By Edward Hertzman
Publisher
Sourcing Journal Online
New York, N.Y.
Edward Hertzman No Substitute For Quality
In a fast-food world, it’s easy to forget that nothing trumps quality when it comes to taste. The world famous cuisine in Italy is so good because only the highest quality ingredients are used. You can find a recipe for tomato sauce online. It’s the quality of the produce used, rather than any trick of their combination, that makes a meal delectable.
It’s a fast-fashion world, too, and easy to forget the indispensability of quality materials when it comes to clothing. Consider cotton fabric, for example. Buy a t-shirt in any low-end department or chain store, wash it three times and look at the neps. Feel the scratchiness. On the other hand, when good fiber is used, the t-shirt has no neps and gets softer each time you wash it, even after multiple home washings.
FiberMax cotton satisfies consumers with garments that feel better the more they are worn. For jeans fabrics, FiberMax cotton provides not only more strength for consumer use but a stronger fabric to weather the abuse from the laundromat, resulting in the great washes that visually attract customers.
Consumers are interested in the nuances of what makes a great product. They want to know the processor in their computers and the grape that was used in the wine as they order dinner. They also know what they don’t want.
FiberMax Exports Increase
FiberMax export statistics tell the story in another way. To this point in 2013, exports of quality upland cotton like FiberMax to China are up 75 percent, to India 33 percent and Turkey almost 400 percent.* Buyers vote with dollars, and it is clear that factories need good quality fiber. In fact, if you look at the export information in more detail, you will see that Bangladesh is up almost 50 percent in FiberMax imports and Vietnam, which bought nothing in 2012, is back importing the fiber again.
There is clear data that consumers’ value of brands are related to the quality of the garment both off the rack and after multiple home laundries. Everything eventually starts with the fiber.
* U.S. Census Bureau, year-to-date September 2013. Raw cotton exports with a staple length great than 1-1/8”, but not including Pima.