The global smart textiles market is expected to have a CAGR of 33.58 per cent between 2015 and 2020. Growth is mainly driven by the uptrend in wearable devices, increasing demand for sophisticated electronics, miniaturization of electronic components, and a rapid growth of wireless sensor networks.

Smart textiles have numerous applications, such as sports and fitness, defense and military. Currently, military application of smart textiles is the largest market segment, with a share of around 25.8 per cent of the global smart textiles market. Sports and fitness is the second largest segment in global smart textiles – from smart shirts that record heart rates to intelligent bands that track physical activities. Smart textiles in the form of fitness monitoring devices have a lot of demand from health-conscious people. There is also an increasing demand for smart textiles in the architecture and automotive industries.

North America is the world’s largest smart textile market, representing over 45.5 per cent of the global market revenue. But the Asia Pacific region is projected to grow faster. China and India are two of the major manufacturers of smart textiles in the Asia Pacific market, are the largest producers of manufactured fibers, and are expected to dominate the global smart textile market in the near future.