Textile Insight

4 • Textile Insight ~ Fall 2024 textileinsight.com O ver the summer, I was slated to take a trip to Iceland to experience the glaciers. Unfortunately, some family health issues (and an erupting volcano) got in the way, so our family pivoted and took a road trip to the Adirondacks and Canada. While in Montreal, we checked out Olympic Stadium, home of the 1976 Summer Olympics. We were mesmerized by the scale of it all – and decided to bookend the trip with a trip to the Lake Placid Olympic Center (queue the Miracle on Ice – where U.S. Hockey beat the Soviets for gold in 1980!) and the Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jumping Complex. ere we watched athletes train, some jumping from towering structures as high as 240 feet and others flipping into giant swimming pools. It was quite the juxtaposition to see alpine skiing on a sunny, 80 degree day. Louisa Smith took an Olympic voyage of her own, going to Paris to see SPOT24 at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. e immersive experience highlighted six new Olympic disciplines from Paris 2024—skateboarding, sport climbing, BMX freestyle, surfing, 3×3 basketball, and breaking—and the adventurous performance cultures surrounding them. It seems like many things in life today (sports, weather, politics) are so extreme! When I spoke to Coolcore's Eric Schenker for this issue, he told me how tough it is to sell a winter brand today, because, where is the snow? Outdoor brands need to be more relevant in the spring and summer. In acquiring Coolcore, Schenker knew that having an ingredient brand focused on cooling would give him immediate relevance and credibility with customers who need to be developing product lineups differently for this new world. It made me think; maybe it's time to start looking at our industry – and the world – differently. Perhaps it's about minimizing – not maximizing – everything. e future of sustainability could be simply lightening, brightening and streamlining for a better planet. GOING TO EXTREMES Perhaps it's about minimizing not maximizing everything. Sue at the Lake Placid Olympic Complex. TEXTILE TALK/SUE BLECHER

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