WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT

Cotton Quality Can’t Be Ignored At Retail Level

Intelligent Customers
Retailers are facing an ever increasingly intelligent and discerning consumer who expects attractive, wellfitting garments manufactured from exceptional fabrics. To make fabrics that will entice and satisfy clients, the ultimate strategy for textile product developers is to use high quality cotton.

A really good t-shirt not only feels great at the point of purchase but after 20 washes, the garment does not pill or show neps. Ideally, a garment washed frequently should look the way it did when it was purchased. This is easy to accomplish if you use great fiber.

Building Brand Equity
Most jeans are industrially washed before being sold to consumers. Many are hand sanded, resinated and harshly treated so that they look old and well worn at the time of purchase. Cotton strength is critical when making denim fabric. How can you build jean brand equity if your customer’s jeans rip easily or wear out too quickly?

When I started in the industry, there was barely enough global denim production to cover worldwide demand. But today the world has completely changed, and now there is massive textile and yarn over-capacity. Not only does this push prices down on commodity products, but it means that there is more opportunity for better textiles. And, as the retail customer gets his first glimpse of high grade cotton fiber, he naturally and intuitively upgrades his expectations.

More Opportunities
The savvy retailer or brand will consider this interest as an opportunity to do more business and build brand allegiance. Starting with the cotton they purchase, brands will want to align with sustainable products and FiberMax is an obvious solution. Since FiberMax was introduced to the cotton market, farmers are using less water, fewer pesticides and producing up to 50 percent more cotton on the same acreage. This is exactly what customers need to hear about each layer of garment production.