STA Marketing Forum: Five days. Five speakers. Endless takeaways.

The traffic is heavy in cyberspace during these atypical days, of course, with most conferences, meetings and trade shows taking center stage on our screens.

The Southern Textile Association (STA) recently ventured into the virtual venue recently when it hosted its Summer Marketing Forum Lunch and Learn Series, with one speaker presenting each day of the week. Five diverse speakers all touched on aspects of the meeting’s theme, “SURVIVING AND THRIVING: Resilient U.S. Textile Industry Emerging Stronger, More Sustainable in Wake of COVID-19.”

Vidalia brings ‘cool’ selvedge looms, denim back to life

Dan Feibus likens weaving denim on vintage Draper looms to owning a classic car.

“It’s like having a 68 Jaguar in your garage,” said the CEO of Vidalia Mills. “You may have to work on it a lot but it’s going to be worth it.”

The Vidalia, La.-based textile manufacture purchased 46 Draper x3 selvedge looms in September 2019 from JW Demolition of Greensboro, N.C., owner of the contents and bricks and mortar of the Cone Mills White Oak Plant, which closed at the end of 2017.

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Vidalia is currently producing 450,000 yards of selvedge denim per month.

“Denim aficionados swear by it,” Feibus said. “Who are we to argue with them? It’s fun, it’s cool. Denim is very satisfying. It’s timeless; it’s the premier American fabric when you think about it.”

Industry icon Jim Conner remembered

I was informed a few days ago of the passing of an industry icon to whom I came to know during my early years of textile journalism and the twilight years of his long and storied career in the industry. Jim Conner, who in 2001 retired as executive director of the now-defunct American Yarn Spinners Association (AYSA), Gastonia, N.C., died last November at age 82 after moving back to and spending his retirement in his native Georgia. Many in the industry had lost contact with him. But his name came up recently.

Peter Hegarty, who worked in Conner’s office at the American Textile Export Company (AMTEC), and Mike Hubbard, Conner’s successor at the AYSA, broached the question of their former colleague’s whereabouts, then found his obituary from late last year. They brought the news to my attention, and his passing should not go unmentioned, especially given his impact on the U.S. yarn/textile industry.

The young have sprung

If you had any doubts about the next generation of leaders in the U.S. textile and apparel industry, have no fear ­– the Millennials and Gen Z’ers are here.

And some of them are kicking up quite a dust storm as it relates to entrepreneurship, energy and excitement.

Whether we realize it or not, there’s a youth movement materializing in our midst, and they’re already making noise – joyous noise, resounding noise, dulcet noise, all of which are ringing in a sense of optimism for our industry’s destiny.

That’s the impression I’ve gotten in recent years, especially in the last few weeks while engaging with and listening to the young guns via virtual conferences. Just this week, two coming-of-age superstars made remarkable cases that the future is in good hands.

Positive trends loom large for industry, say Zoomers

Being homebound and on lockdown for the most part since March has given me the opportunity to slip into Zoom Rooms and similar meeting spaces across cyberspace, mostly for educational purposes centered around Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the “new normal” or “what’s next?”

As we continue to work to compress the curve and climb out of this cloud of uncertainty while keeping in touch virtually, it’s amazing to see all the converting, collaborating and creating our industry has been engaged in of late. And it’s reassuring to see promising signs of a better, stronger, faster industry emerging from this world-turned-upside-down crisis.

I’m certainly seeing a brighter future on the not-too-distant horizon, based on the many discussions I’ve been hearing from subject matter experts on my computer speakers. And I’ve gleaned a number of encouraging trends for U.S. textiles and apparel in the coming months and years. I'll jot down five here.