Companies that once prided on having their supply chains spread across the world, are now mulling new technological solutions within Industry 4.0 domain such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and additive technologies (3D Printing) to bring manufacturing home (back-shoring) or in countries close to its borders (near-shoring). These companies have realized the risk of having a single supplier in one country and intend to find a solution soon.

Being a significant part of the value chain

India can prove to be a solution for many of these companies if instead of just an assembly point for imported components, the country focuses on being a significant part of the value chain. For instance, German company BDT which manufactures data storage hardware shifted its electric motor manufacturing from Philippines to India due to lower labor costs. However, now the company is being forced to source its components from European manufacturers as most of the raw material currently available in India is sourced from China. India can provide a solution by manufacturing these components locally.

Though beneficial, the trends of backshoring or nearshoring also pose a risk for labor intensive countries like India. The use of new automation technologies like Industry 4.0 represented by robotic factories may lead to the loss of jobs in the clothing and leather sectors of many developing countries. The introduction of Industry 4.0 on the back of 5G may also affect the outsourcing industry in the long run.

Though a decade from now, Indian industries will have to adopt Industry 4.0 to remain globally competitive, it will first have to install both 4G and 5G infrastructure widely as the backbone for Industry 4.0.

Tap agribusiness for employment generation

To retain its export markets as well as provide avenues of employment to millions of displaced workers, India should introduce extensive mechanization and automation to tap its potential in agribusiness. It should focus on turning khadi along with handloom into a value-added signature fabric of India by establishing extensive value chain from rural sourcing to buyers in prosperous countries. This can lead to innovations in area of organic chemicals like vegetable dyes. The organic sustainability supply chain could be a big seller in Europe, US and other high-income countries.

India can also link its agri-business with yoga to market organic and healthy lifestyle products abroad. For this, it needs to introduce new technologies such as hydroponic or vertical farming to enable small landholders to grow value-added organic medicinal herbs and spices. It can also set up distillation and extraction units near the farms to add value to farm produce.

And not just the garment industry but India should implement technological innovations in the entire gamut of industrial landscape. The country should apply foresight scanning to provide alternate employment avenues to workers displaced by factories opting to be more become automated due to the low-cost benefits it provides.

An industry coalition representing the full spectrum of domestic personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturers such as Alliance for American Manufacturing, American Iron and Steel Institute, American Sheep Institute, etc has outlined policy principles and objectives needed for reshoring and safeguarding domestic PPE manufacturing.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed severe shortages in our nation’s PPE supply and an over-reliance on foreign sourced products, underscores how important it is for the U.S. government to incentivize, support and maintain domestic manufacturing capacity for PPE.

The association members, encompassing every segment of the US textile, apparel and PPE supply chain, as well as unions representing workers, acted swiftly to convert manufacturing facilities and build supply chains virtually overnight to produce desperately needed PPE.

The associations are calling on Congress and the Trump administration to adopt principles outlined in the statement through legislation, executive order and other appropriate means.

FashionGo Week, a new digital trade show event that will take place August 24–September 6, is the latest virtual addition to the industry calendar. Organized by B2B wholesale e-commerce marketplace FashionGo, the two-week show will target buyers and vendors in the fast-fashion and accessories market, as opposed to the high-end brands usually associated with fashion weeks.

A digital wholesale platform, FashionGo provides a year-round opportunity for brands and retailers to present and review collections; take and manage orders; and use data to inform purchasing decisions. Products presented on the site are commonly already in-stock and available for shipment, to cater to a fast-fashion audience.

For the FashionGo Week event, attendees and exhibitors will gain access to a series of new features. Participating vendors will be able to upload videos to promote their collections, showcase lookbooks and highlight new arrivals or exclusive items on their dedicated brand page. A number of brands will then also be featured on the event home page, to increase awareness and exposure.

Good on You, a consumer-facing platform that assesses brands on their impact on people, planet and animals, has rated denim brand Kings of Indigo as “great,” which indicates Kings of Indigo received a five out of five overall rating.

To date, Good On You has assessed more than 2,000 fashion brands. While it awarded Kings of Indigo a “great” rating, there were two areas in which it showed the brand could improve: people and animals. Kings of Indigo, however, is putting steps in place to better address both categories. By 2021, the company will have adjusted its workers’ wages to account for cost of education and savings. It also declared in its 2020 sustainability report that it would continue research on living wages, request detailed open costing from suppliers, and participate in the Fair Wear living wage incubator 2.0 in order to reach those goals.

As for the animal category, Kings of Indigo uses sheep’s wool in some of its collections, and despite it being 100 percent recycled, it’s still unable to be classified as a vegan company as a result.

Kings of Indigo is committed to staying ahead of sustainable practices, and has been certified by The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), OEKO-TEX, OCS100 and GOTS. Its latest sustainability report outlined those certifications and more, as well as its water-, chemical-, and energy-reduction practices. The report showed that, of the 82 jeans styles in its Spring/Summer 2020 collection, half are measured as having no impact or low impact on the environment.

In the wake of the corona crisis, VDMA Textile Machinery has launched a new series of web events called "Textile Machinery Webtalk". Here, experts from up to four VDMA member companies present their innovative technologies on a specific topic in a maximum of 90 minutes and are available to answer questions from participants. The presentations are held in English. Participation in the web events is free of charge.

Topics of the first two webtalks were technologies for the production of melt-blown nonwovens for respiratory protection masks and technologies for the production of respiratory protection masks

Around 180 people from more than 30 countries took part in the first two webtalks. With this format, the VDMA reaches both textile and nonwovens manufacturers who already manufacture these products and companies that want to invest in new business areas.

The next webtalk will take place on July 23, 2020 on the current topic "Technology solutions to produce fully-fashioned community face masks." Experts from Karl Mayer, Stoll By Karl Mayer and Jakob Müller will be presenting their technologies for producing everyday textile masks to an international expert audience

British fashion retailer Ted Baker plans to cut 500 jobs, of which 200 will be at retailer’s head office in London. The decision will impact both part and full time employees from its UK and Europe stores. The decision is an addition to 160 job cuts that the retailer had announced in February this year.

The decision is being seen as Ted Baker’s business strategy to revamp the organization, which has been struggling ever since late last year, which led to its CEO Lindsay Page resign from his post. The year 2020 brought with it the never-ending pandemic crisis, store closures and extended lockdowns leading to a 36 per cent slump in the retailer’s revenue between 26 January 2020 and 2 May 2020.

As a part of its restructuring plan, the retailer will now focus on expanding its apparel category to make it relevant for all occasions in addition to selling more shoes and fashion accessories. In addition, it will also make more investments in its digital business.

Messe Frankfurt India has announced new dates for the Mumbai edition of Screen Print India – the leading trade fair for screen, textile, sublimation and digital printing technologies. The exhibition will be held parallel with Gartex Texprocess India, from March 19 – 21, 2021 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai.

Screen Print India will launch products that will its enable business visitors and traders to track technological advances in digital textile and screen-printing technologies. The event will also host a series of sessions on processes and innovations related to the graphics industry. One of its key highlight will include Screen Print Excellence Awards that will honor technology inventors and trailblazers within the screen-printing industry. The tradeshow will also curate a special ‘SPI Gallery’ to showcase award winning pieces of screen-printing excellence.

The secure, business-focused ambience will enable both printing and textile sector players to showcase, source and strengthen their supply chains and keep pace with the shifting demand for screen printing, textile printing, digital and sublimation technologies across other sectors.

Screen Print India, which will also be launched in New Delhi in December this year, is being supported by leading industry associations including Screen Printing & Graphics Association of India (SGAI), South Indian Printers Association (SIPA), Madurai Screen Printers Association (MASPA), Tirupur Export Knit Printers Association (TEKPA), Tirupur Export Printing Managers Association (TEPMA) and Offset Printers Association (OPA).

Mainstream and luxury retailers like Hugo Boss, Burberry, Mulberry and Nordstrom are pushing their landlords for flexibility as sales decline. British luxury firm Burberry has been working with landlords on rental relief in its Asian store network. Hugo Boss is seeking ‘selective and temporary’ rental relief in difficult markets, while Nordstrom plans to lower rent payments until the beginning of next year.

Mid-market brands like H&M and New Look have requested landowners to link their lease payments to turnover in the future. Confindustria Moda, the body representing the Italian fashion industry, called for a pause on rental payments when stores across the country were all closed in March. Thierry Andretta, Chief Executive Officer, Mulberry has urged the British government to review rents and business rates, a form of tax on property you occupy, to protect jobs and give brands time to recover. Andretta has drawn the government’s attention specifically to London's Bond and Regent Streets which are considered some of the most expensive streets in the world. Such high rent cost forces luxury brands to increase prices in turn hurting the likelihood of tourists choosing London as a shopping destination over Milan or Paris.

The greater impact instead might be on future store openings. Brandon Famous, Executive Managing Director-Retail, CRBE says brands may avoid opening points of sale in Western cities where they do not already have a presence. They may instead more four more stores in China.

Jeanologia, world leader in sustainable and efficient technology development, has launched eDesinger an innovative tool that reinvents the way jeans are being created and manufactured. eDesigner is a software developed and adapted specifically for the production of jeans. It connects designers with wash developers and brands with manufacturers, standardizing formats, improving production processes by making it more efficient and accelerating time-to-market.

The tool enables designers to design in a more intuitive way, easier, faster and dynamic; introducing a technological, efficient and sustainable alternative to traditional design.

eDesginer streamlines and simplifies production. It can go from design to sample and to approval within an hour, because what you see on the screen is what you get on the jeans. This means a considerable reduction in samples allowing for a more sustainable production at the same time as reducing times.

Furthermore, it is an open platform that can be connected to other virtual stitching or 3D software, and interconnect development centers with production centers in real time, guaranteeing perfect reproducibility in production.

Some of the most well known Italian innovative brands are creating new digital showrooms that allow them to connect with their customers, and capitalize on never-before-seen circumstances. Liu Jo, an Italian clothing company founded in 1995, has launched its ‘digital first’ sales campaign for the 2021 line. The digital showroom will see the brand present its Liu Jo Dream On virtual show, broadcast on a dedicated website and following the format of a news program, with accompanying musical refrains and voiceover commentaries.

The platform will also host digital displays and stories where it will be possible to discover collections with the support of Liu Jo’s sales team in tailor-made consultancy sessions. Italian clothing maker, Diesel has launched Hyperloom, a digital tool which allows shoppers to explore its virtual showroom that is modeled on its flagship store in Milan. Shoppers can interact with clothing items online; products are rendered in 360-degree displays and are presented following the particular style and identity of the Diesel brand. The realistic visuals of products are accompanied by product descriptions as well.

The option for consumers to view a product close-up and in a dedicated virtual space with video-led fittings of each style collectively aims to replicate the touch and feel experience that consumers would get when shopping in real life. To help shoppers in the later stages of the customer journey, a live Diesel vendor will be connected with potential buyers and assist shoppers in the purchase process. By enlisting digital initiatives such as the digital showroom, the company aims to drastically reduce its carbon footprint.