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reaction, but thoughtful development ongoing," explains Nora Stowell, global sales and marketing leader at W.L. Gore & Associates. The company updated internal systems enabling associates to work better together, and enhanced customer relations while also effectively introducing new product to a broad audience. Gore-Tex One serves as a good example. The self-serve online portal was already in the works pre-pandemic with a handful of customers, but the platform, initially serving predominately garment customers, now includes footwear, gloves and accessories. Customers can look up a laminate, check order status, find factory certification information and provide retailers with marketing material. "It's like logging into a bank account to check your balance, pay a bill, etc.," says Stowell. What she finds most interesting is how Gore-Tex One influences Gore's MPS score, an operating model for a successful custom- er-focused strategy. Stowell explains, "One thing we track, for example, is ease of doing business. And the positive digital experience with the portal is higher than those who aren't on the portal, and has led to higher sales." Stowell expects this trend to grow and in the future all of Gore's customers will interact with the company this way. "This direct link with the digital customer is a big piece of Gore's digital journey with measurable results," Stowell states. Going virtual has proved positive in product induction, sales meetings and retail sales training. Earlier this Fall, Gore introduced the use of expanded Polyethylene (ePE) as a new comple- mentary material platform to serve as the basis for its membrane technologies. (The company has combined its expanded polyethylene (ePE) with another polymer, polyurethane (PU) that improves performance and durability. Beginning in the Fall/Winter 2022 season, the new ePE membrane will appear in general outdoor and lifestyle garments, lifestyle footwear and snow sports gloves.) The ePE virtual launch was a professional- ly-done Microsoft Teams live event with a 45 minute presentation that combined participa- tion by different members of Gore's leadership team and pre-recorded videos."The reach that digital has been able to play has been huge," says Stowell. Gore hosted its first global sales meeting with 400 attendees. Whereas in the past associates would have to travel to attend, with some associ- ates then flying every week to see customers, this event had a significantly smaller carbon footprint, and smaller expenses. Currently in the works is Gore-Tex Brand Voices, an eight episode podcast series featuring Gore's sustainability journey, the new ePE product and Gore's new tagline around responsible performance. Gore is also gearing up for Fall '22 with its "Experience More Tour," a retail staff training program centered on digital e-learning regarding ePE. COTTON INCORPORATED Growing Recognition of Change "We had the foresight a number of years ago to create cottonworks and COVID brought home the true value of having that kind of connectivity," says Mark Messura, SVP global supply chain marketing at Cotton Incorporated. "Because we had already built the road — the infrastructure to connect — it allowed us to launch in the height of the pandemic, during a chaotic and disruptive time." According to Messura, starting four years ago there was growing recognition within Cotton Incorporated that the industry was going to design differently using digital tools. "We looked at transformative technology that changed the way we market the cotton supply chain. Is it automated manufacturing? Is it Blockchain? And we identified the impact of 3D design with companies like Browzwear, CLO and Optitex gaining traction." Two other harbingers of change were curriculum updates at leading universities (Cotton Inc., works extensively with academia) and what was happening in industries outside of textiles. "We saw the way GPS technology was changing the way farmers do business, for example," Messura explains. Cotton Inc's cottonworks is a comprehensive online digital platform that serves as a one- stop for industry. "Cottonworks gave us both an opportunity and a challenge," states Megan Peterson, director of marketing and industry programs. "It's an opportunity to get in front of more people, but the challenge is to get them there. We enhanced our virtual marketing efforts, as example, getting on websites where customers are to redirect them to cottonworks. We advanced our email marketing efforts and tripled the number of webinars, giving us another reason to reach out to people and get them to the site," Peterson explains. "Pre-Pandemic was an in-person world, now we're in a virtual world. We have a great asset; it was a matter of how we were going to leverage it." And it worked. According to Peterson, num- bers are up significantly, there is more traction on the site, and visitors stay longer. "Our bounce rates are down and our metrics are quite good." Now the challenge is how to keep customers coming back. Content is key. To that end, a big effort went into the rollout of cottonworks DIgital Fabrics content. Recycling and circularity is trending so cottonworks has focused on providing informa- tion on these topics. Performance technologies is also highly trafficked on the site, so there is continuing education around that as well as teaching new fundamentals. Videos are playing a larger role. Peterson says they have just finished five videos on their technologies. "Videos are a great way to get a lot of information out in a short period of time," 44 • January/February 2022 sportstyle • sportstylemag.com DESIGN/TEXTILE SHOW AND TELL "This direct link with the digital customer is a big piece of Gore's digital journey with measurable results." Nora Stowell, global sales and marketing leader, W.L. Gore & Associates "Pre-pandemic was an in-person world, now we're in a virtual world. We have a great asset; it was a matter of how we were going to leverage it." Megan Peterson, director marketing and industry programs, Cotton Incorporated

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