What are three innovative “Potential Shares” in the knitting industry of 2019?
Feb 14, 2019 ｜ by
In the past one year, Chinese knitting enterprises had realized their high-quality development via transformation and upgrade, return to the origin, quality improvement. Under the background of a weak global economic growth, inadequate driving force for market demands, and many other uncertainties, “technology plus fashion” has become the No. 1 driving force of the knitting industry, which has brought more profit-making opportunities for knitting enterprises.
3D Knitting keeping on overturning traditions
In 2018, the popularity of the 3D knitting technology in the knitting industry was self-evident. Current, the 3D knitting technology has found wide applications to China’s knitting industry.
In recent years, influenced by the emergence of fashion and functional sportwear, the downstream clients’ selection of upstream manufacturing enterprises has emphasized more on quality rather than on quantity. Consumer’s requirements of knitwear products are no longer just confined to three basic elements, including shape, color and materials. More and more consumers are expecting integration of more technologies to make knitwear products more comfortable. Nowadays, applications of the 3D knitting technology and seamless knitting technology have been extended from the basic underwear to sport underwear, swimming suits, corsets, yoga suits, T-shirts, gloves, sockets, and shoes. With optimization of technological elements, design concepts and processing technologies, knitwear has also been ushered into the “seamless era.”
Previously, an apparel is made via multiple processes, including warping, weaving, tailoring, sewing, etc. Currently, a single machine can finish weaving and forming with yarns. Moreover, personalized customization is impossible.
In the warping-made apparel production workshop, any intelligent warping machine can realize yarn-based three-dimensional knitting. All apparels can be made through formation once for all without any joints. Any styles and patterns can be customized. This is a brand-new production model.
Apparel orders can realize real-time monitoring. An apparel can be chosen in the computer system, and instructions can be sent to make the apparel in the warping and forming workshop. This is a complete breakthrough of the traditional garment-making processes. Experts predict it that, by 2021, 20% of consumables, including apparels, shoes and hats, will use 3D knitting and other new and high technologies to replace traditional production technologies.
Original design activating the potential market
“Original design”, a symbol of uniqueness and personality, has appeared on the hot search list on Taobao.com in 2018. Over the past one year, consumers have searched the keyword for more than 1 billion times. It means that nearly 2,000 consumers search this concept per minute, demonstrating a widespread interest in personalized commodities. This indicates there is still huge potential to be explored on the original design market.
The knitting industry is a comparatively complete link in the industrial chain. High-quality development and coordinated development have become a trend for yarns, equipment, process procedural redesign, R&D and ready-made products. As global brands are seeking cross-field growth, SMEs from the knitting industry wear grasp the market and consumption trend, and embark on the development path of “specialization and innovation”. Of special note is that knitting designer brands have become an indispensable part of the knitting industry. On the PH Value S/S held in March, Puyuan 320 Creative Square and Dalang Designers’ Delegation gathered on the exhibition with their designer brands, ranging from knitted sweaters, woolen sweaters, cashmere sweaters to sheep-shearing and double-faced woolen goods. This exhibition fully displayed fashion trends of original design power and knitted pattern yarns of Puyuan and Dalang, and promoted the regional brands and the characteristic of intelligent manufacturing. Apart from outputting originally-designed regional brands, this exhibition well expanded participants’ international vision and established contacts with more high-end client groups.
Professional competitions discovering more talents
In heading towards high-quality development, knitting enterprises are faced with the major difficulty of finding, recruiting and retaining the right staff. This is a major reason for lack of talents in knitting enterprises. Among a series of methods and measures to encourage talents to engage themselves to the knitting industry, various professional competitions play an important role. For example, the three professional skill competitions (warping, weft knitting and horizontal machining, respectively) organized by the China Knitting Industrial Association has realized a triennial organization model. As a competition emphasizing on cultivation of knitting design strength, “PH Value Chinese Designers’ Competition” has been successfully organized for four years. Holding of this competition has not only provided a platform for first-line employees’ self-demonstration, skill exchange, improvement of knitting design abilities, and link of the industry to fashion trends, but also turn knitting into an industry with professional skill competitions annually. Different from professional competitions for other segments of the fashion industry, the knitting designers’ competition follows a higher set of review standards and more specific and practical requirements. Apart from creativity, candidates’ knitting skills are evaluated in larger part. The warping, weft knitting and horizontal machining professional skills competitions can promote an industry-wide training and stimulate technicians to change from skilled operators to all-around operators. It is predicted that, in 2019, more similar competitions would be subsequently organized throughout the textile industry, and through these competitions, more talents will be selected via the competition.
Currently, China’s knitting industry has been developed to a stage calling for an upgrade of the design level. There has been a higher and higher requirement of talents’ comprehensive skills. Qin Wanyu, Design Director of Shanghai Nuoyi Apparel Design Co., Ltd., thought that the knitting industry should dig more top-notch talents. The professional competitions can attract and encourage more designers to participate in design activities with their professionalism and authoritativeness, and involvement of these designers can provide more inspirations for innovation of fashion trends for enterprises and set references for enterprises’ talent selection. As to the future planning of industrial competitions, Yang Jichao, President of the China Knitting Industrial Association, reaffirm that the Association will enriching the competition content, innovating forms of competitions, holding the competitions well, and providing more opportunities for the new-generation workers to display their skills.
ALL COMMENTS
