Cotton production in Nigeria has fallen. Among the reasons for this fall are: absence of improved seeds, pest infestation, price fluctuation, and a dearth of ginneries and textile mills. The cotton industry in Nigeria used to be very viable, employing a large number of people.

But this became history right from the 1990s. The capacity utilization which was more than 63 per cent dipped considerably. The number of textile mills dropped. The entire industry has virtually become moribund. Production of cotton in Nigeria is dominated by small scale farmers.

Now efforts are being made to develop improved seeds for farmers to increase productivity, in addition to the development of Bt cotton, a genetically modified, pest resistant plant cotton variety that will increase yield. Bt cotton is expected to be made available for farmers in the next planting season.

The expectation is if farmers have access to Bt cotton, the issue of pest infestation and low yield will become a thing of the past, thereby boosting activities in the entire value chain. Farmers are also looking for viable markets. They say allowing foreign markets to determine the price of the produce has helped in killing the cotton industry in the country.

Denim has become a very important segment for Uniqlo. But Uniqlo doesn’t follow denim trends such as busted knees or heavy patchworks. It’s about everyday staples such as skinnies, straight legs and boyfriend jeans with decent washes and treatments.

The retailer is known for its offer in basic jeans, designed in line with the whole collection‘s basic approach. Uniqlo aims for innovation in new technologies and generally invests in developments. In 2016 mother company Fast Retailing set up the Jeans Innovation Center in Los Angeles, a lab to develop new technologies in terms of the three fs–fabric, fit and finishing.

In the past, Fast Retailing had outsourced the production of samples and other operations to external manufacturers, but with this new center the company will now be able to manage the entire process in-house with the aim to considerably enhance the speed and quality of the products. In addition, the facility will focus on environmentally friendly processing and production methods, conducting R&D on chemicals and techniques used for fading and distressing of jeans.

All Uniqlo stores follow strict rules of arranging product groups, knitwear, T-shirts, underwear or jeans. Everything is either hanging or neatly folded and accurately stacked, showing the Japanese attention to detail and perfection.

Apparel Textile Sourcing Miami will be held from May 20 to 22, 2019. This is the second edition of Florida’s first ever international apparel and textile show. It is the largest apparel and textile sourcing show in the southern US and Latin America.

Dozens of apparel and textile organizations – from some 15 countries –will have a presence at the show. ATSM 2019 event, which presents three days of networking, seminars and fashion shows and connects Southeastern US, the Americas and the Caribbean to the production world of apparel, textile, and fashion – will host more than 300 international and domestic manufacturing companies exhibiting a wide range of products and process solutions in the field of manufacturing and sourcing services.

The 2019 event is expected to double in size from this year’s inaugural show. Apparel Textile Sourcing Miami is expected to attract a large number of domestic and international industry decision makers and promote Florida as a premier destination for the industry and stimulate the local economy.

The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textile and Apparel, the largest textile and apparel trade agency in the world, supports ATSM. ATSM’s sister shows are Apparel Textile Sourcing Canada and Apparel Textile Sourcing Germany.

Levi Strauss is planning an initial public offering. The company is likely to go public in the first quarter of 2019 and is aiming to debut with a valuation of about five billion dollars. This could be the company's return to the public markets, nearly five decades after going private.

The company first went public in 1971, but descendants of Levi Strauss, the creator of the blue jeans, took the company private shortly after. For the latest quarter the company’s sales rose ten per cent and net income jumped 44 per cent, mainly due to demand for its jeans at both retail stores and online.

Levi Strauss has undertaken a series of leadership moves designed to streamline decision-making and consolidate accountability for core business growth drivers. The company has established a new strategy and analytics organization, elevating the importance of data and analytics and pairing it with strategy to shape the future. This addition reflects the company’s belief that it has an untapped competitive advantage in unleashing the power of data and analytics.

The expansion of its retail network along with the emergence of digital has increasingly given the company a direct relationship with consumers — one that did not exist when the company was exclusively a wholesaler.

For the third quarter JC Penney’s net sales declined 5.8 per cent. Comparable sales fell 5.4 per cent on an unshifted basis. Marking out the calendar shift this year due to the 53rd week in 2017, comparable sales dropped down by 4.5 per cent.

The US-based department store chain’s women’s and men’s apparel along with accessories were the brand’s top performing segments in the recently concluded quarter. The company expects comparable sales for fiscal 2018 to be in low single digits. JC Penney operates more than 860 stores across the US, Puerto Rico and also offers its services via its exclusive e-commerce platform.

JC Penney finds itself weighed down by years of errors and muddled attempts to establish a clear identity with shoppers.

By the end of 2010, sales had fallen ten per cent from their 2006 high. Without testing shoppers’ reactions first, JC Penney changed its advertisements, its logo, its store designs and its pricing model, all attempts to make the retailer more palatable to wealthier shoppers. Penney ditched top private-label brands with loyal followings and introduced new ones that had little relevance to low- and middle-income customers.

As rivals adopted digital strategies and invested to improve their store experiences, Penney's financial distress gave it little room to spruce up stores, buy trendy merchandise, and hire more employees.

Gap will start closing a part of its 775 brand specialty stores globally, due to underperformance. Details on the locations and sequencing of the upcoming closures are yet to come, but the specifics should come as part of the forecast for FY2019., Gap plans to continue growing its e-commerce business, which makes up roughly 20 percent of revenue, and the more than 500 Gap outlet stores that account for about 30 percent of total Gap Global revenue.

The other 50 per cent of revenue for Gap stores all comes from the ailing specialty store segment of Gap Global and there is a wide variance in profitability among the group. The company’s sales declined 7 per cent in Q3 and earnings per share guidance for FY2018 narrowed to $2.55 to $2.60 from the previous guidance of $2.55 to $2.70. Meanwhile, sales were up 4 percent at Old Navy and up 2 percent at Banana Republic.

C&A has released the world’s first Cradle to Cradle certified Gold denim jeans. The jeans innovation posed both a material and design challenge that required designers to be open-minded and flexible in the way they utilized materials.

Cradle to Cradle is a science-based quality certification that acknowledges continuous improvement and innovation of products and processes. The release of C&A’s jeans comes on the heels of the first ever Cradle to Cradle certified Gold, fully compostable T-shirt collection launched in 2017. The denim jeans provide an example of ways to collaborate within the industry to split the materials into biological and technical nutrients to create a closed-loop system of design.

The challenge was in creating a garment that has the same performance as traditional models, but doing so in a way that is either 100 per cent technical or 100 per cent biological to allow them to return to their respective cycles at the end of use. Another option, which was adopted for the jeans, was to make them easily separable so the biological and technical nutrients can return to their respective cycles.

All the components in the jeans were made to be easily separable so that the biological and technical nutrients can return to their respective cycles.

Although denim jeans are mostly known as a fashion garment, they are still worn as protective garments by some individuals, such as cattle ranch workers and motorcycle riders, due to their high durability as compared to other common fabrics. The global jeans market is growing at a CAGR of 0.8 per cent from 2018.

Denim jeans are a cornerstone of the American wardrobe and an important cotton product accounting for almost one-fifth of all cotton clothing at retail. They are purchased for durability, longevity, and versatility because consumers find greater value in a product they know will last longer and fit better; therefore price is not the main factor in the denim jeans purchase decision, unlike other clothing. This positioning ensures that denim jeans will continue to have a place on store shelves and in consumers’ closets.

Denim is on the upswing in the US. Retailers are starting to rebuild their denim assortments. Brands that are consumers’ favorite are Levi’s, Lee, Wrangler, Gap, Old Navy and so on.

European consumers want more transparency from apparel brands and retailers. They want fashion brands to publish the factories used to manufacture their clothes and they want fashion brands to say where the materials used in their products come from.

As per a study by Fashion Revolution, supply chain transparency and sustainability impact consumers’ purchasing decisions when shopping for clothing, accessories and shoes. When buying clothes, more than one in three consumers consider social and environmental impacts. For more people buying clothes made by workers paid a fair, living wage is important than any other topic including environmental protection, safe working conditions, animal welfare, local production and use of recycled materials.

Most people think it is important for fashion brands to reduce their long-term impacts on the world by addressing global poverty, climate change, environmental protection and gender inequality. People have an urgent, emotional desire to know more about how their clothes are made, and that they haven’t harmed the environment, the people who made them nor were tested on animals. And they want governments to hold brands and retailers to account to ensure this happens.

Fashion Revolution surveyed some 5000 European consumers aged 16 to 75 in the five largest European markets, including Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain.

A recent report by Allied Market Research reveals, the global digital textile printing machine market is expected to reach $1,248 million by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 10.0 per cent from 2018 to 2024.Surge in consciousness toward fashion and trends among consumers and growing adoption of sustainable and eco-friendly printing methods will drive market growth.

The direct-to-garment (DTG) segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 10.3 per cent from 2018 to 2024 due to high efficiency of DTG printers for short-run orders and their extensive use in the production of customised garments such as sportswear, pillow covers, tees, bottom wear, tops, and others.

However, the direct-to-fabric (DTF) segment is expected to remain dominant through the forecast period. This is because of the ability of DTF printers to print on a variety of materials such as cotton, rayon, silks, polyester blends, and others. Enhanced speed, higher print quality, and superior color gamut provided by DTF printers offer lucrative prospects for growth.

Europe contributed about 37 per cent of the total market share in 2017, while Asia-Pacific is expected to grab the largest market share by 2024, registering the fastest CAGR of 12.8 per cent from 2017 to 2024.