StitchWorld Editorial Issue December 2018

Apparel Sourcing Week 2019 – The new initiative from Apparel Resources

Apparel Resources, the publisher of StitchWorld and Apparel Online, has always explored ways to communicate with the industry, be it through in-depth articles in the magazines, workshops and seminars or through industry forums. Now the time has come to take another leap, and it gives me great pride to announce our latest initiative from Apparel Resources – the Apparel Sourcing Week 2019.

The concept is a first-of-its-kind platform to bring together the manufacturing excellence of countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to India for the upward moving Indian retail market.

The growth of fashion in Indian retail is a story of multi-dimensional opportunities, and not only the traditional strongholds of retail, the metropolitan cities are seeing exponential growth in this domain, but also the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are showing affinity to branded clothing, resulting in the creation of a whole new market segment of people.

As of today, the Indian fashion retail is worth US $ 49 billion and is projected to reach US $ 75 billion by 2025. The market is being driven by a strength of 1.2 billion people of an average age of 29, having the purchasing power that makes for a robust economy that is projected to became the fourth largest economy in the world very soon and a potential market for manufacturing nations.

On one hand, this expanding market of people who have the purchasing power to indulge in fashion is pushing demand for regular basic garments, due to which one can see and also anticipate growth in categories like trousers, denim jeans, shirts and T-shirts.

What will see equal, if not bigger splurge in demand, are the products in the newer categories that cater specifically to the needs of the upward mobile millennials, like jackets, innerwear/intimatewear, athleisure, activewear/sportswear. Manufacturers will need to get their act together to be competitive and partner with retailers/brands from Indian retail and international players.

If global names like Zara, H&M, Mango, Guess, United Colors of Benetton, GAP, forever21, Levi’s, adidas, Nike, etc., have already made their presence felt, at least 100 more brands/ retailers are set to make their foray in this market in the next couple of years to cash in on the big opportunity. Alongside the global biggies coming up strongly, are the home-grown stalwarts, adding to the new-found market’s vibrancy and escalation.

The Apparel Sourcing Week ’19 will be held in the IT hub of India, Bengaluru, which also happens to be the nerve centre of Indian retail. Over time, Bengaluru has become the testing ground for all major retailers. Apart from its diverse demographic, retail executives say the city has a large white-collar workforce and tech-savvy consumers open to new ideas.The fact that Bengaluru is India’s tech and start-up hub, makes it easier to hire tech talent.

Excitement for the event is building up with retailers upbeat on the opportunity to see a unique and wide mix of manufacturers from Bangladesh, Vietnam and China with their equally diverse product portfolios under a single roof which is sure to make sourcing more exciting and dynamic.

Stitch World Editorial Issue March 2018

Industry 4.0 is very much in the news and also a hot topic of discussion in magazines and seminars, the world over. We are also following the market trends and discussing the many facets of this topic in the pages of StitchWorld. In this issue too, we bring you insights into the latest discussion on agendas covered by experts sharing the multiple benefits that Industry 4.0 offers.

It is another matter if we would be using any of these concepts in apparel manufacturing and in the context of the Third World countries, in the near future. But then, apparel is not the only industry using sewing technologies. It's being used in industries manufacturing products right from water rafts, parachutes, sails, airbags, tents to all other industries which are using technical textiles as a substitute for hard materials. Significantly, products being manufactured by these industries require high precision and speed and for which the price of the product is not so much of a constraint.

Understand that the concept 4.0 is presently at a very early stage of evolution. It will take few years for it to settle down with a definitive direction. SW is also transforming and growing with the evolution of this concept. That's what we as editors of StitchWorld do, keep a close watch on the evolving trends.

Many years ago, we caught the concept of ‘Lean’ in the apparel manufacturing industry at a very early stage and covered it intensively from all dimensions in our pages. Today, we are bringing out a book on 'Lean concept and its implementation in the apparel industry’ with case studies based on the articles published in SW from time to time.

On similar lines, you would be seeing many books and reports in the next couple of months… This is the fruit of our efforts to compile concepts, formulated and discussed over time and at length, in one comprehensive format as an easy reckoner for practitioners and students of the industry.

The current issue of SW brings to you some interesting technologies that drew attention at the recently concluded GTE. In addition, you will also get an insight into Utah Fashions Ltd., a Bangladesh based apparel exporter that has been carving a benchmark in lean with the practices it follows. Following the growing importance of fire safety, Team SW also brings out the vulnerabilities in factories which lead to fire accidents.