Posted April 7, 2014
ITMA, the world’s most established textile and garment technology exhibition, has become the headline sponsor of the Future Materials Awards.
The awards will be presented on Nov. 26, 2014 on the eve of the 8th Aachen-Dresden International Textile Conference in Germany.
World Textile Information Network, publisher of international technical textiles magazine Future Materials, launched the awards to recognize success in textile innovation and celebrate the essential work of the many businesses that support the industry.
“The technical textile and nonwovens materials sector is on a growth trajectory, led mainly by end-user industries’ demands for more applications and innovation,” said Charles Beauduin, president of CEMATEX, which owns the ITMA exhibition. “We are delighted to be involved with the Future Materials Awards, which will honor the businesses and individuals that are shaping this sector.”
The ITMA Future Materials Awards are open to all the end-use sectors for technical textiles as well as materials experts, product developers and designers. They will celebrate winners in 21 categories, including the best innovations in sportswear, protective textiles, industrial textiles and medical textiles.
There will also be awards for groundbreaking partnership development, best start-up company and a lifetime achievement award.
A panel of industry experts will choose the winners, including Linda Keppinger, global materials director at Nike; Dr Jean-Pierre Haug, secretary general of Oeko-Tex; Dr. Peter Dinsdale, world president of the Textile Institute; Michael Sieber, research textile engineer at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center; Siegfried Winkelbeiner, CEO of Schoeller Textil; Thomas White, textile innovation director at Under Armour; and Lutz Walter, head of R&D and Innovation of EURATEX.
Entries for the Awards are now open. Visit www.futurematerialsawards.com for full details. The deadline for entries is July 15. Finalists will be announced in mid-September.