Ep. 112: WTiN’s 2025 State of Industry Report

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Ep. 112: WTiN’s 2025 State of Industry Report

The Textile Innovation Podcast speaks to Madelaine Thomas, head of content at WTiN about WTiN’s 2025 State of Industry Report.

WTiN: Hi, Maddi, please. Could you tell us about WTiN state of industry report, who we've been speaking to and what the aim of this has been?

Thomas: Yeah, of course. Hi, Abi, We started the state of industry report last year, so this is only the second edition that we've done. But you know, there's a number of challenges and opportunities in the industry that we wanted to highlight. So we had, over the last couple of years, have been speaking to key industry players, you know, from in the apparel industry, the machinery industry and the manufacturing industry as well. So trying to kind of hit a whole bulk of a supply chain to find out what the key pain points are to people and what the main opportunities are as well, and also discussing kind of key themes for them, such as sustainability, digitalization, etc, which are key themes that we see in the industry.

So as you said, we've taken a look back at 2024 and we're also kind of taking a forward look at the rest of 2025 as well, and what we what we can see, and I think this will be really useful for the textile and apparel industry and the textile manufacturers as well, to see what are going to be, or what are the key drivers for the year, and what are some developing trends as well that they can kind of try and, you know, push on those opportunities.

WTiN: That's great. And obviously we did a stage of industry report last year as well. What have been the main differences do you think between 2023 state of industry report and the one that we have just published with obviously difficult economic background, shaping 2024 is the outlook for the coming year any brighter than last?

Thomas: That is a good question. And so the 2023 2024 and 2425 reports are similar in terms of the drivers and the challenges. So they're quite similar in a lot of ways, in that, you know, regulations, for example, were a key driver of trends last year, and that is definitely going to continue into 2025 and we'll go into that a little bit in more detail later. You know, such as the extended produced responsibility legislation that came in last year. So there was a big push there last year, and we're seeing the effects of that this year, and also the digital product passports as well. Another thing, unfortunately, was the geopolitical instability that we're seeing, you know, and sadly, in 2025 we're seeing, you know, even more of that we've got as well as, like in Ukraine, we've now got one in the Middle East as well. And you know, we've now got another Trump presidency. And to look forward to the trade wars, or the tariff wars that have already begun with China, Mexico and Canada, and so that's no doubt, going to cause some instability for us all. But then there are some slight differences that we can already see that's a good news, really. So the inflation rates have come down Well, according to, you know, a lot of global outlets, the IMF and the UN for example, they are all predicting lower inflation rates than we saw last year. You know, we know that rising costs have been a huge burden to the industry since the pandemic, really, and it kind of all came to a head last year. So we're hoping that this is going to ease off this year.

WTiN: Obviously you touched upon it then in terms of our second US Donald Trump presidency, and very recently, the tariffs that have been imposed. Could you speculate on any other regulations in geopolitical trends that you predict will influence in shape 2025, obviously you just touched upon then, but any that you could go into in a bit more detail?

Thomas: I think we've, we've been seeing a lot on digital product passports, similar to last year. And the, yeah, the extended pursuit of responsibility is kind of driving a shift into circularity and designing for end of life, and sourcing in a different way, sourcing materials that can, that can either, you know, biodegrade or are recyclable. And through that, I guess, comes another trend on textile-to-textile recycling, which I'll go into a little bit later as well. So, so, yeah, I think they're the the two main ones that we're that we're seeing, and these are driven by Euro European regulations, but we're already starting to see American regulations going the same way, seeing little bits in Japan as well. So I think regulations more broadly are going to kind of continue to dominate the market and change the way that we that we manufacture, and the end products that we are manufacturing as well.

WTiN: Of course, and obviously you just mentioned some key buzz words there that we've been seeing at WTiN, such as circularity, recycling. Obviously, sustainability is a huge topic, and we see it in nearly everything that we do after speaking to key figures in the state of industry report, what trends do you see coming through in terms of the sustainability efforts?

Thomas: It's interesting, actually, because, as I said earlier, we spoke to people in kind of different areas of the flight supply chain. So in the apparel, you know, in manufacturers, in machinery manufacturers, you know, in in fabrics, etc. So it was interesting to see the kind of the same trends coming through throughout each area of the supply chain. And yeah, textile to textile recycling, as we said, was a big one, and circularity, kind of in general, but textile, textile recycling, is where we expect to see a lot of development over the next year. And it's something that you know, before the part, we were seeing a lot of on wtn.com, in terms of, you know, our members looking for content related to textile recycling, you know, it has kind of been put on this platform as kind of the gold standard of recycling in the industry, as opposed to kind of chemical or mechanical recycling. So there's a lot of development going on in this area. So we will kind of continue to monitor this on WTI N and provide updates and as and when we can circularity, as I said, in in general, has been a real key theme. And so, you know, recyclability, but also biodegradability as well. And that kind of feeds into the use of next generative materials and using more sustainable materials and bio-based materials. So, you know, bio-based textiles, dyes and chemistry, etc, for coatings, that we're seeing a lot of development into bio-based materials, yeah, within, throughout the year, throughout the supply chain, and that's why, you know, we've got an event on bio-based materials in September. The website for that is now live that you can, you can get to it through WTiN.com.

So yeah, we're going to be covering a lot of that in September. So do take a I invite everyone to take a look at that, if, if they wish, or inquire with you about that. What we've seen in the past with bio-based materials. And when we visited trade shows recently. You know, there's a trade show at the beginning of the year that we visited where we saw, I mean, a real lack of innovation in the last few years, really, in terms of kind of development in and whether that's in sportswear or apparel or lingerie, for example. Can we tell in the industry that there has not been kind of that that spend on innovation, and that is kind of coming through in the design, etc. But what there is also at these trade shows are the materials people that are doing really innovative things. So there seems to be kind of a lag between brands and retailers in investing or at least even experimenting with these materials to try and get them into their collections. We are seeing capsule collections, but at the moment, they are kind of just that. And I think that the lag comes with the inability to take risks at the moment in such a challenging financial environment, and also, you know, infrastructure so, especially in big brands, are so deeply set that as a new material coming in, it's quite difficult to kind of change, change things around, but we do think tha,t you know, with the big brands suffering, many big brands suffering last year, that they will this year try to incorporate some more sustainable materials and more bio-based materials, but we're going to see them experimenting with materials a little bit more. Fingers crossed that we will see that.

WTiN: Yeah, and looking more widely at the industry, do you think there's any other trends that we've not mentioned that were that are going to shape 2025 and what opportunities could these offers for manufacturers and textile companies? I know that in the report, we speak a lot about digitalisation, for example.

Thomas: Yeah, definitely. Digitalisation is, is, is 100% that we're going to see, you know, we've, we've seen that over, you know, the last, I would say maybe seven or eight years, we've seen digitalization kind of really come to the far, and it's something that now propelled by AI, I think is really going to continue take shape this year. You know, we have things like predicted maintenance and, you know, 3D sampling and things like that, that has already become quite embedded, but the industry is still right behind other manufacturing industries when it comes to digitalization, and I think AI is going to be the key difference here in implementation. I think cost has traditionally been a big barrier, but cost is now coming down.

So I think, yeah, definitely we're going to continue to see digitalization come into the market in the forms of AI and machine to machine communication, you know, continue, continuing to collect data and analyse it to kind of improve our efficiencies, I think is going to be really important, because that's one thing that we see this year that we also saw last year in that, like people Need to increase their efficiency. You know, we're quite an inefficient industry, and in an industry with such small margins, we can't afford to be doing that.

 And with digitalisation, we also have the digital transformation survey within our state of industry report. So we did this for the first time, or quite a few years ago now, pre COVID, and we had some really interesting results. Now, we stopped that during COVID, and we then started it again last year. So we did some a survey in 2023 2024 so kind of over a two year period to kind of bring the transformation survey back, and we will be doing again this year as well, which is exciting, but we've got some really interesting data last time. So we kind of did two surveys that we've put into one. So we did one aimed at the brands and retailers, and then we did one with the manufacturers. So we looked at things like the drivers for digital transformation, the drives have changed the adoption strategies and kind of the geopolitical influences in that as well. And also technology investments which is which is important one. So in terms of technology investments, we found that the brands and retailers are investing in kind of several key technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning design and fabric simulation and then predictive analytics as well. So with this, we asked them if people were planning on investing in this technology or that they planned to. And we also looked at the future adoption as well. So cloud computing, manufacturing and material handling technologies were big ones there, which is, which is interesting, Blockchain, which was a big one from a few years ago. We found in this survey, interestingly, that 71% do not plan to to invest in that. And then when it came to digital transparency and traceability systems, 100% did not plan to invest, which is really, really bizarre, you know, when you think about kind of the regulations that we've seen coming in and the digital product passports and so, so, yeah, that was a bit of a strange one in terms of the drivers of Digital transformation for the brands and retailers, it was mainly to improve efficiency, and that's something that kind of we talk about throughout the state of industry, and then sustainability in there as well, but only buyer buy a much smaller percentage.

And then for the manufacturers, again, the overwhelming majority were investing in digital transformation because they needed to improve their efficiency. And then the secondary driver was to reduce cost, and then sustainability was the third driver. So I guess it's not a shock towards that. You know, sustainability still comes after their finances.

WTiN: Thank you, Maddi. And from the report, is there an indication of where manufacturers are making those financial investments?

Thomas: In terms of technology investments, manufacturers were looking to invest in kind of connected devices, cloud computing, predictive analytics and AI and robotics and additive manufacturing as well, but kind of, to a lesser extent, the kind of connectivity within that supply chain. No surprise for manufacturers was the was the key thing when it came to traceability and transparency here, the manufacturers were much more interested in investing in new technologies, which is really interesting to see, kind of that, that shift what the brands and retailers are interested in and what the manufacturers are interested in.

So, yeah, I think that's a really exciting survey. There's kind of lots to chew on there with that one. So I think that's definitely worth the read. I would invite people to get involved in the 2025 edition of the survey that will be released in the coming weeks as well.

WTiN: And looking at the full value chain, going back to optimization and efficiency, which go hand in hand with digitalisation and digital technologies. I know at WTiN, we've reported on fabric cutting, we've talked about digital textile printing. Do you think that there is, in each area of the supply chain, there is room for AI and automation?

Thomas: Oh, yeah, definitely. Some areas are easier than others, and some areas that are, you know, further along that journey than others, digital printing, for example, an area you know that that we've been in for a long time with our flagship digital textile market tracker.

You know that that went under a Printing Print over under this digital process quite quickly, and the adoption has been quick. In other areas, it's, it's much more difficult, if you think about fabric handling, etc, there's, there's more challenges there. But we are continuing to see that improve. Factories are implementing software now that you know is making them much more streamlined. Automation is kind of a given in many factories in manufacturing countries around the world.

So yeah, we're definitely going to see that improve, and I think that will also link nicely into the near shore in trend, which hasn't taken off as much as we expected it to, or as fast as we expected it to, but when it has, you know, the manual labour in the nation markets is very expensive, and so for this to really take hold, then we need To be implementing automation and robotics and using artificial intelligence.

WTiN: Thanks Maddi, and obviously we've spoken there about opportunities in terms of digitalisation, about sustainability that are coming through. Is there anything that we could say about the challenges that we might see in 2025 obviously, we've touched upon geopolitical challenges, but anything more in terms of manufacturing that the industry might have to overcome?

Thomas: Yeah, obviously the geopolitical regulations are a challenge to an opportunity, yes, but they can also be a challenge. You know, things like getting your product certified is very expensive, and brands are increasingly, you know, making demands that you're you need to be equal tech certified, or got certified, for example. So meeting those legislations and the regulations can be a real challenge for manufacturers. At the end of the day, all boils down to cost. You know, they're challenged because they cost, and, you know, they are a lot of paperwork as well cost because, because business was so low last year, there's not a lot left over this year to kind of invest in, perhaps, you know, digitalizing, or, you know, investing in exploring new materials and things like that. So would need the confidence in the market to lift so that people will start to invest in in the in the industry itself. And then I think we need consumer confidence to also improve as well.

WTiN: Kind of going off that. What do you think the overall industry sentiment looks like? Is there positivity for 2025 or do you think the industry is going to remain cautious?

Thomas: Cautiously optimistic, I would say the Yeah. I think you know, when I was speaking to people at the end of 2023 and in 2024 and there was a case of right for 2024 we are going to hide away.

We're going to batten down the hatches and we're going to resurface after the storm passes. And I think the hope of the industry now is that the storm is passing. Obviously, there are still lots of challenges, but what we're seeing is some green shoots of positivity. There's no doubt that there's challenges. So people are still cautious. They are, you know, a bit hesitant to take risks, but they're beginning to take risks because they know that they can't hide away for much longer, and they need to start to take take these risks if they're if they're going to survive. So, you know, even in terms of our own, our own members and things like that, we're starting to see green shoots of optimism from the industry, instead of, kind of being, being gloomy, which is nice. I think one of the reasons for the optimism is it, ma Singapore, I think, you know, whenever a big show comes around, where the industry is going to be getting together in a big way. There's always, there's always, you know, bigger, bigger discussion, discussions and optimism always comes around. We've, we've, in the past, called that, you know, when we're with the big European, it Mars, you know, the, it matter, effect. And so hopefully there is that optimism, and there is that, that our effect. But we hope that it's not just, you know, a talk of other than an effect, and it's kind of hollow that there is some substance within that. But in terms of the sentiment at the moment, we are seeing more positivity, and I think there's going to be a lot of technology launches this year in the industry from the OEMs, that is going to spur that, that positivity as well. We're hearing from, you know, some of the big technologists in the industry that you know, are getting ready to launch more products, you know, in a bigger way than we saw last year, which is always a sign. And we're hearing of more investments within the industry as well, particularly in the fibre and the spinning sector, which is always kind of the staff, the cogs starting to move again. So yeah, I think a more positive year. I think digitalisation is really going to help with that. And I think sustainability is also forcing people to innovate and update either the way they manufacture or what they manufacture.

WTiN: Fingers crossed. That does stand exciting.

Thomas: Hopefully, fingers crossed, as you say, yeah.

WTiN: And finally, how is WTiN going to support the industry during this year. And what can everybody look forward to see from WTiN in 2025?

Thomas: Oh, that's a watch this space. Yes, you know, we will continue to support our members throughout, you know, throughout the year, as we have done, we have a number, as I said, of events this year. We're doing some virtual events. We're doing some in person events in China. Our virtual events are around direct film printing in the in the printing space. That one is in March. We have an event on digital manufacturing in June. Again, another virtual one. We've got the bio-based materials, and we have a circularity event towards the end of the year. And obviously, our awards as well. It's important that we celebrate the achievements of the industry.

So yeah, we're always here. We're available. WTiN.com we have our, you know, content being uploaded every day. And we're also available from, you know, if you just want to pick up the phone and have a chat with us, if you want to kind of dive deeper into something, you know, we can do consultancy projects as well for our members. And we'll also, obviously be at the industry events, like at March in Singapore, to go and see everybody. So we're looking forward to getting back out there and going to see the industry.

WTiN: Amazing. Thank you so much Maddi.

Thomas: No problem. Thank you.