As per its new strategy, 'Own the Game,' Adidas aims to use sustainable materials to make nine out of 10 of its products by 2025. The brand so far makes 60 per cent of its products from sustainable materials, reports EcoTextile. It aims to increase this to 90 per cent through the three loop system including recycled loop, circular loop, and regenerative loop.

Adidas also aims to use only recycled polyester in products from 2024 onwards. It plans to roll out product take back program at scale. The company has also committed to reducing its CO2 footprint per product 15 per cent by 2025. It aims to achieve climate neutrality in its own operations by 2025 and overall climate neutrality by 2050.

Besides expanding the company's activities in the area of sustainability, the other two objectives of its ‘Own the Game’ strategy include increasing brand credibility and consumer experience.

The recent hike in yarn prices has worsened the plight of Bangladesh apparel makers who were already aggrieved by a sustained hike in global cotton prices and pandemic-induced lockdowns. RMG makers in the county are protesting against the price hike which they feels is putting additional burden on them at a time when the industry is yet to recover fully from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. They accused local millers of taking advantage of the coronavirus outbreak and said, the price hike is eating up competitiveness of the locally manufactured garments.

However, spinning mills attributed the hike in cotton prices to rising demand for the item globally and a supply crunch, and upward costs of other related logistics followed by the COVID-19 induced lockdown. Mohammad Ali Khokon, President, Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), says the pandemic has affected not only local RMG industry but also the primary textile millers.

Lockdown has pushed up use of cotton-based garment items especially knitted ones, opinens Khokon, attributing the cotton price hike to demand and supply gap.

Nurul Islam, Chairman, Well Group, said the price hike has affected both spinners and RMG makers and its impact can be predicted in coming months. of raw materials had skyrocketed while costs of logistics had also gone up. Rubana Huq, President, BGMEA believes, the price hike could kill their potential to beat competitors.

According to BTMA, some 425 spinners out of total 1,461 members provide around 90 per cent yarn demand for knit and 35-40 per cent yarn demand for woven items exports. Bangladesh annually produces only 0.16 million bales of cotton. It imports around 8.0 million bales of cotton annually. These imports mainly come from African countries, India, Australia, the US and Brazil, said BTMA.

Made from 100 per cent recycled materials, the new range of industrial sewing threads from US textile manufacturer Champion Thread Company (CTC) offer ‘sustainable’ alternatives to polyester, and can be used across fashion, personal protective equipment and home textile industries. The collection includes three products: Renu Poly ChampCore; a recycled polyester-wrapped thread with a multifilament core; Renu ChampSpun; a recycled staple spun polyester thread; and Renu AeroTex Plus, a recycled textured polyester thread.

As per Matt Poovey, President, CTC, these products reduce energy consumption, waste and oil dependence. They are engineered to CTC’s extreme quality standards and are finished with proprietary lubricants to ensure high productivity.

Looking ahead, the Renu range can support brand and retail partners meet their sustainability goals and commitments. They can also maintain the productivity, seam performance, colour fastness, and chemical resistance characteristics they enjoy in traditional polyester treads, adds Poovey.

The ongoing political turbulence in Myanmar is having a profound impact on its apparel industry. As per a CCF Group report on March 15, protestors attacked a number of Chinese-owned apparel mills in the Laydaya Industrial Zone in Yangon. These mills were destroyed, looted, and burned, threatening future investments in the country.

Myanmar currently has 600 apparel mills, of which, Chinese enterprises account for about 60 per cent. Around 300 Chinese enterprises are concentrated in Yangon alone. The current turbulence may affect China's investment in these apparel mills and may cause orders to flow to other markets.

Cheap labor, low cost drive apparel exports

Myanmar’s apparel exports have been growing in recent years. The country mainly exports to Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom among other markets. From 2015-19, the value of apparel exports grew 43.7 per cent annually. Lifting of economic sanctions by the EU and US helped Myanmar exploit its advantages of abundant labor and low production costs. GSP benefits also helped its textile and apparel industry boom. In 2018, Myanmar's textile exports grew to $2.225 billion. They accounted for 25.2 per cent of the country’s total exports.

COVID-19 affected global economy in 2020. Myanmar, however, emerged unscathed from the crisis as imports and exports grew in fiscal year 2019-20. In 2019, the proportion of apparel exports in total exports grew to 27.9 per cent. Knitted garments accounted for nearly a quarter of Myanmar's apparel exports, and woven garments accounted for the largest proportion.

Japan, largest export destination for Myanmar

Japan remains the largest destination for Myanmar’s apparel exports. The country accounted 22 per cent of Myanmar’s total apparel shipments in 2019 followed by EU, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, etc. As the world economy recovers from the pandemic, incidents such as the military coup in February and the recent violence in Yangaon might drive apparel orders, especially from Japan and EU, away from Myanmar.

Gant, the branded apparel retailer with over 750 stores in 80 countries, has rolled out the Cegid Retail’s Unified Commerce Platformacross Europe in a bid to improve stock management and customer service across multiple channels and territories. The cloud-based point-of-sale and merchandising solution has recently been added in France and goes live in the UK in March. This is part of the brand’s strategy to introduce more omnichannel and digital technologies and standardising systems throughout the group. Theinitiative follows a move to bring more of its overseas franchise partners under the same roof - such as Portugal and Spain during 2020 - as wholly-owned subsidiaries, sharing the same processes and accelerating a shift towards more digital services like “click-and-collect”.

The retail software is also pre-configured to take care of complicated tax regimes which tend to change year to year and vary from country to country. For instance, VAT and receipt rules in Portugal differ widely to those in France and Sweden.

The retailer also plans to roll out other digital services and mobile solutions across the group. It has used live video-streams in some stores to stay in touch with the customer, particularly when stores were forced to close during lockdown. GANT has also been trialing a few of Cegid’s mobility tools, including a Mobile Inventory module (for instance, to help staff carryout stock checks directly on the shop floor) as well as a mobile point-of-sale solution.

Kontoor Brands, Inc, a global lifestyle apparel company, with a portfolio led by two of the world’s most iconic consumer brands, Wrangler® and Lee has announced the expansion of its Indigood™ program, an initiative that targets water savings during the fabric construction phase of the apparel supply chain. Debuted in 2019 with the introduction of foam-dyed denim, the Indigood™ program has expanded to include any water savings technology in apparel fabric production that uses at least 90 percent less water than conventional fabric production.

Kontoor Brands produces millions of products globally each year, and has committed to using its global scale to advance the denim industry. Through the expansion of the Indigood™ program, Kontoor is encouraging denim mills across the globe to adopt radically different water saving technologies in the vein of indigo foam dye. Additional approved technologies include increased water recycling, advancements in the dyeing process and fabric finishing innovations. Kontoor works with independent third parties to validateIndigood ™ claims, ensuring they meet the 90 percent threshold.

In 2020, Wrangler announced it had saved more than 7 billion liters of water in the finishing phase of denim manufacturing, exceeding its 2020 goal of saving 5.5 billion liters, and launched a new goal, to reduce its water usage by 50 percent by 2030. The Wrangler brand’s updated water goal targets the fiber production, fabric construction, and product finishing phases of the denim supply chain, which together encompass more than 95 percent of the total water used throughout the production of a pair of jeans.

The Lee brand also focuses on conserving water throughout the denim manufacturing supply chain including fiber production with goals for sustainable cotton and sustainable synthetics by 2025, in fabric construction, and in finishing, where Lee has saved more than 1 billion liters of water. In 2020, Lee announced its first global sustainability goals, which include increasing Indigood™-dyed products every year through 2025.

The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, National Retail Federation, Retail Industry Leaders Association, and The United States Fashion Industry Association have appreciated the announcement of a global approach to end the campaign of oppression against Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang).

The announcement recognizes that no single country and no single approach can stop the persecution of Uyghurs. All stakeholders must play an active role to bring the current genocide to an end. AAFA h has spent the last two years working to end any nexus with Xinjiang or with Uyghurs trafficked to other parts of China in order to undercut one component of the campaign of oppression against Uyghurs – forced labor. The association continues to work with the US government and Congress to implement an effective and enforceable strategy to address forced labor in and related to Xinjiang.

The American Apparel & Footwear Association is the national trade association representing apparel, footwear and other sewn products companies, and their suppliers, which compete in the global market. Representing more than 1,000 world famous name brands, we are the trusted public policy and political voice of the apparel and footwear industry, its management and shareholders, its nearly four million U.S. workers, and its contribution of more than $400 billion in annual U.S. retail sales. AAFA provides exclusive expertise in trade, brand protection, and supply chain & manufacturing to help our members navigate the complex regulatory environment and lower costs. Members gain unparalleled access to information and exclusive insights on regulation and policy, and premier opportunities for networking and collaboration.

Organic Trade Association expects the Indian organic cotton industry to grow by 10 per cent in ‘21. According to the association, the industry grew by 31 per cent in the past one year, reports The Times of India.

Shikha Kumar, Director & Co-Founder, Nino Bambino opines, though growing organic cotton requires huge amount of water, there has a been an exponential growth in its cultivation over the years. Ahmedabad is particularly popular for its cotton textile production.

Another largely concentrated cotton-growing area is Mumbai, Maharashtra. There are many factors behind these cities becoming popular for their cotton production and some of them include cheap labour, humid climate, and to port facility.

According to Economic Times, the rates of organic cotton have increased by 8 to 12 percent or say 356/kg each. Major contributors of organic cotton across the globe are India, China, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, Greece, Benin, Peru, Pakistan, Thailand, and few other countries. The crop is grown using such materials and methodologies that have very little impact on the environment.

A new study from Barclays Corporate Banking, which interviewed 10,000 people across 10 key markets shows, products made in the UK are still held in high regard around the world. As per the study, Indian consumers are reportedly willing to pay an average of 11.8 per cent gross premium on British-made products. They are followed by consumers in UAE, US and China, who are willing to pay 10.9 per cent, 10.4 per cent and 8.8 per cent more respectively.

Two thirds shoppers in India and China are inclined to pay more for products emblazoned with the Union Jack as they believed them to be of higher quality. Promisingly, 69 per cent of Indian shoppers and 64 per cent of Chinese shoppers are now buying more British goods than they did five years ago.

As per the research, this creates a significant opportunity for growth in markets such as China, India and the UAE, when new trade routes open up to markets further afield. While the EU and the US remain the biggest trading partners for the UK, there are considerable opportunities for British businesses to grow exports to less traditional markets.

All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has rejected accusations hurdled at a recent meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce.

The association was recently criticized as a non-performing sector despite conferred with ample ‘subsidies’ from the government. Moreover, it has also been alleged that yarn manufacturers and spinners sell maximum products locally but enjoy the status of an export-oriented industry. The textile sector is also wrongly indicted of presenting ‘fake invoices’ to reap the benefits of subsidies.

The implementation of FBR’s faster and WeBOC systems ensure invoices are scrutinized digitally without any human involvement. The taxes and processing of refunds are also done automatically after complete verification of transactions. Thus, faking invoices for ‘subsidies’ is highly improbable, given the efficiency of FBR’s portal. The companies in this sector pay their dues in full in a timely manner, and with honesty. APTMA is of the view that yarn manufacturers lie at the bottom of the textile value chain feeding raw materials to value-added entities to make exportable products. Spinners are indirect exporters. A quick analysis would reveal that yarn export decreased since larger firms were locally procuring raw materials for the export of value-added products – earning precious foreign reserves, reducing import bill, and promoting the domestic industry.