Do you remember what life looked like when you were younger? You listened to your favourite band on your walkman, got around town on your bike, and went shopping with your mom twice a year. Well, those days are over. Your favourite band may have stayed the same, but today, you listen to their songs on your smartphone, while travelling and shopping whenever you feel like it. And why would you not? Speed and high quality are no luxuries; they have become common standards. What a great time to be a consumer! But quite a challenging one if you are in fashion…
Top-shelf materials If you are indeed in fashion, you know all about the difficulties that come with this digital era. With outspoken and self-willed customers and competitors at every street corner, there is no alternative than meeting (and exceeding) customer’s expectations. And expectations they have. Garments should be made from high quality textiles and feel silky smooth, they must be wash-resistant, sustainable to external influences and delivered in time. If you want to provide your target group with just that, you should optimise the production process of your textiles, starting at the textile mill. There (and only there), you can still improve durability and softness, avoid the wear and tear of your end products and speed up your time-to-market.
So many wishes Easier said than done, right? Sadly, improving textile quality is hard. There are so many things to take into account, that it seems impossible to create better products in a shorter period of time. For example, how do you keep your textiles from wrinkling and pilling? How do you strengthen the fibres so they do not break during the production process? And on top of that, how do you avoid chemical reactions between the different textile finishes you use? It is not unthinkable that one finish will reduce the impact of another. Lastly, you should find an efficient way to apply the right finishes to the right products. Chances are high you sell more than just T-shirts, and different garments ask for different treating methods. For that matter, so do your different customer segments.
Catch on faster Ok, enough with the complaining. Fortunately, there are things you can do to live up to customer expectations without working night and day. Let us zoom into textile finishes, for example. A large part of your competitive advantage depends on the way you add them to your products. We mentioned finishes to keep the fibres in place, improve softness, and extend the product life cycle. It gets even better when you work with a solution that prepares your textiles for all the optimisers you throw at them. There are polyurethane finishes available that do just that. They provide your products with a durable film, that strengthens the fibres and makes other performance treatments catch on faster. If your polyurethane finish is both versatile and highly effective, you can use it on all of your textiles and produce better quality garments in less time.
Sounds brilliant… …but how do you find such an elixir? First, you should make a wish list of all characteristics the finish should comply with. Among other things, it should be ever-lasting, over-dyeable, and empower the active ingredients of other finishes while avoiding chemical reactions. As soon as you have found a solution that ticks all these boxes, you should have it tested on your own textiles. This is the only way to make sure the product will contribute to the quality of your end product, which is all that matters. Thereafter, thoroughly discuss the results with your textile finish provider to get the very best out of the solution. When deployed well, it will take a lot of hassle and work out of your hands, meaning you are ready to give your customers exactly what they want: perfect quality garments, ready for extensive usage, and delivered today instead of tomorrow. What a great time to be in fashion!
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