The challenges cotton farmers face varies widely across countries and are influenced by both global and local economies, policies, and infrastructure. In India, for example, smallholder farmers can face debt, limited access to modern technology, and vulnerability to price swings. In all geographies, rising climate challenges—such as unpredictable rainfall and prolonged droughts—are major concerns.

Bangladesh’s reliance on fossil fuels, particularly coal and gas, poses a significant challenge to decarbonising its apparel sector. Shifting this entrenched energy mix requires more than just technology; it demands coordinated action across policy, infrastructure, and finance.

Fibre sorting remains one of the biggest technical and economic hurdles in textile recycling, particularly for mixed-material fabrics. At Re:inventex, we’ve adopted a pragmatic approach that combines manual sorting with basic composition testing and pre-sorting based on visual and tactile assessments.

Downstream recycling facilities may have different requirements in terms of composition, tolerance to the presence of other materials, length of fibres entering their processes, or particle sizes. This applies to both garments and footwear. Automated removal of hard spots can also be considered a preparation step.

Digital Product Passports alone will not revolutionise our industry, the data they contain will. Aware makes Digital Product Passports (DPPs) automatic, accurate, and verifiable. As supply chain data is logged, starting at the fibre level, it’s sealed to a digital token and carried forward with each batch. Our system integrates this data into a DPP.

If a brand waits for ideal conditions before acting, it risks missing one of the most accessible levers for reducing emissions now. The value for a company, both from an attitude approach and from a behaviour approach to integrate the cost of RE (or, renewable electricity) into their product cost cannot be overestimated. By setting renewable electricity as a hygiene factor for suppliers, we can normalise it across our operations.

One underappreciated point about the garment industry is its own variegation, even within a single factory. If you work in an ironing section, or in the warehouse, then your risk of heat stress is far greater than if you work in the sewing section. So, however small the context, we can never ignore labour as a factor in heat stress.

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.

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.