Vietnamese exports up 21 per cent
The value of Vietnam’s textile and garment exports in the first nine months of 2022 was up 21 per cent over the same period last year.
To achieve the result, textile and garment enterprises made great efforts to cope with the challenges of the market. They did not depend on the five traditional export markets, the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China, but also expanded exports to Russia and some other countries.In Europe, they not only focused on a few large export markets such as Germany, France, Spain and the UK, as in the past, but also expanded exports to other countries in the EU.
They promoted the production of knitwear products for export instead of making only traditional products such as jeans, khakis or T- shirts. Among textile and garment exporting countries in the world, Vietnam had the earliest opening-up policy for normal operation after the Covid pandemic.
Therefore, in the first six months of the year, Vietnam’s textile and garment industry had a large number of orders and good business results. Prospects for the industry are bright because export tariffs on some kinds of Vietnamese textile and garment products to the EU will be reduced thanks to the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
Bangladesh exports to India up 99 per cent
From July 2022 to August 2022, Bangladesh’s garment exports to India grew by 99 percent.
India is now the fastest growing market for Bangladesh’s readymade garments. In the last financial year Bangladesh’s garment exports to India grew by 70 percent.
Exporting to India has many advantages. To Bangladesh, as of now, the nearest and biggest market is the Indian market. The population of India is massive and if Bangladesh can tap into this market and sell products a lot of its losses will be covered. Trade with India as a neighboring country has lower transport costs. Bangladesh is now working on manmade fibers or artificial fibers. India is very strong in manmade fiber and Bangladesh imports most of the raw materials and manmade fibers from India.
Bangladesh has gradually started to come out from traditional export destinations. The main markets for garment exports from Bangladesh are mainly western countries. But Bangladesh’s apparel exports to India are far ahead of exports to western countries. In the first quarter of the current financial year, the export growth in Canada was 17 percent, Japan was 16 percent, Australia was 14 percent, Europe was 12 percent, and the US was five per cent. But exports to neighboring India grew by more than 66 percent.
Athleisure growing at nine per cent globally
The athleisure market is growing at nine per cent a year.
North America dominates the global market. Customers in North America indulge in fitness/sports activities, which is driving the demand for athleisure in the region. Moreover, the increasing presence of international and domestic brands, and the rising disposable income of people, coupled with the desire to adopt improved lifestyles, is bolstering the demand for athleisure in the region.
Asia Pacific holds the second-largest share of the global market, which can be ascribed to the growing popularity of trendy sports gear, including athletic sportswear and footwear, across millennials in the region.
The footwear segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the athleisure market. Footwear has become an integral part of sports and fitness activities of people. Consumers are increasingly demanding footwear with different styles and designs that can be used for gyms and fitness activities as well as for outdoor events.
Indians are being drawn to athleisure outfits in larger numbers every year.Brands are offering a mix of functionality and fashion in their products to catch the attention of new consumers.This is due to the rise of the athleisure trend.The millennial generation has become both health conscious and fashion forward. They sport stylish athleisure while wanting to look good and feel comfortable in what they wear.
Albania September exports up 16 per cent
Albania’s exports in September 2022 were up by 16 per cent year on year.
The biggest contributor to the annual rise in exports was the textiles and footwear sector. Exports from Albania’s large textiles and footwear sector grew strongly, pushing up total exports by 5.8 percentage points.
Albania’s strength in this area dates back to the communist era, when textile production and garment manufacturing was one of the most important sectors of the economy. It developed later thanks to Albania’s low costs and its proximity to Italy, one of the world’s fashion capitals. However, the sector was badly hit by the pandemic and is only now recovering.This also contributed to the 16 per cent year on year increase in exports to Italy.Typically, clothes and shoes are exported almost complete from Albania to Italy, where Italian workers add the final touches and packaging, allowing the products to go out to the shops with the prestigious Made in Italy label.
Another major contributor to the overall increase in exports was mineral, fuels and electricity, which added 5.2 percentage points followed by machinery, equipment and spare parts (three percentage points).However, exports in some segments decreased, with a fall in exports of construction materials and metals dragging down total growth by 1.3 percentage points.
Decathlon becomes ‘Nohltaced’, indicating reverse shopping
Nohltaced is the indication of reverse of Decathlon. The brand is promoting reverse shopping in Belgium. As a buyback, customers can resell old or unused sporting goods to Decathlon, for repair and resell under warranty.
Already, Decathlon has purchased back 26,000 items during a test phase earlier this year. The goal of this campaign is to reuse as much equipment as possible by reducing its environmental impact.
The brand feels the classic consumption pattern has to change and involve buying fewer new products and reselling, repairing or renting older material.The French sporting goods retailer is present in 69 countries around the world including the United States, Algeria, Vietnam, Malta, Japan, South Korea and Ukraine, and the target is to reduce by 2026 carbon dioxide emissions per product sold by 40 per cent for all its sports categories. Decathlon wants to achieve these targets by a number of sustainable strategies, including using 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2026 in its stores and warehouses.
In addition, all of Decathlon’s new products will be eco-designed and Decathlon is also striving towards using just one per cent air freight for its transportation needs and reducing the impact of other means of transport, such as through maritime or road. The aim is to grow sustainably and make sure everyone can play sports in an environmentally conscious way.
GoodWeave adds to board
GoodWeave has added Siddharth Kara and Jacqueline Joudo Larsen to its board of directors.
This is part of the organization’s ongoing effort to ensure a balanced and diverse group of stakeholders participate in decision-making forums that influence GoodWeave’s work.
Kara is a leading researcher and activist on modern slavery and child labor, and the author of several books. Joudo Larsen is deputy director and head of global research at Walk Free, an international human rights organization working to end modern slavery, and a co-author of several editions of the Global Slavery Index.They are expected to help GoodWeave strengthen its impact on human rights, gender equality and wages, among other pressing issues.
GoodWeave, a nonprofit founded in 1994, works at stopping child labor in global supply chains through a market-based system and holistic approach. GoodWeave partners with companies and local producer communities to bring visibility to hidden supply chains, protect workers’ rights, provide assurance that no child, forced or bonded labor has been used in the making of carpet, home textile and apparel products. The GoodWeave certification label can be found on rug and home textile products. Standards Committee members represent a cross section of stakeholders including nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations and industry representatives.
Fabrics dominate Chinese textile H1 exports
Fabrics constituted 78 per cent of the total textile exports of China during the first half of 2022.
China is the world’s largest textile exporter. Numerous small garment-exporting countries are dependent on China for upstream products.China prefers exporting value-added products. The country’s yarn exports in the relevant period were 17 per cent of its total textile exports. And its fiber exports were a mere 4.03 per cent of its total textile exports. China’s exports of manmade textile products in the first half of 2022 were 64 per cent of its total textile exports.
This shows the dominance of China in the manmade textile industry. Manmade textiles mainly comprise polyester, viscose, and acrylic products.China’s cotton textiles exports were 21 per cent in the period under review. Exports of textiles made from wool and animal hair were two per cent, silk one per cent, flax 0.82 per cent, true hemp 0.01 per cent and others at nine per cent.
China’s garment and accessory exports during January 2022 to August 2022 grew by 11 per cent. In the same period the country’s textile exports grew by ten per cent.
The EU countries, the US, Japan and Asean countries are still the major destinations for China’s textile and apparel exports.
Indian cotton output may rise 12 per cent
India’s cotton production in the 2022/2023 season is likely to be up 12 per cent from a year ago.
One reason is that farmers have expanded the crop area. The rise in output in the world’s biggest producer of cotton could weigh on global prices that have corrected sharply after rising earlier this year to their highest in a decade.
The cotton crop area has increased by around ten per cent. India started the new season with carry forward stocks of 3.19 million bales, down from last year's 7.18 million bales. The country’s cotton consumption, which was affected by lower stocks and higher prices, could improve to 32 million bales in the new season from 31.8 million bales a year ago. Exports could fall to 3.5 million bales in the new season from 4.3 million bales a year ago.
India faces challenges in cotton yields though perhectare yields are likely to rise this year. While the yield in India is at 460 kg per hectare, it is at about 1,850 kg per hectare in China, Brazil and Turkey. Initiatives under consideration in India include promoting high density planting, drip irrigation, rainwater harvesting, inter-cropping.
Globally, farmers are working on artificial intelligence-based technology to improve productivity and spraying operations since the cotton crop is more sensitive to pest attacks.
Inditex may quit Russia, Zara to be renamed
Inditex may leave Russia and hand over its Russian assets to partners in some other country.
So Massimo Dutti, Oysho and Zara Home will leave the Russian market altogether, while the rest of the brands, including Zara, will open under new names and with new collections no earlier than spring 2023.
Days after the war began, Inditex decided to close its 502 shops in Russia, its second largest market after Spain, with more than 9,000 employees, and to suspend online sales in the country as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Of the 502 stores, 86 were Zara shops.Russia accounts for around eight per cent of the group's global net operating income.
In the first half of 2022 Inditex’s sales rose by 24 per cent. Store and online sales were up 11 percent year-on-year.Profits were up 41 percent and gross margin was up 57 percent, marking the strongest first half in seven years. Inditex has a nunique fashion proposition, an increasingly optimized shopping experience for customers and a focus on sustainability. In the face of possible supply chain tensions entering into the second half of the year, Inditex accelerated the current-season inventory flow.
Lanka September exports up 4%, outlook grim
Sri Lanka’s apparel exports in September 2022 were up by four per cent compared to September 2021.
This year on year growth was the lowest in six months. Prior to September, apparel exports had grown year on year by a high of 39 per cent (June) and a low of 19 per cent (August). In March export growth was flat.
Exports to the US in September 2022 were down by four per cent while shipments to the EU were up by 15 per cent. Exports to the UK were up three per cent and other markets up 13 per cent. Apparel exports in the first nine months of 2022 were up 18 per cent year on year.
Despite impressive exports so far in 2022 the industry envisages a 30 per cent decline in the remainder of the year. This is because the economic downturn is impacting future orders from the US and EU while the war in Ukraine has pushed up logistics and energy costs. The US, EU and the UK comprise about 86 per cent of Sri Lanka’s total apparel exports.
For the period of January 2022 to August 2022, merchandise exports increased by 12 per cent. Apparel and textile exports increased by 19 per cent.
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Lenzing partners with European consortium
Lenzing is a member of Cisutac. Cisutac (Circular and Sustainable Textile and Clothing) is a project co-funded by the EU that was established to support the transition to a circular and sustainable textile sector.
The aim of the consortium is to prevent, identify and eliminate barriers to the circularity of the clothing chain. Cisutac aims at removing current bottlenecks in order to enhance textile circularity in Europe. Its goal is to minimize the sector’s total environmental impact by developing sustainable, novel and inclusive large-scale European value chains.
Lenzing is reinforcing its commitment to circularity by becoming a partner with Cisutac and is focusing on the development of recycling processes for cellulose fibers in line with its own corporate strategy.As a pioneer of circularity, Lenzing is making crucial progress in this field thanks to its expertise.
Lenzing provides specialty fibers for the textile and nonwoven industries. Change is urgently required in the textile and clothing industry as it is one of the most harmful sectors to the environment, generating 40 million tonnes of waste every year.In recent years, Lenzing has set itself the target of actively promoting circularity, reducing the consumption of resources, avoiding environmental pollution and waste, increasing value creation and resource efficiency, and mitigating the negative social impact on people.
Pakistan quarterly textile exports up 3%
Pakistan’s exports of textile goods increased by three percent during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
Among the textile products, exports of cotton cloth grew by four percent while exports of knit wear increased by 15 percent. Exports of tents, canvas and tarpaulin increased by 40 per cent, readymade garments by five percent, art, silk and synthetic textiles by 0.35 percent. Exports of cotton (carded or combed) declined by 85 percent, yarn (other than cotton yarn) by four percent, bedwear by two percent, towels by one percent, made-up articles (excluding towels, bedwear) by eight percent, while exports of all other textile materials went down by one percent. Textile goods’ exports increased by two percent in September 2022 against exports in September 2021.Textile goods’ exports however declined by three percent in September 2022 when compared to exports in July 2022.
The overall trade deficit fell by 21 percent with a considerable decline in imports and an upward trend in exports during the first quarter of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year. Exports during July to September grew by one percent.
Workwear uses Discover PLM
Workwear Outfitters has partnered with Discover e-Solutions. Workwear will use Discover’s Product Lifecycle Management software for streamlining and centralizing its lifecycle management and managing its large and complex product assortments across apparel, footwear, and accessories.
Workwear needed a single solution, and chose Discover’s PLM for its flexible blend of features ideal to remove process silos and centrally manage all of its product development. Agile configuration, in-depth line planning, advanced costing, and similar company purposes are standout reasons why Workwear chose Discover e-Solutions as its enterprise PLM partner. And Discover is proud of the new partnership with Workwear Outfitters and looks forward to supporting the brand’s ongoing technology improvements.
Workwear Outfitters, based in the US, is a supplier of innovative and authentic work apparel and footwear. The company employs more than 5,800 people in facilities spanning the globe.
Discover e-Solutions, founded in 2002, and having locations in the United States and Turkey, is a market leader in digital transformation solutions including integrated end-to-end PLM software for the fashion, apparel, textile, footwear, and retail sectors. It offers a widerange of critical tools for today’s progressive and sustainability focused companies.Modular design provides flexibility and scalability to leverage digital technologies from SMB to enterprise level businesses.
Can collabs in luxury fashion be long term trend?
2021 was the year collaborations between luxury brands and popular brands helped refresh the luxury fashion scene and 2022 is turning out to be a bigger year for these fascinating fashion collabs as a host of them have been announced. From Balmain teaming up with Barbie and Dior’s entry with Technogym into the world of fitness or Prada’s recreating of Adidas classics; these limited- edition launches are setting the world of fashion ablaze. Of course, these provides fillip to both the collaborating brands, but can such collaborations be sustained for the long term or are designed just for one time experiences, remains to be seen.
Adidas by Prada
What could be more favored than one of the most popular sports brand teaming up with the cutting edge Italian luxury brand? Their cooperation has been such a success story that they've just unveiled their third portfolio. This time the focus has shifted - it isn’t just about trainers this time as the collab will be releasing their first ever capsule collection of co-branded apparel and accessories, centered forcefully around sustainability. Reimagining luxury sportswear with a sustainable outlook, all nylon will be removed out for Prada’s signature Re-Nylon fabric, which is made from recycled plastic waste collected from abysses. The 21- piece range will feature sportswear including tracksuits and anoraks, as well as bucket hats, bags and a reinvented, Prada- ingrained interpretation of Adidas’s Forum trainers.
Balmain x Barbie
Another traffic stopping, attention grabbing collab is the heritage French haute couture brand and the most popular doll in the world sashaying into the world of fashion. This is a sporty limited- edition collection, with the emphasis totally on fun. When there’s Barbie, there's plenty of her signature pink, with Olivier Rousteingusing a colour palette that ranges from the palest of blushes to bold fuchsia across over 50 pieces. Several of Balmain’s hand bags have been blended with Barbie packaging to produce quirky hybrids, while badges, t- shirts and hoodies have been designed to combine the doll’s distinctive aesthetic with the maison’siconic outlines. The genderless range was inspired by Barbie’s beau, Ken, too, and alongside the ready- to- wear pieces there will also be a series of Barbie and Ken NFTs that will be auctioned off online.
Charles & Keith x Shushu/ Tong
Accessories brand Charles & Keith had already partnered with famed Danish developer Cecilie Bahnsen in 2020. Charles & Keith just launched a new capsule collection with popular Gen Z brand Shushu/ Tong. The limited- edition collection consists of two bags and two pairs of shoes, all featuring Shushu/ Tong’s distinctly edgy style and centered on the rose. The iconic pieces are the square- toed patent leather Mary Janes in red and black, which feature distinctive rose detailing on the straps. Alongside these sit a classic box shoulder bag in red, with the distinctive rose print, while a black pair displays a single rose.
Dior Vibe and Technogym
Luxury French fashion house and fitness brand Technogym become collaborators for the Dior Vibe line. Excitement is in the air as Dior is all set to launch a series of pop- up stores to show their sleek and shiny new range of sportswear. From Dior’s Étoile and Oblique prints across leggings, sports bras and anoraks, the collection also includes accessories, shoes and bags. And Technogym inspired series limited edition workout equipment including drill bench to an exercise ball, printed with the Dior star.
Times are changing as heritage luxury and haute couture brands refresh themselves with collabs that the new Gen Z and late millennials can relate to. As their purchasing power impacts the sector, further brands will look for similar collabs to stay seductive and applicable.
