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The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SGCCI) has announced the launch of the Surat International Textile & Machinery Expo (SITME 2026) in partnership with the Surat Embroidery Association (SEA).
Scheduled for January 9–12, 2026, SITME 2026 is set against the backdrop of the Surat International Exhibition and Convention Centre (SIECC) in Sarsana. This four-day event is designed to pivot Surat from a mere fabric hub to a manufacturing powerhouse for high-tech embroidery machinery. This strategic shift aligns with the recent government deferment of the Quality Control Order (QCO) for textile machinery to late 2026, providing local manufacturers a crucial window to upgrade their domestic production capabilities to match international benchmarks.
Scaling productivity through computerized automation
With over 2.5 lakh embroidery machines currently operating in Surat, the city is recognized as the world’s second-largest embroidery cluster, employing nearly 12 lakh individuals. SITME 2026 arrives at a critical juncture where the industry is moving away from manual labor toward a 68 per cent market dominance of multi-head computerized systems. The expo will feature over 100 advanced machines from 60 major manufacturers across India, showcasing a ‘No-Touch’ automation and IoT-enabled predictive maintenance. These technologies are vital for local job workers facing rising labor costs, as they allow for simultaneous high-precision stitching across multiple heads, significantly reducing defects in high-value wedding and festival apparel.
Beyond pure machinery, the exhibition highlights Surat's evolving role in the global textile value chain, contributing 15–20 per cent of India’s man-made textile exports. As the industry faces a ‘Double Whammy’ of global tariffs and regional competition, the focus at SITME 2026 remains on value addition through ‘chaotic customization’ and sustainable threadwork.
As per Nikhil Madrasi, President, SGCCI, the expo acts as an ‘Industry for Industry’ platform, empowering more than 25,000 expected buyers to source the latest indigenous tech, effectively reducing the region’s historical reliance on machinery imports from China and Korea.
An apex business body in South Gujarat, SGCCI is dedicated to promoting trade, industry, and the ‘Brand Surat’ global identity through large-scale B2B exhibitions and policy advocacy.
Valued at $217.84 billion in 2025, the global kids apparel market is on a trajectory to reach $322.53 billion by 2035. This steady 4.0 per cent annual growth is being propelled by a sophisticated shift in parental priorities that favor durability and ethical production over ‘fast fashion’ disposability. Undergoing a fundamental transformation, the market is evolving from a traditional commodity market into a high-tech, sustainability-focused industry. The industry is seeing a massive migration toward eco-friendly materials and ‘smart’ textiles that offer functional benefits beyond simple aesthetics.
Material innovation and the rise of smart textiles
The integration of advanced textile technology is moving from the fringes to the mainstream. Brands are increasingly pivoting to organic cotton, bamboo fibers, and recycled polyesters to satisfy stringent safety protocols and environmental concerns. Beyond sustainability, ‘smart textiles’ are emerging as a significant value-add. Innovations such as temperature-regulating fabrics, UV-protective coatings, and stain-resistant nanotechnology are becoming standard features in premium children's wear. These functional advancements allow garments to adapt to a child’s active lifestyle, providing a tangible justification for the premium pricing often associated with high-quality kids' apparel.
While North America remains a dominant force due to high per-capita spending and a concentrated presence of global brands like Nike, Gap, and Carter’s, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is set to witness the most aggressive expansion. Urbanization and rising disposable incomes in India and China are creating a burgeoning middle class with an aspirational focus on branded kidswear. European markets follow closely, distinguished by a mature consumer base that leads the world in the adoption of sustainable clothing practices and circular fashion models. This regional diversification is forcing global players to adopt localized omnichannel strategies, blending physical specialty stores with robust digital platforms.
This shift toward ethical resilience is becoming a key differentiator, as brands that successfully communicate their sustainability credentials are the ones securing long-term consumer loyalty in an increasingly crowded global landscape.
The kids apparel industry encompasses a wide range of products - from infant sleepwear to pre-teen activewear - serving a demographic that requires frequent wardrobe updates due to rapid physical growth.
Highlighting the textile sector's role as India's second-largest employer, Vice President C. P. Radhakrishnan called for a strategic push toward Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and factory modernization to secure India's position as a global fashion powerhouse.
Speaking at the AEPC Excellence Honours held at Hotel ITC Maurya on Saturday, the Vice President presented awards to 27 companies for outstanding export performance. Harish Ahuja of Shahi Exports Private Ltd. was the evening's top honoree, receiving the gold trophy as the Global Export Champion for 2023-24-25.
Resilience amid global headwinds
Despite a volatile global economy, the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) reported a 10% growth in exports for the 2024–25 period. November 2025 alone saw an 11.3% jump over the previous year, bringing cumulative Ready-Made Garment (RMG) exports for April–November to $10.08 billion.
"Textiles offer a much better return per dollar investment and are critical for economic growth," the Vice President stated. He emphasized that FTAs are essential to provide Indian exporters a "level-playing field" against competitors like Bangladesh.
The road to $40 bn
The Indian government has set an ambitious target of $40 billion in apparel exports by 2030, part of a larger $350 billion textile market goal. Vice President Radhakrishnan credited initiatives like the PM MITRA Parks and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for creating a future-ready ecosystem.
AEPC Chairman Sudhir Sekhri noted that while geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions remain challenges, the industry’s shift toward sustainability and ethical sourcing is strengthening "Brand India."
The event also saw the launch of “Threads of Time: Story of India’s Textile,” a coffee table book chronicling the nation’s journey from ancient looms to modern global leadership.
Marking a watershed moment for the nation’s textile and fashion industry, India and Oman have signed the India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) This landmark deal eliminates the long-standing 5 per cent import duty on Indian textiles, unlocking a strategic gateway to the broader Gulf and African markets. Industry analysts predict this ‘zero-duty’ access will catalyze a $2 billion rise in overall exports over the next three years, with apparel serving as a primary engine of growth.
Duty-free access redefines export competitiveness
Under the new framework, Oman has granted immediate duty-free access to 98.08 per cent of its tariff lines, covering virtually all Indian textile and readymade garment (RMG) exports by value.
This move is strategically timed as Indian exporters face rising protectionism in Western markets. The CEPA makes Indian fashion products instantly more price-competitive against regional rivals, allowing Indian MSMEs and women-led fashion enterprises to capture a larger share of Oman's retail landscape, which is increasingly pivoting toward sustainable and high-end ethnic wear.
Beyond bilateral trade, which has recently exceeded $12 billion, Oman serves as a critical logistical hub for ‘Made in India’ apparel heading to East Africa and Central Asia. The agreement also eases professional mobility, allowing Indian fashion houses to station talent in Oman for up to four years to oversee operations. This ‘co-location’ opportunity enables brands to set up regional distribution centers, reducing lead times for the fast-fashion segment. As India targets $100 billion in textile exports by 2030, the Oman CEPA provides the necessary momentum to diversify beyond traditional Western blocks.
Mexico is set to fundamentally disrupt global apparel supply chains starting January 1, 2026, with a sweeping new tariff regime. The Mexican Senate recently approved amendments to the Law on General Import and Export Duties, raising tariffs to between 35 per cent and 50 per cent on goods from non-FTA countries, specifically targeting Asian giants like China and India. This move is not just about revenue - estimated at $3.76 billion annually - but is a strategic pivot to shield domestic manufacturers and align with US trade priorities ahead of the 2026 USMCA review.
Erosion of the Asian-Mexican near-shoring model
The new policy strikes at the heart of the ‘trans-Pacific bridge,’ where manufacturers source Indian yarn or Chinese fabric to assemble garments in Mexico for duty-free entry into the US
Under the upcoming rates, yarn duties will climb toward 25 per cent, while finished garments could hit the 50 per cent ceiling. This marks a structural shift that will force a radical localization of the supply chain, notes one regional trade analyst. For Indian exporters, who currently ship roughly $410 million in textiles and clothing to Mexico annually, the increased landed costs may render mass-market categories uncompetitive, leaving only high-end niche products viable.
While the Mexican government frames this as a defense of local jobs, the broader impact serves as a catalyst for regionalized production. Brands are now pressured to source fibers and fabrics from within the North American bloc to maintain USMCA compliance. This ‘protectionist wall’ presents a dual challenge: while it offers Mexican mills a competitive edge against low-cost imports, it simultaneously raises production costs for Mexican garment exporters. As supply chains tighten, the industry must decide between absorbing these costs or embarking on a high-stakes migration toward 100 per cent regional sourcing to preserve their near-shoring advantage.
Mexico serves as a critical manufacturing hub for the North American fashion market, specializing in denim, knitwear, and technical industrial textiles. The sector is a cornerstone of the national economy, primarily serving the United States and Canada through the USMCA framework.
Nike Inc is maneuvering through what Elliott Hill, CEO describes as the ‘middle innings’of a complex corporate comeback. Under the aggressive Win Now strategy, the Beaverton giant has dismantled the centralized, data-heavy structure of the previous era in favor of a decentralized ‘Sport Offense.’
Finalized in early December 2025, this shift eliminated high-level roles like Chief Technology Officer and Chief Commercial Officer to flatten the organization. By elevating geographic GMs to the Senior Leadership Team and appointing Venkatesh Alagirisamy as the new COO, Nike is betting that localized, faster decision-making will reignite the brand's cooling innovation engine.
Wholesale revival amidst digital declines
The most stark data point from Nike’s fiscal Q2 2026 results (ended November 30, 2025) is the dramatic reversal in channel performance. While Nike Direct revenues declined by 8 per cent, dragged down by a 14 per cent crash in digital sales, the company’s pivot back to wholesale partners like Foot Locker and JD Sports delivered a robust 8 per cent growth, reaching $7.5 billion. This rebalancing of the portfolio marks a formal end to the Direct-to-Consumer at all costs’ era. Hill notes, strengthening partner relationships is critical to ensuring product availability where consumers shop, especially as high-street competition from On Running and Hoka intensifies.
Despite achieving a modest 1 per cent revenue growth to $12.4 billion, Nike’s bottom line remains under significant duress. Net income for the quarter fell 32 per cent to $792 million, largely due to a 300-basis-point margin compression triggered by higher North American tariffs and an aggressive $1.3 billion spend on ‘Demand Creation.; To counter these pressures, Nike is rebalancing its product portfolio away from aging ‘lifestyle’ retros like the Air Force 1 and toward performance breakthroughs. The January 2026 launch of the Nike Mind footwear platform and the Structure Plus running shoe are expected to be the first major tests of this renewed athlete-centered focus.
The world's leading designer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, and equipment, Nike’s portfolio boasts of brands like Nike, Jordan and Converse.
Golden Goose has successfully transitioned from a specialized footwear label into a diversified ‘lifestyle ecosystem.’ This evolution reached a fever pitch this month following the launch of the Golden Goose Arena in Milan’s CityLife district, a first-of-its-kind hub featuring nine padel courts and immersive community wellness facilities. This move reflects a broader strategic pivot by Silvio Campara, CEO to embed the brand into the ‘daily rituals’ of its consumers. By moving into the fitness and social spheres, Golden Goose is insulating itself against the volatility of the global sneaker market, which analysts suggest is reaching a point of ‘distressed saturation.’
DTC supremacy and the surge of ready-to-wear
The financial data for the nine months ending September 30, 2025, underscores the success of this holistic shift. The brand’s revenues rose by 13 per cent to €517.1 million, with the Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) segment now commanding 79 per cent of total net revenues - up from 74 per cent in 2024 - driven by a sophisticated ‘phygital’ retail strategy. While footwear remains the anchor, the brand’s expanded ready-to-wear (RTW) and ‘activewear’ collections are seeing triple-digit growth in key urban markets like Tokyo and Dubai. This product rebalancing allowed the company to maintain a best-in-class 33.6 per cent Adjusted EBITDA margin, even as competitors struggled with rising logistical costs.
Central to the brand’s 2026 outlook is the Haus initiative - a series of global creative incubators. Following the successful Marghera launch, the brand inaugurated Haus Ginza in Tokyo this quarter, serving as a residency for local artists and a hub for the ‘Co-Creation’ model. This experiential retail approach, where artisans customize apparel and accessories in real-time, has resulted in a 45 per cent repeat customer rate. By transforming stores into ‘dream factories’ rather than mere points of sale, Golden Goose is effectively decoupling its valuation from traditional retail metrics and positioning itself as a cultural curator for the ‘Next Gen’ luxury consumer.
Founded in 2000 in Venice by Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo, Golden Goose disrupted the luxury market with its ‘perfectly imperfect’ aesthetic. The brand is globally recognized for the Super-Star sneaker, which pioneered the high-end distressed look.
As per official data recently tabled in Parliament, India’s cotton imports skyrocketed from 15.20 lakh bales in the 2023–24 season to a staggering 41.40 lakh bales in 2024–25. This nearly three-fold increase serves as a critical ‘safety valve’ for the industry, following a season where domestic production dipped to its lowest levels in nearly two decades due to erratic rainfall across the primary ‘cotton belt’ of Gujarat and Maharashtra. By allowing imports to bridge the demand-supply gap, the government has ensured that the nation’s spinning mills - the backbone of the rural industrial economy - avoid the idle capacity that threatened the sector earlier this year.
Tariff relief and global price convergence
The pivot toward international markets was accelerated by a strategic intervention from the Ministry of Textiles, which extended the 11 per cent import duty exemption on raw cotton until December 31, 2025. This policy shift has successfully narrowed the gap between high domestic rates and softening global benchmarks. International prices for the equivalent S-6 cotton varieties have declined from approximately 79.15 US cents per pound in August to around 73.95 cents this December. Domestically, this has forced a correction, with prices cooling from Rs 57,000 to approximately Rs 52,500 per candy. This price convergence is vital for Indian exporters who are currently battling a punishing 50 per cent tariff wall in the United States; lower raw material costs are now the only viable lever to maintain price competitiveness against rivals like Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Beyond mere volume, the rise in imports - particularly from the United States, Brazil, and Australia- is driven by a demand for ‘contaminant-free’ and Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton. Indian textile giants are increasingly blending these specialized foreign fibers with domestic crops to meet the stringent strength and uniformity standards required by high-street European retailers. To balance this influx, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has aggressively scaled up its MSP operations, procuring over 31.19 lakh bales worth Rs 13,492 crore as of mid-December to ensure that the surge in foreign fiber does not result in distress sales for Indian farmers.
The global textile and apparel industry is standing at a technological precipice, with the market for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the sector projected to riseto $21 billion by 2033. This ten-fold increase from 2023 figures marks a decisive pivot from experimental technology to a core operational necessity. In response, the world’s leading organizer of textile trade fairs, Messe Frankfurt has launched a new strategic initiative titled ‘Texpertise Focus AI.’
The initiative to be launched at the Heimtextil fair in Frankfurt in January 2026. It aims to institutionalize AI across the entire textile value chain, signaling a formal industry-wide transition toward data-driven manufacturing and design.
The intelligence core of the global value chain
The initiative reflects a maturing market where AI is no longer a niche digital tool but a fundamental driver of efficiency. Current data indicates, approximately 13.5 per cent of European industrial firms have already integrated AI into their workflows as of 2024.
The transformation is particularly acute in production, where researchers at the German Institute of Textile Technology (ITA) estimate, upto 70 per cent of standardized production tasks could eventually be automated. By placing AI at the center of its international fair calendar, Messe Frankfurt is positioning itself as the primary orientation point for a sector grappling with a deepening skills shortage and the need for higher production resilience.
Designing the future through’Woven Intelligence’
The ‘Texpertise Focus AI’ program aims to spotlight the intersection of high-end design and computational technology. A cornerstone of the January 2026 launch will be the Architonic Live Talk featuring a London-based architectural futurist, Tim Fu.
Under the theme ‘Woven Intelligence: Designing Spaces in the Era of AI,’ the program will explore how generative AI enables meaningful collaboration between physical craft and digital architecture.
This synergy is further explored in Patricia Urquiola’s immersive installation, ‘Among All,’ which uses AI to simulate material properties and accelerate creative workflows, demonstrating that digital tools can enhance rather than replace human intuition.
Driving the ‘twin transformation’ of sustainability
The strategic shift is inextricably linked to the industry’s environmental imperatives- a concept known as the ‘twin transformation’ (the convergence of digitalization and sustainability).
Currently, the global industry produces 116 million tons of fibers annually, yet only 1 per cent of post-consumer waste is recycled. AI is emerging as the key to closing this circularity gap. By leveraging image-recognition systems for waste sorting and AI-based forecasting to prevent overproduction, manufacturers can significantly reduce the resource intensity of their supply chains. These advancements will be a focal point at Texprocess in April 2026, where the emphasis will move to hardware-software integration and life-cycle analytics.
Reshaping the workforce and production ;andscapes
As AI automates routine tasks, the textile workforce is undergoing a structural realignment. The industry is seeing the emergence of new job profiles centered on data analytics and digital process control. This evolution is vital for addressing labor shortages while simultaneously increasing output quality. Messe Frankfurt’s global rollout of this initiative will tailor its content to local market characteristics, ensuring that from fiber production to the point of sale, the ‘responsible use’ of AI becomes the standard.
By 2026, the ‘Texpertise Focus AI’ umbrella will serve as a permanent searchable directory and live demonstration platform, effectively acting as a bridge between current textile traditions and a highly automated, sustainable future.
Welspun Living has shattered industry benchmarks by securing a world-leading score of 90 in the 2025 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). This achievement marks a staggering 24-point ascent from its 2023 performance, catapulting the Indian home-textile giant to the number one global position in the ‘Textile, Apparel & Luxury Goods’ category. While many global peers have struggled to maintain momentum amidst tightening reporting standards, WLL’s environmental score of 94 out of 100 underscores a profound shift. Indian manufacturing is no longer just a high-volume hub; it is increasingly becoming the global gold standard for ESG-led production.
The competitive edge of circularity in retail
This milestone arrives as the $130 billion global home textile market pivots toward ‘sustainable luxury.’ With global retail giants like Walmart and Costco increasingly linking vendor contracts to ESG transparency, WLL’s top-tier ranking serves as a powerful market-access tool. ‘Growth must be responsible and transparent,’ states Dipali Goenka, Managing Director & CEO, highlighting that WLL’s focus on circular material flows and clean energy is now a core business driver. By outperforming its global competitors in social and governance metrics, WLL is effectively de-risking its supply chain against upcoming international regulations. This leadership is critical as India aims to scale its textile exports to $100 billion by 2030, proving that environmental stewardship and aggressive commercial growth are no longer mutually exclusive.
A key entity of the $3.6 billion Welspun World, Welspun Living Limited (WLL) is a global leader in home textiles, specializing in towels, bed linens, and flooring solutions. Operating across more than 60 countries, the company maintains world-class integrated manufacturing facilities in India, serving as a primary supplier to top-tier global retailers. WLL’s strategic growth plan is built on three pillars: Branding, Innovation, and Sustainability, with a specific focus on expanding its domestic retail presence and increasing its share of value-added products.
