“We’ve been in domestic manufacturing since the founding of the company, and we’ve recommitted to that,” he said. “We redoubled our efforts when Jim (Davis) bought the company (in 1972). We started with six employees when he bought the company, and four of those employees are still with us. We’re seeing more domestic demand for American-made products. You see our U.S.-made shoes around the world. It’s pretty cool and we’re very excited about it.”

 

New Balance employs an all-time-company-high of 1,350 people in the U.S., he said, adding, “This is not a fad for us.” The company has hired manufacturing employees in each of the past eight quarters and will continue to do so, he said. With 25,000 manufacturing jobs lost in Maine since the 1960s, New Balance is an important part of the state’s economy, he added. New Balance also purchases from 49 local suppliers that employ more than 7,600 people in the U.S., he noted.

The company has doubled its revenues in the last five years, to record sales of $2.7 billion in 2013, LeBretton said. “We think part of the reason is our commitment to domestic manufacturing,” he said.

 

New Balance also has a high employee retention rate, well below U.S. averages for all segments of the business, he added. He said that manufacturing turnover at New Balance is 12 percent compared to 35.1 percent for the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

“We really do believe in putting our people first,” LeBretton said. “We have a great benefits package. And we like to promote from within. That’s just the ethos of who we are and Jim’s commitment to our employees. According to a company survey, more than 97 percent of our associates feel proud to work for New Balance and want to be a part of the future of the company.”

 

The company has implemented Lean Manufacturing principles that have resulted in throughput time declining from 60 hours to two hours over the last decade or so, he reported.

 

Regarding the on-shoring trend, more than half of U.S.-based manufacturing executives at companies with sales of more than $1 billion plan to re-shore production to the U.S. from China or are actively considering it, LeBretton noted, citing a 2013 survey by The Boston Consulting Group. He added that New Balance officials have spoken to Congress about the made in the USA movement and have stressed that a large part of this discussion should also include adding American jobs, not just shifting production here through automation.

 

On the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, LeBretton said that if ever there was a time to have concerns about these agreements, now is the time.

 

“USTR is much more interested in getting the deal done than following the administration’s push for a fair agreement,” he said. “They’re looking to get this deal in place for November. They may drop Japan from the agreement just to get the deal done. It’s moving forward. This deal is in a real interesting place. Now is the time to reach out to lawmakers.”

 

He showed a chart indicating that footwear from imports from Vietnam – the bugaboo country from the U.S. textile and apparel industry’s perspective related to TPP – increased by more than 20 percent from 2011 to 2013. Vietnam now owns a 9.87 percent of that import share to the U.S., he said.

 

LeBretton also discussed the Berry Amendment and New Balance’s 950v2 brand athletic shoe, which is 100 percent made in the USA and meets all of the statutory requirements of the Berry Amendment, he said. He also showed an noteworthy graph indicating where each component of the shoe is made, ranging from Spartanburg, S.C. (tongue) to Brownwood, Texas (reflective material) to Pawtucket, R.I. (lace).

 

Belk’s omnichannel initiative

 

Debbie Fortnum, senior vice president of Supply Chain at Belk, Inc., Charlotte, N.C., discussed the retail giant’s omnichannel initiative, or how it engages with customers now. A former 14-year employee with textile manufacturer Springs Global, she opened her presentation by saying, “This is like old home week for me.”

 

A $4 billion company with 300 stores in 16 states, Belk is the largest privately held department store in the country. The company is investing millions of dollars in store renovations and technology enhancements to better serve its customers, she said.

 

In a nutshell, “omnichannel” means “connecting with her, wherever she is” – and not only wherever she is, but how ever she wants it. This translates into a seamless experience for the customer as the retailer leverages assets to reach her, be it in store, on the telephone or through any digital means.

 

“We had to start looking at things through her lens,” Fortnum said. “You have to orchestrate the experience.”

 

Omnichannel at Belk is a multi-year initiative to build the capabilities required to serve today’s “connected” consumer – integrating her in-store and online experiences, she said. In implementing this initiative, Belk is empowering its employees through enhanced tools and capabilities to create a more personalized experience, she said.

 

The company has rolled out a “Yes! We Have It” branded program to capture “lost” sales, both in-store (item locator) and online (store fulfillment of web orders), Fortnum said. Belk will have 30 “Fulfillment Stores” by the end of this year and up to 300 stores by 2015 and beyond, she said. “This is an immensely successful program,” she said.

 

The company’s Digital Commerce Platform (Belk.com) focuses on enhancing her digital experience, both online and via mobile, she added. Order management aims to move an order from online to in store, and order fulfillment involves getting the product to her how she wants it – as an in-store pickup or at-home delivery, she said.

 

3M’s culture of innovation

 

Jerry Hall, senior technical manager at 3M Innovations, provided an overview of the company and its recent developments.

 

The company, he said, nurtures a culture of innovation with more than 12,000 technical employees worldwide, 85 labs, 45 Customer Technical Centers and 46 established technology platforms. That culture allows employees to spend 15 percent of their time to explore new technologies and/or new markets. The initiative, which does not need management approval, allows employees to leverage technical specialists and teaches employees leadership and new skills, he said.

 

“Many innovative 3M products were initially developed with this 15 percent of time philosophy,” Hall said.

 

In 2013, the company generated $30.5 billion in sales through five business groups: Industrial, Safety & Graphics, Electronics & Energy, Consumer and Health Care.

 

Hall discussed how technology is transformed into consumer brands such as Scotch, Post-It and Nexcare before he moved on to key R&D processes and metrics. 3M, he continued, is involved in a connected global collaborative community, as team members attend more than 1,200 technical forum events globally, including the company’s Annual Event. All employees participate in this “Internal 3M Trade Show,” which highlights the company’s latest and greatest technologies, offers opportunities to solve problems and is delivered electronically to worldwide labs.

 

Hall also discussed the impact of 3M’s platforms and how the innovation model encourages sharing. He discussed how product and technology migration manifests itself specifically in nonwovens products that consumers want, and gave an overview of the company’s sustainability efforts.

 

Clariant Masterbatches forecasting color trends

 

Len Kulka, director of Creative Development Colorworks at Clariant Masterbatches, presented an interesting way to look at color trends. In his presentation, “Color Forward Interiors 2015, Forecasting Trends and Colors for Fibers and Textiles,” he opened with a dynamic video representing four social and global trends.

 

Clariant, he said, has been publishing such data for nine years. Each year, the company holds a meeting somewhere in the world, where individuals collaborate on trends and develop four multinational color themes. “People think that’s pretty abstract coming from a polymer company,” he said. “But once we started to understand the psychology involved, we sold more color.”

 

Each of the four themes has color palettes that reflect the feeling of each. The themes themes that emerged for 2015 are:

 

• Tune In, Space Out. “Everybody is moving at warp speed and we found there is beauty in moving in slow motion,” Kulka said. “Everyone is looking for nirvana. They used to call it cocooning. Now it’s called egg-shelling – being in absolute quiet, recouping from the noise, emails, etc. That became a primary focus. Also in the same direction is the concept that we’ll be living on Mars sometime in the future. The concept of moving to Mars is sort of an escapism. Also, the realization that people want to seek boredom. It’s a destination.”
   

• Live 2 Live. “It’s live to live, not live to work,” he said. “Where is the fun? Today, the younger generation is looking at what they can do, how can they do it, and where is the fun element? They say, ‘I just watched my dad work hard his whole life, get laid off and go on welfare. I don’t think I want to be a part of that experience.’  The global influence was really from the recession. They want to find joy in everything. They say, ‘I do want to be paid for my skills rather than just putting in my time.’ They’re willing to take on project work. They share rather than buy, rent rather than own. An undertone to this called gamification, meaning life is almost a game. ‘I’ll find out what this job/town is about and move on,’ they say.”
   

• Redefining Eden. “That’s a personal definition of redefining Eden – as your neighbor or friend relates to you,” he said. “It represents the concept that a person is a person. No labels. It’s something everyone strives for and it’s a global influence. It influences design and fashion. It creates gender neutrality. We found it less so in China and South America than in Europe and North America. To focus on your inner-being is to focus on your inner-worth. This brought out some strong, saturated colors that we tried to neutralize some.”
   

• Raw. “To label a color palette that is risky,” Kulka said. “Raw is the opposite of refined. The thinking is: Strong and muscular is the new skinny. It’s a return to your raw sense. One of the side effects of this is that extreme sports are not extreme enough almost. The physical toughness and the power expressed physically is an inner strength that also represents a mental toughness. The feeling is, ‘we have an opportunity, we have a choice. We can move away from that.’ ”

 

Technical textiles update

 

Steve Warner, publisher of the BeaverLake6 Report, wrapped up the day with his perspectives on the North America technical textiles market, which encompasses advanced textiles, industrial fabrics, specialty fabrics, nonwovens, e-textiles and canvas. This sector in particular thrives on wars, natural disasters and pandemics, he said.

 

The industry can be difficult to define, Warner said, because it encompasses many small, niche markets; there is a lack of consensus on the scope of the marketplace; and there is a lack of comparable, measurable data.

 

The U.S. has about 10,000 companies engaged in technical textiles in some fashion, he noted, with the 50 largest companies holding a 60 percent market share. The sector employs almost 217,000 in textile manufacturing, with hundreds of thousands more in end-product markets, he said. Dollar-wise, the sector invested $30 billion in new plants over the last decade and contributed $26.3 billion to the GDP, he added.

 

U.S. technical textiles has benefited from the on-shoring and near-shoring efforts, too, he said. He listed the number of foreign companies opening or expanding manufacturing operations in the U.S., totaling $700 million in the last eight months.

 

Worldwide, technical and specialty textiles are expected to grow by 2.7 percent his year, he reported. Last year, the U.S. saw a 2.0 percent growth in this area and is targeted for 2.5 percent growth this year.

 

For military and homeland security needs, 8,000 items from 14,000 companies are made from technical textiles, Warner said. The Berry Amendment and the Buy American Act are effective in securing a domestic supplier base, he added, with foreign textiles and related products accounting for only .2 percent of purchases. He noted that French manufacturer Zodiac has opened a plant in the U.S. in order for its aerospace equipment and systems to be Berry compliant.

 

The good news in the military and homeland security markets is innovative products developed for these areas are eventually used in civilian markets, including medical, safety and protective gear. Also, the Fiber and Textile Innovative Manufacturing Institute, proposed by the Department of Defense, could have positive effects on the industry. The bad news: deep military budget cuts are expected, even after the budget has decreased by 30 percent since 2009.

 

Warner also briefed the audience on the transportation, construction, awnings & canopies and consumer markets. Activity in the automotive area, in particular, is expected to increase, he said. He added that he sees U.S. growth markets in digital printing applications, safety and medical, disaster relieve and prevention, smart fabric applications and sun protection.