Opening up New Market Opportunities Through Innovation, Sustainability and Fashion – TITAS 2018 takes leaps upwards in all aspects

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With a new momentum of innovation and advantages in smart technology, Taiwan’s textiles look proudly towards the international arena! Innovative textile supply chain manufacturers and international buyers converged upon the 22nd edition of the Taipei Innovative Textile Application Show (TITAS 2018), where, in addition to a scale reaching 1,003 booths, setting a new high, over 36,000 people were attracted and 106 brand representatives from around the world came to make purchases, creating business opportunities estimated to be worth as much as $70 million.

While continuing to focus on functionality and sustainability, Taiwan’s textile industry is creating new advantages on the strength of its smart technology. At TITAS, held annually by the Taiwan textile Federation(TTF) and guided by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Foreign Trade, new business challenges are taken up to seize new business opportunities.

Perhaps your memory of this year’s sports event, the Football World Cup, is still fresh. When England entered the semi-finals, the British Office Taipei gave special thanks on Facebook to local fans for their support, and at the same time mentioned that the England team was wearing breathable clothing researched and developed by Taiwan’s textile industry. Furthermore, among the top 16 teams in this round of the World Cup, three-quarters of the players’ uniforms were made with Taiwanese functional fabrics. This is testament to the sturdiness of Taiwan’s strength and the fine reputation it has made for itself internationally.

Driving textile industry’s new momentum with innovation and advantages in smart technology

“On the strength of Taiwan’s textile industry’s past efforts in innovation, research and development supported by as a complete supply chain, plus the achievement and steadily development with respect to functional, eco-friendly, and smart textiles, we have constructed a high-tech innovative textile value chain,” said Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Vice Minister Wang Mei-hua, pointing out this advantage, while also positively affirming the important contribution of TITAS to the promotion of Taiwan’s textile products.

TTF Chairman Chan Cheng-tien said that this year the show made its dignified entry into the 22nd year. Enjoying the enthusiastic participation of the industry, the exhibition features a total of 1,003 booths and has attracted a multitude of international brands and retailers to Taiwan in search of more high-tech innovative products. Consisting with the trend toward conversion to Industry 4.0 which highlights smart technology, this year’s show specially added a smart textile pavilion which displayed smart clothing, production processes and all-round solutions,  creating a refreshingly new and novel experience for visitors through augmented reality (AR).

Even though there may be economic instability due to the US-China trade war, Douglas Hsu, TTF’s Honorary Chairman, pointed out that, “future development of the industry should focus more on technology, moving towards environmental protection, smart manufacturing and supply chain integration. With a momentum of continuous innovation, we are able to meet future challenges”.

TITAS 2018 revolved around the four themes of “sustainable development, functional application, smart textiles, smart manufacturing”. Apart from displaying fashionable textiles featuring innovative designs and quality, smart technology, eco-friendly functionality and smart production process and applications have all been taken one step further. In cooperation with the Taipei Sewing Machines Association, invitation to participate in this year’s show was extended to Taiwan’s sewing equipment businesses, who fully demonstrated their capabilities in upgrading to smart manufacturing.