By leveraging Portugal’s strong manufacturing base and strategic location, we offer a unique platform where exhibitors and buyers can build regional and international partnerships. Our focus is on helping participants adapt to today’s sourcing demands, prioritising speed, sustainability, and resilience in their supply networks.

LCAs are useful for broad narratives but lack the precision and facility-specific insight that EIM provides. The future lies in hybrid models, where high-level LCAs are supplemented by granular EIM data—creating a full-spectrum view of impact that satisfies both operational and regulatory needs.

At the heart of this issue is a basic misunderstanding: second-hand clothing isn’t waste, rather it’s a resource. That’s why SMART has urged the US Trade Representative to take a strong, targeted approach in removing unfair barriers. In our March 2025 comments, we encouraged action country by country: engaging Argentina to lift its long-standing ban, resolving the CAFTA-DR misinterpretation with El Salvador, and ensuring that East African countries uphold their AGOA commitments.

Wool may be just 0.9% of the global fibre market, but that only highlights the opportunity. Natural fibres like merino outperform synthetics on nearly every front—breathability, durability, biodegradability, and impact. They just need to be done right. To grow acceptance, we focus on showing—not telling. We show why Merino needs less washing. Why it lasts longer. Where it comes from. Who’s behind it. How it’s made.

What will actually competitively position man-made cellulosics from a resiliency and a sustainability perspective, will be when there's a diversification of the fibre basket. It will be when there's a significant amount of MMCF made from more circular NextGen inputs like discarded clothing, agricultural residues and industrial food waste. That will drop the carbon footprint by at least four tonnes per tonne of product. It will reduce the water that's being used by 50 percent. It will reduce the impact on biodiversity five-fold. That's the NextGen MMCF direction.

India’s weaknesses are mainly based on speed, time to market. We need to improve our sampling capabilities, the speed of sampling. China is much faster than India. And I think we're lagging approximately two weeks behind China. We also need to improve the availability and cost competitiveness of some specific raw materials. And this will then help the transformation of the Indian textile added value chain.

It is essential to take a holistic approach by examining the entire textile supply chain, mapping each stakeholder's role to gain a comprehensive understanding of their contributions and interactions. One of the key challenges in addressing this issue is the fragmented data on the supply chain, making it difficult to accurately assess the impact of each stakeholder.

Material science today is at a fascinating crossroads. While sustainability, performance, and innovation are gaining traction, the subject itself still doesn’t get the attention it truly deserves. There’s significant progress in biomaterials, regenerative textiles, and circular economy initiatives, but the deeper science behind these advancements often remains behind the scenes.

It was when I started reading the literature looking for discussion of shopping that I realised no one was really thinking about it. There was this unspoken assumption that the consumer marketplace would be the same, which didn't make sense. That's how I started examining the narrative and evidence more closely, and came to realise the big picture literally didn't add up.

In today’s digital society, personalisation represents somewhat of an adjustment from seasonal trends. That being said, we believe that both elements can work in harmony, and that forecasting will still be very important going forward. While design is an art, there is a science behind the utilisation of colours, the types of materials used, and so on, that transcend personalised items.

Denims are not as long lasting anymore as 20 years ago when elastane was not yet adopted in every single pair of jeans. Cotton fibres now have more friction and jeans last much shorter than ever before. We started with jeans because the recycling company in the Netherlands was processing those for another industry in big volumes; so, there was already established demand and infrastructure for worn out jeans.

Brands often lead in fabric selection, driven by their design vision and innovation goals. They decide on materials that align with their brand identity, target market, and seasonal trends, with many increasingly prioritising sustainability. However, as with sustainability, fabric selections are widely influenced by consumers’ evolving preferences and expectations. That is where retailers come in, providing key feedback on which fabrics perform well in various markets and affecting future offerings.

Today we serve three different textile industries with our liquid CO2 waterless cleantech. We leverage our technology: to clean and restore secondhand items from leading brands and retailers, to decontaminate firefighter gear and other PPE, and revive post-consumer raw down after extracting it from clothing and bedding.

The technology was spun out of the military in the mid-1990s. It was originally used to clean high tech metal parts. In an effort to monetise the technology outside of military applications, licenses were issued to four equipment manufacturing companies to commercialise LCO2 (liquid CO2) cleaning in the textile industry.

The prevalent form of dyes and colours has a significant environmental drawback—99% are derived from fossil resources, contributing to pollution and climate change. As the market becomes more aware of these environmental pollutions, many stakeholders are seeking ways to reduce reliance on petrochemicals and adopt circular solutions.

Taiwan boasts a complete industrial ecosystem, which we leverage to develop nano-grinding technology. In the future, beyond textiles, this technology will also be applied to construction materials, plastics, and other fields.

The production of the new product involved biofermentation to generate protein pulp, which was subsequently transformed into fibre. It’s essential for these processes to be integrated and operate simultaneously. However, this has been difficult domestically due to the decline of the American textile industry. Past efforts to manufacture bioengineered fibres in the United States fell short because they struggled with the spinning stage and were unable to produce fibres at a competitive cost.

While it’s true that not all consumer products will necessarily end up in industrial composting facilities, we believe that the process of disposal is just as crucial as the material itself. That’s why, at Balena, we’ve implemented take-back programmes designed to ensure that our materials are properly processed at the end of their lifecycle.

Manual intervention is essential in upcycling because, unlike recycling, upcycling prioritises craftsmanship and artistry. It’s a hands-on approach that transforms waste into something of higher value, rather than breaking it down into raw materials. This focus on human creativity and skill is what makes upcycling unique—and impactful.

Smaller businesses would soon find their way. These channels actually become viable for small businesses with low overheads and zero capex requirements. The channel will be neutral to both big and small players.