Textile Insight

Chad Kelly, Director, eVent fabrics "A chaotic marketplace confirms that eVent's focus must be on choosing and serving the right partners. The right partners, and their customers at retail, appreciate recognize eVent's performance benefits. So we will continue to advance engineering and manufacturing solutions that elevate our technologies so that users can feel appreciable differences in performance." Cindy McNaull, Global Brand & Marketing, Cordura "At the Cordura brand, we stand behind the importance of long-lasting products powered by performance-driven, durable fabrics. With this importance resonating in the marketplace now more than ever, we continue to partner with our valuable authorized mills, brand customers and designers to push the limits of durability. The power of innovation is collaboration, and together, we are able to combine our best attributes to offer fresh new fabric solutions and products that can stand the test of time." Colleen Nipkow, Global Marketing Director, Polygiene "At Polygiene, our main focus is to support our current and future brand partners by delivering a high-value product with superior co-branding support. As more brands are calling out differentiators with ingredient brands, the brands, retailers and e-tailers all benefit with our sell-through advantage and stronger sustainability story with Wear More. Wash Less." Shawn Honeycut, Sales Manager, Bolger & O'Hearn "We are not distracted by the shrinking number of the retail doors. We are nimble and built for uncertainty — change is part of our DNA. Our technology pipeline is well vetted and we see no lack of confidence from our brand partners. We are fully focused on the next textile evolution for our brand partners and any uncertainty has only made the next performance story that much more important." Joel Furey, Chief Commercial Officer/Founder, Noble Biomaterials "Despite the ever-changing global landscape, consumers remain steadfast in their pursuit of value, seeking products that provide tangible benefits - physical, emotional and financial. In 2017 we continue to focus on delivering technology that improves people's lives every day. Our consumer insights support that the benefit of odor management in apparel and of biometric monitoring through smart fabrics are critical needs in the marketplace. Our job, in strategic partnership with brands, is to bring innovations to life in a way that will provide real value for consumers." Mike Adams, Mountain Sports Business Leader, W.L. Gore "While our focus will remain on great products, we're spending much more time and effort on how to bring those products to market successfully. Navigating the 'post-consolidated' retail world is likely the most critical addition to our focus. Retail has become much more experiential for consumers and more consolidated generally, with fewer larger players and seemingly weekly bankruptcies. Brands are seeking to ensure access to their consumers by building out their DTC channels. We've begun to change our approach to product introductions and marketing investments in order to account for these dynamics and we'll continue to be focused going forward on challenging outdated business models, ensuring that great products come equipped with the ability to drive compelling stories for our customers, and enabling our customers to have a differentiated offering in the context of our product line." Jay Hertwig, Executive Global Brand Sales & Marketing Manager, Unifi "Regardless of challenging retail market conditions, consumers continue to demand performance, comfort and eco-friendly properties in products that are sold online and in stores. As millennials quickly become the 'next customer,' brands and retailers will have to increase their commitment to the aspects of the purchase decision that matter most to this group. Unifi aims to fulfill this need by continuing to focus on sustainability through innovation with brands like Repreve, Sorbtek, Reflexx, Cotton-like, and XS Technology. We have been committed to transparency and trust since day one, and we will continue to use our Repreve brand, and our other PVA brands, to showcase that to our customers, and consumers. No matter how the business or industry changes, Unifi will work to be the solutions provider to brands and retailers." O textileinsight.com 42 • Textile Insight ~ July/August 2017 STRATEGIES 2017 "Navigating the 'post-consolidated' retail world is likely the most critical addition to our focus."

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