The Woolmark Company

Exhibition exposure can open doors for textile start-ups, but industrial adoption remains the harder test. After ITMA 2023, companies working in cleaner dyeing, laundry automation and fibre traceability converted visibility into trials, funding and partnerships. Their progress shows how sector-specific platforms can shorten the route from early recognition to commercial deployment across global textile manufacturing.

From runway collections to performance gear, merino wool is experiencing a broad-based revival. Australia’s benchmark EMI has jumped, reflecting tight inventories and real consumer demand. Surveys place wool among the most desirable fabrics, while brands across fashion and sport showcase its natural performance, durability and circularity, reinforcing momentum across global markets.

A four-year research programme led by Woolmark and North Carolina State University positions merino wool as a natural performance fibre, offering a clear advantage in thermal performance as it behaves well across both activity and rest phases—a critical benefit in dynamic sports.

The Woolmark+ roadmap by Woolmark marks the launch of a major 13-point future-facing programme that aims to accelerate low-impact production, promote circularity and enhance animal wellbeing and woolgrower livelihoods.

Sustainability is less of a destination and more of a journey and it is critical that stakeholders in the textile-fashion industry are honest about how they communicate their sustainability credentials to avoid greenwashing, was a thought that echoed around the sprawling grounds of the recently concluded Functional Fabric Fair at New York.

In an effort to bring about sustainable solutions to global supply chains, a project is on to trace Australian wool fibres right up to the final fabric.