and also the diversity of the topics. They had. Some innovation zones were added, and these became a bit more prominent as well, and they were sort of highlighting interesting technologies, not always the newest things, but just ones that were quite distinctive, as well as some startups. And in addition to those, there was also footwear spaces in the spring. And then I think the Bodywear collective was added in October as well. And that sort of addresses the intimate space, sort of like swimwear, shapewear, that sort of thing. So it feels a lot less purely materials than it than it was a few years ago. Maybe it's becoming a bit more holistic. That's quite interesting, for a number of reasons, that while the it's getting a bit grander, and the footfall appears to be following suit as well. So it's definitely sort of building in its respect, in terms of the wider industry. It was very performance orientated before, so it sort of shows there is the appetite for the physical events. Maybe select visitors are becoming a bit more selective, and they're sort of picking a few queue dates. But because there's such a diversity of things at performance days, now, it's not only the sports and outdoors guys that are going now. There's sort of everyone from across the industry attending, and it's sort of applicable to the wider supply chain. And that's kind of cool, because it means that the because the innovation has become more sustainability centric, and it's not just performance orientated anymore, but we've seen a slowdown in that space, for sure. But it does mean that the sports and outdoors guys are no longer, sort of the key drivers for innovation. And it's sort of, it's no longer just trickling down from them, like the luxury space, for instance, as loads of sustainability orientated innovation and progress in that space. So it's nice to see sort of the wider players across the industry taking part. And it's, it's no longer just so performance heavy.

Abi: Amazing and going off that. Jess, where do you think we've spotted the most innovation this year? I know we've had many discussions around creating sustainable dyes, for example, that reduce water. And lately, there's been a lot of noise about circularity.

Jess: Yeah, for sure, I think you would have seen it as well as, you know, working in the new side of things, that a lot of the innovation in terms of performance has slowed down. Quite a lot sportswear, for instance, has been it's been quite slow in terms of new apparel technologies coming through and some really innovative products, I think, with just the economic pressures at the moment, it's just not taking a priority with with brands and manufacturers. And then we did have the state of fashion report that was released recently, and that was sort of going into the fact that a lot of sort of decision makers in that space are no longer prioritizing like the sustainability aspect of innovation as well. They're going to be looking more at sort of making products more attractive to consumers, because consumers are becoming more picky and there's less spend to sort of capture. However, it did make a really good point about sort of being more optimistic about players with longer term sustainability plans, and they made a point about them being rewarded with more efficient business operations and a sort of competitive advantage over their peers. And I think you kind of do see that in performance days as well, because the sustainability aspect is no longer sort of a an exception. It's kind of the norm in the innovation we see there. So that's really great. But particular area that we've seen a lot of traction this year, which which relates to circularity, is textiles. Textile recycling. We've seen it in our coverage, but also it gets covered a lot more events now, and also in our consultancy work, we have a lot of interest in mapping out those innovators in the space and sort of having a good understanding of of what they offer, the sort of nascency of their technology and and how they could scale in the next few years. So it's definitely one. That we're we're seeing a lot of interest in, and it's also driven by changing legislation around things like extended producer responsibility, which kind of looks to siphon money off from from brands and manufacturers that place products onto the market in these areas where where it looks like it might come into legislation and directing that investment into textile waste management, and some of that investment will likely go into advanced textile recyclers who can sort of process the more complex waste and extract the value out of it. So there's a lot of a lot of pressures. We're seeing a lot of sort of investment going into that space, from external venture capitalists through to, you know, manufacturers and brands making corporate investments off take partnerships and sort of industrial partnerships as well, to sort of scale those technologies quickly. So I definitely think that as that space becomes more competitive and more people are interested in it, we'll, we're going to see a lot of more traction, a lot more acceleration in the new year.

Abi: Thanks. Jess, that's really interesting. And Joe, please, could you give us an overview of the printing market this year, what have been the biggest areas of focus, and how do you think this will continue into 2025?

Joe: Sure. So WTiN traditionally has a large data offering cover in the realtor oil market. So if I start there, this year has been quite a challenge. To be honest, it's but having said that, there are reasons why, many reasons why it's been a challenge. But having said that, the DT market has performed better than the rest of the textile printing market. So if I just focus on the realtor of dt, part of the market to begin with, it's stagnated somewhat over the last couple of years, and the biggest reason for that is a decreasing consumer confidence, particularly in Western markets. Through Europe, North America, demand for fashion has fallen, and that was illustrated in the state of fashion report that Jess referenced as well. And fashion is very important to the DT market. It accounts for over 50% of all digital printer textiles, and the other main application areas are home textiles, so signage and sportswear. And unfortunately, demand for these hasn't been able to offset the drop in demand for fashion. So output figures have been stagnating over the last couple of years, but that is still in terms of performance, better than what we've seen in the analogue screen printing market, because as those printers come to their you know, the end of their life cycle, it's far more likely now and then, with every passing year, it becomes more and more likely that print service providers are going to switch from an analogue solution to a digital solution. So despite output for digitally printed texts are struggling, the install base is increasing, so the capacity is improving. So as the market turns around and consumers have more spending money, if you like, you know, the DT market is in a really good position to accelerate and increase its share of the textile printing market throughout the remainder of the decade.

Abi: Thanks Joe and Otis, what have you spotted in industry 4.0 and how do you think automation will continue to develop next year?

Otis: Yeah, so we actually just published the results of our digital transformation survey, which has proven quite insightful into what we might expect for 2025 so over the last decade, digitalization has obviously grown from you know, emerging to important to imperative. And in our 2024 digital transformation survey, we asked respondents a series of questions to investigate the current state of digital transformation in the industry. So our survey actually discovered that two and three manufacturers you know, already have their own digital transformation strategy is in progress. However, interestingly, one in seven brands and retailers had still not yet adopted a comprehensive digital transformation strategy. Expectedly, we also found that COVID 19 was one of the biggest geopolitical drivers of digital transformations in the last five years and today, like a continued drive for resiliency and efficiency in the face of new potential disruptions like another COVID, they continue to push businesses towards digitalization. So in the report, we also explore other key trends in digitalization, for example, AI. The survey found that almost 50% of manufacturers have already invested in AI are machine learning, so that's no doubt. You know, set to increase as AI develops. So yeah, there's some really insightful results from our survey in the report that you know worth reading for a good look into what 2025 might look like in a in the digital world.

Abi: Thanks, Otis. We'll make sure. Link the report in this podcast, and also this year, we've spoken at length about the push for sustainability through legislation, and the biggest things coming out of 2004 is uncertainty in the US and the introduction of digital product passports. Otis, could you speculate on what we may encounter next year?

Otis: Yeah. So as we Yeah, as we move into 2025 as you say, there are uncertainties in the US, particularly now that Trump is back in the office as president, and we recently published a feature exploring the key potential impacts that his presidency might have on the textile and apparel industry, based on some of the comments that he made later last year, you know, with regard to sustainability, firstly, the US environmental efforts could be stifled. For example, the green New Deal, which is, you know, a policy framework that aims to combat climate change and promote economic and social justice. Under Joe Biden's presidency, although he not, he didn't fully endorse the GND. Many of his policies aligned with its overriding goals, and he made decisions that push a lot of these sustainable goals. But Trump believes that the GND is a hoax and claims that US manufacturing would die under a continued Democrat office due to its implementation of expensive renewable energy sources. And obviously, during his last one as president, he withdrew from the Paris Agreement, which is, you know, an international treaty that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He also promoted fossil fuel development to support affordable energy. So, you know, a lot of proponents of sustainable, of a sustainable textile and apparel manufacturing industry. Do worry that the US will take detrimental steps backwards away from the positive intentions of the G and D and kind of undo any gains made under Biden. Then secondly, you know, a lot of critics are arguing that the use of proposed unclean energy as a cheap alternative in manufacturing industries could eventually generate volatility for US manufacturers. In his vision for manufacturing, which includes increasing manufacturing jobs, Trump suggests that if America is going to, quote, dominate the world in manufacturing again, that the country must prioritize affordable energy, which requires a return to American Oil and Natural Gas fossil fuels. This is obviously a problem, not just because of environmental sustainability, but because other lower energy costs from increased fossil fuel production might benefit energy intensive industries or reduce operating expenses. The use of unclean energy obviously risks putting us manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage globally, especially as many countries and their consumers shift towards a greener mindset. And thirdly, in the US, you know, there's risk that chemical sustainability efforts could also decline, while in Europe, we have the chemical sustainability strategy and the Eco design for sustainable products regulation the US has arguably been behind on chemical regulation. During Trump's last term, he actually scrapped a broad sweep of environmental regulations from the EPA, including less protective drinking water standards and toxic substances policies. For example, His administration weakened rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act and limited restrictions on hazardous chemicals. So 2025 for the US, and you know, the impact that might have globally could prove pretty tumultuous. And then obviously in the EU, as you mentioned, the rollout of digital product passports is coming up for those that don't know. Dpps are a tool, essentially a digital twin that compiles information and material components about a product manufacturer that supports, you know, the dissemination of information and product transparency in line with new EU regulation, but under new regulation such as the espr, the products and components that brands are allowed to import into the EU face limitations. For example, many European brands manufacture or purchase their materials from outside of the EU, from manufacturing hubs like China, Vietnam and Taiwan, but the new regulations typically that these materials must now comply to enter the EU so in 2025 we can expect to see more conversation around this as brands and manufacturers trying to comply with the new regs and in WTA and digital transformation survey, we actually discovered that 60% of manufacturers are planning to invest in digital transparency and traceability systems at some point In the future, and 20% already have done so, yeah, definitely, we can expect to see more adoption of digital information tools like dpps in 2025

Abi: Thank you, Otis, that was really interesting. It'll be exciting to see what comes out of next year. And then finally, as we look towards 2025 Jess, how will WTiN continue to support its members?

Jess: Yes, we've had a lot of interesting projects this year. I mean, just in the consultancy side of things, we've had a lot of queries around landscaping innovation, sort of seeing where innovation is right now, but also how quickly those startups and emerging ideas are going to scale in the next sort of five or 10 years, as well as mapping very specific sectors of innovation, like textiles, textile recycling. So alongside sort of the mapping the innovation, the exciting elements that are very future thinking, we've also been discussing sort of the economic issues that the industry is facing at the moment, and helping some of our members sort of pin down the climate at the moment and the challenges as well as the potential opportunities that are ahead for them. So that's been really exciting, but part of our assistance will also be delivered next year through our core content offering on wcn.com and we're sort of focusing and sort of drilling down into key areas that we feel our members really need support with. And as Otis has just been saying about legislation is definitely one of those areas, as is traceability. There's a lot of very complex and sort of intertwining pieces of legislation and new requirements that everyone's going to have to get on board with, regardless of where they're based. Regardless of where they're based, to engage in the very global and complex Textile Supply Chain. So that's definitely a key area for us. And as well as that, we've always have a very focused view on innovation, but we're going to be looking a lot more at sort of very early stage and emerging innovators. So, you know, really zoning in on the academia side of things, as well as these emerging startups. A lot of the guys in that space are coming from outside of the textile industry, so they're kind of coming into it. And I'm realizing that the textile space is extremely complex, but they have it really interesting chemistries or materials, etc, that can be applied in our industry. So there's a lot of really interesting work in that space, keeping up with like equity investments and things like that as well. So yeah, there should be a lot to get our teeth into next year, and we're really looking forward to delivering on it.

Abi: And Lucy, what events can we look forward to next year? Will there be another innovate China?

Lucy: Thanks, Abi, yeah, there's a lot of good events coming up next year. We've looked at the ones that you know, our key talking points to share, and we've come up with a few. So the Innovate virtual events next year include direct to film printing, which will start the year in March, and bio based materials, digital manufacturing and circularity, something that Jess has picked up on when going to the events this year. And after the successes of 2024 we have two events in person in China. This includes the Innovate China event, which I'm really looking forward to. And then we will end 2025 with the Innovate textile awards. If anyone's interested in speaking or sponsoring next year, please contact events at WTI n.com and we look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Abi.

Abi: Thanks guys. And that ends our final podcast of 2024