Why NCTO Launched Textiles in the News
by Auggie Tantillo
The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) is pleased to announce the launch of Textiles in the News (TIN), a new website promoting the U.S. textile industry. The website’s URL is http://www.textilesinthenews.org.
As part of NCTO’s American Textiles: We Make Amazing™ public relations effort, TIN’s mission is to showcase the dynamism of the U.S. textile industry and cover the policy issues that disproportionately impact the sector through:
- Linking to the most relevant news and opinion pieces produced by other media outlets about or affecting the U.S. textile industry
- Generating original content, including news and opinion from U.S. textile industry leaders and policy experts
- Tracking U.S. textile industry social media posts
While some may have an outdated perception of the U.S. textile industry, those working in the sector know it is a global powerhouse.
From fiber to finished product, the U.S. textile supply chain accounted for 550,500 jobs and $28.6 billion in exports in 2017. The value of shipments for man-made fiber, yarns, fabrics, apparel and non-apparel sewn products was almost $78 billion last year. Capital investment in U.S. textiles and apparel totaled $2.4 billion in 2016, the latest year for which information is available. Moreover, the United States is a world leader in textile innovation.
As a national trade association representing domestic textile manufacturers, NCTO wants to make sure policymakers, business leaders, journalists, prospective workforce entrants and others have greater awareness of these facts. This is the rationale behind creating TIN.
Every day trade press and international, national and local media outlets are posting compelling content about amazing things the U.S. textile industry is doing. TIN seeks to make it convenient to find and track news and opinion on plant expansions, new products, innovation and policy issues important to the textile supply chain.
The launch of this new site comes during exciting and challenging times for the U.S. textile industry. President Trump has made the reshoring of manufacturing a priority, giving the American textile sector its first real opportunity in a generation to level the playing field against unfair trade practices from abroad.
Growing e-commerce is reconfiguring the retail sector, a trend that encourages a buy it, make it, ship it production model. Combined with low U.S. energy costs and advances in automating garment and sewn product assembly, possibilities for shifting some textile-related supply chains back to the United States and the Western Hemisphere from Asia are becoming increasingly promising.
Smart textiles are revolutionizing the industry, opening doors for applications beyond fashion, insulation or covering material. Thanks to the rapid commercialization of innovations, a day is coming soon where textiles that harvest and store energy, display information, transmit sound and data, monitor health, protect against microbes and infection, repel insects and/or change colors will be commonplace in the market.
Finally, the U.S. textile industry is pushing forward on sustainability. Many companies have set the goal of waste-free or near waste-free manufacturing, and more and more textile products are being designed with a circular lifecycle in mind.
In sum, NCTO’s Textiles in the News website is designed to make these exciting and informative developments easy to access and digest. For those interested in U.S. textiles, and the extremely positive and pervasive impact our industry is making to better our lives, please visit TIN. NCTO trusts you will find the website compelling and informative. To the media, please keep generating great stories on the modern U.S. textile industry. NCTO is excited to drive readers to that content!
Auggie Tantillo is President & CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing domestic textile manufacturers.
NCTO’s TIN website was built by AS Creative Services, a Rockville, MD-based web design firm and its newsfeed is powered by Meltwater, a leading international provider of Media Intelligence.
