Femnet e.V.

Despite significant challenges in the fashion industry over the past few years due to Covid-19, we are encouraged by the number of brands using next-gen materials in their products. The number of fashion, automotive, and home goods brands interested in next-gen materials has increased along with the supply of next-gen materials. This market trend is not surprising given the increased consumer demand for animal-free and environmentally friendly products and the development of new technologies allowing for significant improvement in the aesthetics and performance of next-gen materials.

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This tool offers a new perspective on buyer-supplier relationships by examining those relationships through the lens of partnership quality. Using just 12 subjective measures, the BBPI opens up new opportunities to learn about the impacts of purchasing practices by enabling suppliers in a range of industries and supply chain tiers to participate.

A total of 679 ratings were received during the 2021 ratings cycle. One hundred buyers were rated, including 94 buyers in the Softgoods category and 6 in the Hardgoods category (buyers that sell product types other than apparel, footwear, and household textiles). Most ratings were for Softgoods buyers (519 ratings), while the remaining were for Hardgoods buyers (160 ratings).

The suppliers that submitted ratings were from 50 different countries and regions, with nearly half of the ratings coming from the following areas: China (16.2% of all ratings), Taiwan (10.3%), the United States (9.9%), Hong Kong (6.3%), and South Korea (5.9%).

Key takeaways:

• Suppliers are under much pressure: many buyers never, rarely, or sometimes providing enough time, adequate visibility, stable business, and fair financials
• Many buyers are missing opportunities to improve their businesses by not seeking their suppliers’ ideas for product and process innovation
• Suppliers seem to currently have a low bar for what they consider an acceptable business relationship
• Buyer supply chains are further threatened by potential supply disruption, higher costs, and increased reputational risks.

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Weltweit werden immer mehr Textilien produziert – mit gravierenden Folgen für die Umwelt. Ein möglicher Lösungsansatz: eine kreislauffähige Textilwirtschaft mit funktionierenden Recyclingprozessen und entsprechenden Infrastrukturen. Das Forschungsprojekt „DiTex - Digitale Technologien als Enabler einer ressourceneffizienten kreislauffähigen B2B-Textilwirtschaft“ erprobt im Charakter einer Machbarkeitsstudie eine kreislauffähige Textilwirtschaft im Geschäftskundensegment, d.h. im Bereich Business-to-Business (B2B). Dahinter steht die Einschätzung, dass bei Berufsbekleidung und Flachwäsche (Bettwaren, Handtücher) im gewerblichen Kontext enorme Volumina identischer Textilien im Umlauf sind und die Logistik über jeweils fixe Ausgabe- und Rücknahmepunkte in den einzelnen Einrichtungen gut organisiert und etabliert ist. Die Beteiligten in diesem Projektverbund erachten es in besonderem Maße für möglich, in dieser weitgehend geschlossenen B2B-Textilwirtschaft einen ressourceneffizienten ökologischen Materialeinsatz mit einem dienstleistungsbasierten und auf häufige Nutzungszyklen ausgerichteten Geschäftsmodell zu verbinden, das digitale Technologien smart nutzt. DiTex will dafür eine Erprobungsplattform sein.

Dieser Integrative Forschungsbericht (IB) stellt eine möglichst vollständige Ergebnisdokumentation der DiTex-Arbeiten nach zwei von insgesamt drei Jahren Vorhabenslaufzeit dar. Alle bis Sommer 2021 in den Arbeitspaketen (AP) 1 und 2 erzielten Recherche- und Prüfergebnisse werden in diesem Bericht dokumentiert, ausgewertet und interpretiert.

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Textiles and plastics are two of the key product value chains that are considered a priority in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan (EC, 2020a). As a result, the EEA has devoted specific attention to textiles and plastics in the circular economy, building the knowledge base on the textiles and plastics systems, their environmental and social impacts, and potential pathways to more sustainable and circular systems.

The briefing Textiles in Europe’s Circular Economy (EEA, 2019) and its underpinning ETC report Textiles and the environment in a circular economy (ETC/WMGE, 2019) highlighted the sector’s significant environmental impacts, ranking textiles as the fourth most significant in the use of primary raw materials and water – after food, housing and transport, and fifth for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The study also highlighted that synthetic fibres have overtaken cotton in the production of clothing, household textiles and technical textiles.

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The article presents changes that took place in the textile and apparel (T&A) industry in Poland in the years 2004–2020. To describe the changes, we adopted the supply chain management perspective, which allowed for a global view of the changes taking place. We discuss the basic characteristics, such as the size and structure of the industry, innovation, production value, and the use of information and communications technology (ICT). In the research, we used the databases of the Central Statistical Office (GUS) on the sold production of the T&A industry, as well as imports and exports. Our research shows that, at the level of basic characteristics, the industry is close

to the European model. However, it is characterized by a smaller share of small companies in the structure of enterprises. The research showed an upward trend in the production of sold textiles and, to a lesser extent, apparel. At the same time, the operation of the Polish T&A industry is influenced by the import of finished products and raw materials from China, Germany, Bangladesh, and Turkey. The export is directed to the German, Czech, Romanian, and Ukrainian markets. The article provides an overview of the development trends in the Polish T&A industry in the broad context of international conditions.

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