Functional Fabric Fair New York – powered by Performance Days® is a trade-exclusive event showcasing the latest trends in fabric development for the functional textile industry and provides a suitable marketplace in the U.S. for sourcing high-performance functional fabrics and accessories. On July 19-20, for the first time in three years, the Functional Fabric Fair took place in New York at the Javits Center in Manhattan, directly on the Hudson River.
Under the guideline “Where Function Meets Fashion,” 65 exhibitors from all over the world showed the latest developments in functional performance fabrics. With around 1,500 visitors, there was strong interest from the local industry.
As in Portland and Munich, the focus topic of ”The Journey to Carbon Neutrality“ (CO2-reducing technologies and measuring tools) remains and will stretch across three seasons, discussing the metrics, formulas, agencies and theories to quantify and measure the CO2 emissions for the fabrics used in the textile industry.
Keynotes or panels from Forum Insights Performance Materials to newest Color Trends and focusing on how to Leverage Digital Technologies to Increase Efficiencies and Reduce Your CO2 Footprint or Design for Recyclability – Pathway Towards a Substantial Design Culture provided an interesting framework.
The event does an excellent job of raising awareness. It shows new ways by the fabric suppliers how to produce fibers sustainably, what waste can be used for recycling besides recycling PET bottles, and where synthetic fibers can be collected and returned to the cycle. It is nice to see how the industry is looking for alternatives. New paths are being taken here by trying to return material waste produced during manufacturing and cutting to the cycle and make new fibers from it. BASF manages to process old car tires into new recycled polyamide with the help of a special pyrolysis process. Nylon is now recovered from not only old fishing nets but also oyster threads used in farming or even factory exhaust fumes.
In addition to the Functional Fabric Fair New York – powered by Performance Days®, Premiere Vision New York, Texworld USA and the King Pin Fair in Manhattan took place simultaneously. This makes this week in July the Textile Sourcing Week for New York.
