StitchWorld Editorial Issue September 2019

August is always a busy month for the industry with technology events around the country vying for attention. Though the focus market for each of the events this time was different, due to their locations, a common thread that was seen running through all of them was the practical approach of showing easily adoptable technology. There was a time when visitors complained that there was nothing new to see and maximum innovation was related to updated versions of old technology. This attitude has changed now and visitors come to the fairs, not looking for breakthrough technologies, but simple solutions to improve operations, and save on cost and wastages. Both at GTE, Ahmedabad and Gartex-Texprocess, Delhi, the exhibitors kept it simple.

There was no effort to impress visitors with new technology, but the endeavour was rather to rope them in with solutions and technology that can add value to their existing units.The fact that not many new projects are coming up, means that for technology suppliers, it is not about large business numbers but small interventions that matter to factories. Interestingly, the visitors are also now largely coming from smaller destinations, where the focus is on becoming more organised and better equipped as a manufacturing unit. For high-end innovations of the future – from AI solutions to robotics – CISMA is just around the corner. Bigger and more progressive companies that want to see these technologies, which are embodiment of the concept of ‘Intelligent Manufacturing’, are eagerly looking forward to visit the event. While a review of the recently concluded GTE and Gartex-Texprocess finds space in this issue of StitchWorld, a preview of what to expect at CISMA is also presented for readers’ cognisance beforehand.Continuing with our efforts to highlight retail technologies, this edition also covers an interesting write-up about Mad Street Den, a Chennai-based AI and computer vision start-up that allows customers to take a photo of any product that they like and instantly find a similar product online with details of where to buy. 

StitchWorld Editorial Issue June 2019

The stagnation seen in apparel imports by both the US and EU this year is severely impacting the manufacturers in south-east Asian countries. Players in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and to some extent India are now earnestly vying for the space being vacated by China in apparel manufacturing; this seems to be the only way to grow.

Interestingly, while manufacturing in India is now increasingly being safeguarded by the growing local market fuelled by rising consumption by both expected and unexpected markets, other countries have very little to fall back on.

Even as south-east Asian manufacturers try to find new markets and better penetration in older markets, they are hit by the growing preference for onshoring and nearshoring, both of which are faraway dreams for manufacturers in this region… The advantage is definitely going to places like Turkey, East Europe and Mexico.

The reflections of this trend were strongly visible at the recently concluded Texprocess in Germany, a must-visit fair for the sewing industry. The shift in technology is noticeably on digital interventions for operational flexibility and ease of operations.

Secondly, amidst all the focus centering around automation, robotics and 3D rendering, concepts like digital factories, micro-factories, on-demand manufacturing processes, additive technology and whole-garmenting etc.,are bound to shift the business back to the West, whether in the country of retail or near to it.

The interest that lies in these concepts is obvious, and at Texprocess, the micro-factory theme stole the show with at least five factories on display. Each demonstrated how companies can adopt this concept in order to transform their factories or retail stores, and embrace on-demand manufacturing.

The event also became a launching pad for new technologies in sewing with giants such as Vibemac, Vetron and Duerkopp Adler displaying their latest innovations, all for customers’ ease of operations.

Taking a drive towards new directions, this issue of StitchWorld looks at the cloud based solutions that are revolutionising the merchandising process to save ample amount of resources, money and time, resulting in higher efficiency and shorter lead time. The article highlights how global leaders like Tukatech, Gerber Technology, Lectra and Simbus are transforming the fashion industry with this innovative cloud based model.

Another interesting article for our readers this time is on sports bra, a challenging garment that demands support and shape of breasts in dynamic conditions (especially bouncing). The team analyses the Maaree Smart Sports Bra, delving deep into the innovative pattern of engineering and construction that goes behind it.

StitchWorld Editorial Issue May 2019

‘Smart Garment’ is now being talked about a lot in the industry, the market of which is expected to reach US $ 4 billion by 2024 with 45 per cent CAGR, according to ABI Research. This growth of smart garments is outpacing other categories in the domain of wearable technologies. Although the current developments of such clothing are based more on performance-wear and winter sports category around Western Europe, very soon it will encompass the whole gamut of the wearable segment.

As garments are becoming smarter, the differentiating line between a traditional garment and a garment with a gadget is getting blurred. CES 2019, the world’s premier show for not only consumer technologies but also innovators and breakthrough technologies, presented a number of smart garments that caught the visitors’ attention.

Mas Holdings, one of the most respected garment manufacturers of south-east Asia, has shown the path of transformation from the role of a contract manufacturer to becoming a technology company in the garment domain. The writing on the wall is clear; if the garment industry does not start dabbling with technology, the technology companies will start dabbling in garment making. With this strong message coming across, StitchWorld is introducing a new category ‘Smart Garment’ from this issue onwards, wherein we will showcase/feature the interesting developments from around the world, where technology is being used intelligently to make garments smart. In the current issue, we have discussed in detail about the award-winning smart garment, KJUS HYDRO_BOT Ski Jacket, which is claimed to be the first-ever ski jacket with wearable technology.

Digitalisation is another trend emerging faster than ever in the global apparel industry with more and more retail brands as well as apparel manufacturers embracing it. Recently, my team visited Lectra’s VIP Fashion Event held at its headquarters in Bordeaux, France. As per my brief, the attendees were made to realise the significance of digitalisation in the era of ‘hyper-connected consumers’. My team also conducted an exclusive interview of Lectra’s CMO Céline Choussy who emphasised on the significance of AI, ML, IoT, MTM and Robotics and how these concepts have turned into reality through Lectra’s cutting-edge solutions. You will find a detailed coverage of the same in the present edition.

Besides, this issue also highlights the challenges in 3D simulation where the industry’s top stalwarts in 3D share their views as to why the concept is not feasible for all product categories and how the users are miscalculating the areas of strength that 3D body scanning method actually holds.

StitchWorld Editorial Issue April 2019

StitchWorld magazine has just turned sixteen, a sweet journey that started in 2003 with technology and management for the sewn product industry. Its journey in the last five years has been very eventful due to various pressing changes in the industry and the technology ecosystem. The industry has grown beyond our thinking, and keeping pace with the industry we have also expanded our coverage to include woven, knitted as well as stitchless products and technologies alongside our core sewn product industry.

While Industry 4.0 is poised to revolutionise the technology offerings for the industry with smart factory in the horizon, garments are also getting smarter with each year passing-by. We have been covering Industry 4.0 technology very extensively during the last two years with encouraging response from the industry.

 Smart garments are part of the wearable technology system that are showing promise to disrupt the garment manufacturing industry. The way athleisure has disrupted the performance wear category, smart garment will do the same to commodity wear as well as luxury segment.

According to Wearable Technology Group, the three most dominant wearable technologies sold to consumers in 2018 have been smart watches/fitness trackers, earbuds/headsets and smart patches. Nevertheless, the growth of smart garments (from being negligible in 2018) will be faster going ahead than other categories and is likely to integrate with smart patches to form the single biggest category by 2023.

In our teaser article on smart wearables in February 2019 issue, we had reported how garments are merging with gadgets and stealing the limelight in world’s premier showcase CSE 2019. Keeping pace with the future and offering value to our esteemed readers, we have decided to cover smart garments also as a regular feature in our magazine from now onwards. The lead article by Prof. Prabir Jana (NIFT, Delhi) talks about an interesting concept about the use of wearable technology in workplace for augmenting planning accuracy.

Apart from wearable technology, our focus on sustainability is also highlighted in an article based on ‘waterless’ dyeing technology which talks about the eminent names supplying this technology. In a bid to continue with the retail technology write ups, this issue also entails how chatbots and artificial intelligence tools, designed to convincingly stimulate human conversation, are making a difference in the apparel retail industry.

We hope you will enjoy our new foray into wearable technology and smart garments; also please write back to us with your suggestions as well as report any interesting developments happening in the smart garment space.

StitchWorld Editorial Issue March 2019

Already so many garment manufacturing technology fairs happen in India, but the focus is still not realistic India is a mega country with diverse needs and every state is as big as Bangladesh if not bigger, so why question the number of garment manufacturing technology fairs happening in India…

Looking at it from another perspective, each Indian state has so many garment manufacturing hubs that every one of them deserves a separate fair… consider Meerut, Panipat, Jaipur townships in North of India that are still unrepresented at such fairs, and on similar lines, there are many townships in South and East of India which require a technology fair to bring the local industry up to date on latest hardware and software technologies.

The understanding is that these townships comprise smaller players whose needs are also met by very basic technologies, and at most through automation at basic level.

But the factors that are still ignored at these technology fairs are the technologies of the future and the knowledge forum, which start with Industry 4.0, moving on to AI, Data Analytics, VR, additive technology to robotics… a missing platform for understanding how these new systems/ technologies are going to impact the way the industry will work in the future.

Though technologies and discussion forums need not be part of every technology fair since only the big and organised companies would be keen to take cognizance of the newer set of systems and processes at present; for them, having one big technology fair which showcases a route map for the future in any one place within India would be very much reachable.

If today, we do not start updating ourselves on such solutions, in no time, we will find that the industry is left with only small producers that are largely unorganised and unable to cater to the demands of the growing retail in India… Hence, leaving the space empty for import of garments from global manufacturers that are hungry for work and are ready to invest time, energy and resources to meet the needs of an evolving Indian retail market

We are very clear on the future directions and soon you will find StitchWorld fulfilling the role of guiding the industry to address the future… a future which is sustainable and growth-oriented!

StitchWorld Editorial Issue February 2019

ASW is launched to give impetus to our journey as industry’s knowledge partner

Did you notice the change from the usual routine... We have for the first-time ever in the history of the magazine put on the front cover our sourcing show – Apparel Sourcing Week 2019. This highlights our thrust as a group, which understands the apparel industry and its intricate details comprehensively to give qualitative, industry-focused shows to India...

From our years of interaction and involvement with the global apparel and retail industry, we are well aware that it’s not just about manufacturing at a certain price, offering good quality or timely delivery but also about the marketing and product that make the merchandise sell and become the preferred choice for buyers... Apparel Sourcing Week is a boutique show that will provide a platform for such products.

We aim to fill in the requisite gaps and become the much needed bridge to bring Asian manufacturing under one roof for Asian markets along with the traditional markets, besides, allowing companies to interact and discuss business in an atmosphere that is charged and engaging.

No, we have not lost our focus to be the knowledge partner to the industry! In fact the focus is now even stronger and ASW is the first in the series of our planned shows. You can see everything related to ASW at www.apparelsourcingweek.com

With time, you will see many more shows coming up which will be niche and focused and targeted to specific group of people within the industry,based on the inherent understanding and needs of the segment. And technology can never be behind when talking of industry’s directions. In this issue, Team StitchWorld takes a closer look at today’s trend of how apparel businesses are working and being driven by technology trends like Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Beacon technology and a lot more.

Significantly, retailers have been making substantial investment in these technologies to be able to provide a seamless experience to their customers and manage business like never before. The first part of the article –‘Technology trends driving seamless retail’ – will take its readers through 15 retail technologies available in the market that are driving the current retail trend. The second part of the series covering the next set of 15 more such technologies will be included in the upcoming issue of StitchWorld.

The current issue also captures details on the recently concluded technology fairs – DTG and Garmentech – held in Dhaka and the interesting technologies that were there on display. The momentum towards technology in Bangladesh is indeed noteworthy and an inspiration for all manufacturing nations, including India.

StitchWorld Editorial Issue January 2019

New Directions for Industry in 2019
Starting a new year always brings in a sense of nostalgia. Besides reviewing the year gone by, it is a fulfilling experience to seek out directions and potential growth areas.

In technology, the one movement that I see as a potential trend going forward is the willingness to invest in robotics for factory management. Using robotics in sewing may still be far away but garment manufacturers have started looking at home-grown robotic systems in transportation, to save on labour.

Recently, Pearl Global installed robotic systems at its Chennai factory and is very optimistic of the results. I am sure many more factories will follow lead and invest in similar technologies. The days are gone when labour was abundant and cheap… now cost efficiencies are also dependent on how much labour saving can be done.

Another movement that I strongly see in the garment industry is what I had predicted years ago – the convergence of markets into one big marketplace. For a manufacturer, a market is one that is profitable and not necessarily an export market.

There is no debate on the fact that apparel buying in Western world has slowed down. Whereas the share of spending on clothing and footwear in total consumer spending in India is 6.7 per cent higher than what is seen in the US (3 per cent) and the UK (5.7 per cent). Also, the year-on-year expenditure growth in India at 12 per cent is more than double the anticipated global rate of 5 per cent.

In this scenario, is it not more viable to work with the Indian market rather than struggle with issues that are not really in the hands of the manufacturer, to be competitive in the export market, even as the market shrinks!

Every industry observer knows that the garment exports have been hit by many factors over the last two years, starting from demonetisation leading to liquidity crunch, followed by GST implementation and reduction in duty drawback rates. This is in addition to increase in wages of all these leading to the increase in cost of manufacturing.

The impact has been even greater due to the lack of any trade boosters such as the FTA with Europe. These factors, put together, have been a dent in competitiveness, of the global export industry in the past few years.

But last year, the impact of all these negative factors evened out, as GST refunds started coming in; the liquidity issues decreased and exporters learnt the hard way of how to survive on practically no duty drawbacks.

However, the factor that really brought cheer was the depreciation of the rupee, which meant that Indian exporters automatically became cheaper, without any extra effort.

This year has started on a positive note with crude prices, currency and other external influencing factors being stable. But the reality is that export is now very competitive and uncertain, so the best bet today is to address the challenges of local market and grow the business.