Taiwan best known for its functional textiles for fashionable use is planning to keep its focus on R&D and eco friendly textiles in the future. This was reiterated by Justin Huang, Secretary General of TTF. Emphasizing on the development of the textile industry, Justin Huang, Secretary General, TTF says, “Our future development is in two directions. Firstly, to continue our R&D in functional and eco friendly textiles and get accreditation, which will help companies working in this space to become more competitive globally. Secondly, considering the market response, we could target the likes of Walmart, M&S, GAP etc, as they are planning to source functional textiles for fashion use. This is a wonderful idea. If their fashionable items have functionality value, we can help their products and the consumer can enjoy better technically better products.”
Huang further says functional textiles can be adapted for regular wear as well. “We can do this in a very short time. We can differentiate strategy from Korean competition or Chinese competition. Next year we hope new fashionable retailers to come to Taiwan to explore suppliers.”
He feels China too can enter functional textiles space but Taiwan can stay ahead by innovating. “Our strongest product portfolio is professional sports use such as FIFA, NBA etc, they source the fabrics from here for uniforms. NBA and American Football sources fabrics from Taiwan and overseas apparel manufacturers do the sewing, cutting services. All big brands source from Taiwan.”
He feels, consumers see functional textiles as new trend. Rise in standard of living and the trend of leisure has left consumers asking for more and functional textiles add that extra quotient to one’s wardrobe style. The Taiwan textile industry also adds eco-friendly element to the primitive functional textiles. The Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) aims to turn Taiwan into a textile hub in the Asia-Pacific region by applying the same integration model it used to propel Taiwan's auto parts industry globaly. It is planning to nurture professional textile trading companies, which are capable of integrating designers, product developers, manufacturers and marketers to churn out first-class products and sell them to global markets.
