Bangladesh’s sportswear export value is 10 per cent of the country’s total exports. Sportswear brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma buy from Bangladesh and their buying volume is increasing each year. There are many textile mills in Bangladesh, producing various types of knit and woven fabrics. They can also produce sportswear fabric by using their existing set-up of machinery and manpower. Bangladesh can easily handle sportswear fabric manufacturing. The same machinery which is used for cotton fabric manufacturing can be used for synthetic fabric except for the jacquard and seamless items.

However, there is a need to have more synthetic yarn spinning mills. There are 425 spinning mills in Bangladesh but only three or four spinning mills produce synthetic yarn. Synthetic fabrics are considered to be the ideal choice for sportswear as they are able to provide a good combination of functional properties of moisture management, softness, lightweight, insulation and dry relatively quickly. Bangladesh is an expert on cotton and cotton blended items but has very few textile mills that can produce synthetic fabrics.

The global sportswear market is growing at 3.3 per cent. With increasing demand for trendy sportswear, manufacturers are now launching innovative products. Insulator, microfiber and nano-technologies are used for producing sports apparel.