Knitting Today June 2019

Unveiling industry best practices

Knitting & knitwear June 2019

A Textile Today Initiative l Published with Volume 12, Issue 06 l Pages 115 to 122

Global brands are racing towards a comprehensive 3D knitting solution

Sportswear: unexplored opportunity for Bangladeshi apparel makers

Unveiling industry best practices

June 2019

Volume 12, Issue 06

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Knitting & Knitwear

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K n i t t i n g To d a y

There are many textile mills in Bangladesh, producing various types of knit and woven fabrics. They also can produce sportswear fabric by using existing set up of machinery and manpower. They can train up their people to handle synthetic fabric production. It will help the industry to get fabric within a short period of time and ship out.

Sportswear: unexplored opportunity for Bangladeshi apparel makers Ariful Islam, Merchandiser, Toray International, Inc. Sportswear has now become a fashion trend among non-athletic people. Awareness is growing to mass people for health and fitness in developing countries and the global sportswear market is tremendously booming.

Increasing participation of women in sports and fitness activities is another major driver for this growth. In 2018, the market value of sportswear was US$ 84.1 billion.

It is predicted to be worth the US $ 108.7 billion by 2025 with CAGR of 3.3%.

Said a recent research report published by QY Research Inc. The USA, the world’s largest and most respected market research publisher.

Major trend The major trend of the sportswear

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market is the combination of sportswear with fashion. With the increasing demand for trendy sportswear, manufacturers are now launching innovative products to fulfil the market demand.

Technologies are using insulator, microfiber and nano-technologies for producing sports apparel.

Now a day’s sports apparels are not only for athletes and sports persons but also popular among consumers who are interested in sports and sports related events.

Synthetic fabrics are mostly considered to be the best choice for sportswear as they are able to provide a good combination of functional properties of moisture management, softness, lightweight, insulation and dry relatively quickly.

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Major segment Sportswear market is categorized into product type and application.

More concisely it is segmented into skirts, hats, under garments and upper garments. The proportion of upper garment in 2015 is about 52%. The sales volume of sportswear in 2015 was 2000 million units.

Market player Major market player of sportswear is Nike, Adidas, Puma, Under Armour, Lululemon, Columbia sportswear, Patagonia, Marmot, The North Face, etc.

Most of the market leader of sportswear brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma and Columbia sportswear are buying from Bangladesh. Their buying volume is increasing each year. According

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to BGMEA and EPB data, in the last fiscal year 2018, sportswear export value was 10% of total export value US$ 30.62 billion.

Bangladesh’s perspective on sportswear production Bangladesh is an expert on mostly cotton and cotton blended items. There are few textile mills that can produce the synthetic fabric. Sportswear manufacturers are mainly depending on imported fabric.

Leading athletic apparel, accessoroes & footwear companies in 2018 by sales (million $) 40000 35000 30000

26.265

25000 20000 15000 10000

5.251

5000

“I have received a lot of work orders for sportswear garment items recently, but I do not have the fabrics. So, I have to import the fabrics from China,” a former VisePresident of BGMEA said.

The imported fabric needs a long lead time. So, it is sometimes difficult for the garment factory to get orders from the customer.

There are many textile mills in Bangladesh, producing various types of knit and woven fabrics.

They also can produce sportswear fabric by using existing set up of machinery and manpower. They can train up their people to handle synthetic fabric production. It will help the industry to get fabric within a short period of time and ship out.

“We lack in technical knowhow and we have a shortage of expert people to produce the synthetic fabric. Maintaining fabric quality during dyeing is the main challenge. We need more specialized machinery for ensuring customer required quality, which needs more investment. The owners of the textiles sometimes are not willing to invest more,” said Habibur Rahman, General Manager (Fabric), Northern Tosrifa Group.

Bangladesh can easily handle sportswear fabric manufacturing.

The same machinery which is using for cotton fabric 118

35.285

5.042

2.779

2.530

0

for synthetic fabric dyeing. Heat setting before dyeing can fix the dye stuff strongly in order to break the molecule during high pressure dyeing and finishing. High quality dyes are recommended for good color fastness. Other physical properties also can ensure by following careful handling of the dyeing stage.

 Most of the market leader of sportswear brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma and Columbia sportswear are buying from Bangladesh. Their buying volume is increasing each year.

According to BGMEA and EPB data, in the last fiscal year 2018, sportswear export value was 10% of total export value US$ 30.62 billion.

Habibur Rahman also emphasized on increasing number of synthetic yarn spinning mills. There are 425 spinning mills in Bangladesh but only 3-4 spinning mills are producing synthetic yarn. So, sportswear makers have to import synthetic yarn, especially from China.

“We are not competitive in terms of fabric prices with China due to this,” said Habibur Rahman.

manufacturing can be used for synthetic fabric except for the jacquard and seamless items.

For jacquard and seamless items require sophisticated machine settings and expert people. The machine is needed to remove sharp edges avoid pulling of yarn from fabric as these mostly uses filament yarn. Gloves can be used during the handling of fabric.

Special dyes and chemicals selection are important points

“To reduce the fabric price, we need to set up dedicated textile mills, who will produce only synthetic fabric. Which will consume the big volume of yarn, dyes, and chemicals, reducing the cost. Transportation cost of yarn and dyes-chemicals is swelling the fabric manufacturing cost.”

“Most branded chemical manufacturers have plants in China those are helping Chinese supplier for reducing fabric manufacturing cost. Our entrepreneurs should deeply consider this and can invest more on these types of Primary Textile Sector (PTS),” Habibur Rahman concluded.

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Sweater

Sweater manufacturers are switching over to automated production system FT Research Team A technological shift has been taking place in the country’s readymade garment sector especially in sweater segment as manufacturers are switching over to an automated production system, industry people said.

The main purposes behind the shift are to grab the growing demands for value-added items, increase the productivity of their units and also avoid any untoward labor unrest that took place over wage issues.

A good number of sweater units have already installed the required machines for automation, while some are installing and others are actively considering it, industry insiders said.

The sweater factory workers get their wage on the basis of piecerate - the number of pieces they produce daily - and the rate is not fixed in the sector. Usually, it is the owners, who fix the piece-rate.

Industry people said they import the automatic machines, mainly from Germany, Japan, and China. Chinese machines are comparatively cheaper than those of Germany and Japan.

According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), about 786 sweater factories are being operated in the country, employed around 7,00,000 workers.

In 1985, a sweater factory with 366 machines first set up in the country with creating employment for some 570 workers, according to the trade body.

Jersey, pullover, cardigans and waistcoats are the major items shipped to the European Union, the USA and Canada. France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain and Poland are the major EU markets while Japan and Russia are the potential non-traditional markets for locally made sweater items, industry people said.

Exports earnings from sweater items are also increasing each year.

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and other compliance issues,” he said.

A manual machine costs only $300 to $700 where an automated jacquard machine ranged between $2,000 to $30,000, Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, Figure: Export earnings from sweater items stood at $3.67 Vice President of billion in the fiscal year of 2017-18, making the items top Bangladesh Knitwear five readymade garments (RMG) items.

Manufacturers and Exporters Association The country earned only $70.41 (BKMEA) said. million in the fiscal year of 1995According to the BKMEA leader 96 from sweater items exports, almost all sweater factories have according to Export Promotion installed the automated machine, Bureau (EPB) data. many of them might not go for Now the earnings from sweater full automation. This is because items stood at $3.67 billion in to address labor issues including the fiscal year of 2017-18, making shortage of workers, possible the items top five readymade unrest over payment. garments (RMG) items.

Though automation resulted in job Moshiul Azam Shajal, Managing loss of workers, it has increased Director of Fame Sweaters productivity, help producing more Ltd, said many of the sweater designed based sweater items with factories have invested a huge embroidery and value-added items. amount of money in setting The BGMEA leader explained that automated system in their units an automated Jacquard machine in recent years mainly to increase is not only able to produce productivity and reduce the cost diversified and fashionable related to workers and others. products, but can also fabricate “But exports are not increasing as critical designs, not possible with required as we are not getting fair the manual ones. price of products in line with the “Complexities over the payment of investment made in automation workers are mainly experienced in BD’s sweater export growth to the knitting sector, and automation is largely taking place in this world (Source: EPB) segment,” said Mohammad Hatem, Year Growth a former leader of Bangladesh 2008-2009 26.09% Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

2009-2010 -3.40% 2010-2011

38.59%

2011-2012

-5.94%

2012-2013

11.98%

2013-2014

11.91%

2014-2015

-3.54%

2015-2016

12.49%

2016-2017

5.63%

2017-2018

9.32%

A manual machine needs one operator and can produce a maximum of five pieces a day.

On the other hand, an automatic machine, operated by a single operator, can produce about 30 pieces a day, he explained. So, many owners are opting for those expensive automatic machines to remain cost competitive in the long run.

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Global brands are racing towards a comprehensive 3D knitting solution Pailung Machinery Mill Co. Ltd. — and fully automating shoe upper manufacturing.

In recent years, consumer preferences have quickly swayed towards knitted shoe uppers due to two different yet related phenomena. First, as environmental consciousness penetrates societies around the world, demand for leather shoes is also declining considerably, resulting in a subsequent increase in demand for textile-based shoes.

Second, an acute cultural shift towards athleticism and wellness has manifested itself in rising demand for athletic footwear. In response, manufacturers began focusing even more heavily on knitted shoe upper production.

In 2012, Nike and Adidas both launched a line of virtually seamless, knitted shoes, and were met with incredible success. Not only does the seamless design provide an almost “second-skin” feel, but removing cutting from the production process has significantly cut down on waste — 60% in the case of the Nike FlyKnit — while simultaneously reducing labor hours and environmental impact, improving inventory management, accelerating to market time, and allowing for ultimate customization.

However, there are still distinct limitations to current seamless knitting technology. First, while the process is markedly less labor intensive than traditional cut-and-sew methods, it is not yet fully automated.

In search of a more perfect solution, shoe upper manufacturers are looking to 3D knitting, which promises to all but eliminate human labor from the production process and break through the seamless knitted shoe bottleneck.

Fully automated production At present, a factory with 100 flat knitting machines will need at least 200 people to handle subsequent finishing work, because current production processes continue to

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Lower environmental impact Raw materials also represent a considerable expense in the shoe manufacturing process, which is only aggravated by extreme fabric waste. Warp knitting machines, for example, waste around 2025% of fabric during production (an equivalent of approximately 132.6 tons per million pairs).

Using 3D knitting solutions, each upper is completed individually and requires no cutting or sewing post-production, resulting in a completely seamless shoe upper — and reducing waste by as much as 60%, in the case of the Nike FlyKnit.

rely on labor-intensive cutting and sewing steps. As such, labor costs for global shoe manufacturers remain stubbornly high.

While the seamless knitting production method demonstrated

by Nike and Adidas has eliminated cutting from the post-production process — significantly reducing labor — it is not yet fully automated. After a seamless shoe upper is knitted, each shoe upper still needs to be individually heat-set, and then sewn to the insole. This labor-intensive postproduction process presents a considerable obstacle towards further developing seamless shoe upper manufacturing.

3D seamless knitting technology may be exactly what the industry needs to solve this problem. This new technology enables flat knitting machines to produce a complete shoe upper — ready to be directly connected to the sole — with a single machine. This leap in knitting technology presents an exciting possibility of completely eliminating labor-dependent cutting, sewing and heat-setting from the shoe production process

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Furthermore, replacing leather with textiles has a positive impact on the environment. While leather shoes only account for a quarter of overall footwear production, they are responsible for an estimated 30-80% of global impacts on all metrics, including climate change, resource use and freshwater withdrawal. This is in stark contrast to textile shoes, which only represent 6-21% of total impact in the same categories.

Faster to market time Matt Powell, a well-known sneaker expert and vice president of the market-research firm NPD, believes traditional marketing and distribution plans are unable to keep pace with modern consumer preferences. In an interview with Quartz, he noted that average concept-to-market time is approximately 18 months, if everything goes smoothly (which it rarely does). At the same time, fashion cycles are compressing.

He provides the notable example of performance basketball shoes, which began to catch on in early 2012, died by mid-2015.

If the lifecycle of modern trends has been compressed to just

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3.5 years, the concept-tomarket process will need to be adjusted accordingly. The Adidas Speedfactory is one attempt to close this gap. By bringing production closer to consumers, Adidas has managed to accelerate to market time by a factor of 3.

In the future, Adidas hopes their Speedfactory will be able to complement their original production lines by quickly producing limited runs of customized products, or replenishing certain products that are selling more quickly than expected. 3D knitting opens the possibility of streamlining conceptto-market time by implementing a realistic local production solution.

Reduce inventory costs On average, inventory costs generally represent 20-30% of the total inventory value. Even the most accomplished inventory managers are unable to bring inventory costs down to zero, partly because it’s so difficult to accurately predict how well or poorly a certain item will sell.

Overstocking unpopular items is a big source of loss for many retailers, and is a pain point many are looking to resolve.

3D knitting offers a solution to the inventory problem. Rather than estimate consumer demand months ahead of time — and risk losses due to unsold inventory — 3D knitting opens the possibility to manufacture locally according to real-time demand. While this particular solution is still in its infancy, there is plenty of potential for 3D knitting to begin developing in this direction.

More personalized As professional service companies Deloitte, McKinsey and Company, and PWC all indicate, global consumers are demanding more personalization. As such, manufacturers the world over are finding ways to deliver customized products, which has led to new sales models such as PAM, Speedfactory, and inhouse production — all of which emphasize local production and faster distribution.

This is one of the major advantages of 3D knitting.

Because 3D knitting solution offers a local production option, customers can order customized shoes and have them delivered within a few days, cutting down manufacturing and distribution

time from several months to just a few days. The Adidas Speedfactory is beginning to realize this concept on a smaller scale; in the future, they are hoping to equip each retail store with a 3D knitting machine so customers can take their foot measurements and order customized shoes in store.

The future of 3D knitting Although the entire shoe manufacturing industry is marching towards 3D knitting solutions, they still have a long way to go before they develop a comprehensive solution. For a 3D knitting solution to truly become practical, it needs to be able to knit a double-sided upper while maintaining the versatility and flexibility of shoe uppers.

The seamless shoe uppers that are in existence today have been manufactured using a slightly improved sock machine, producing an end product that is much too thin, ‘tongue-less’, and rather limited in terms of design possibilities.

As such, current technologies still require a certain amount of processing post-production.

There is still a lot of room for improvement, but it’s certainly an exciting industry to watch.

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