Posted August 31, 2016

As you probably know, the U.S. textile and apparel industry is entrenched in a rebranding campaign aimed at telling the world that we’re not their grandparents’ industry. We’re high-tech, innovative, modern, clean, automated, sustainable and, frankly, pretty cool. And you know we’ve had to become these things in order to emerge from that bare-knuckled brawl in the Alphabet Soup Ring of Fire. We were stammered by the MFA, stunned by the WTO and repeatedly punched by a team of welterweights, the FTAs.

But we’re here, y’all, living to fight another day and actually recovering quite nicely, thank you, save a few scars and memories of our brethren thrown over the ropes.

And, boy, do we have stories to tell.

That’s why I’d like to take the liberty of reiterating the call to action made by the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) and its marketing agency, Wray Ward. Last year, the council retained the services of the Charlotte, N.C., firm to help tell these stories to the media, policymakers and consumers in order to “help level the playing field” for the industry, according to the NCTO. The campaign, American Textiles – We Make Amazing, was launched in April but, from my vantage point, I don’t yet see the mass promulgation of positive pieces out there, although I know tireless work is being done by some.

I have seen a few vignettes that I’m sure have made some kind of impact. For instance, a great recent victory was coverage of Team USA’s Olympic ceremonial uniforms that were made from components some of you supplied. Those stories made hundreds of media impressions, through air, print and digital means, and sent just the type of message we need to send, especially to those who didn’t even know U.S. textiles was still “a thing.”

How much sway that story made is anyone’s guess, but I know it hit a lot of eyeballs ­– and I’m speaking from a personal standpoint. I posted images for and links to my stories on Inman Mills’ contributions to the Olympic garments on the eTC Facebook page, as well as my personal page. And you wouldn’t believe the cumulative metrics from those posts. Let me check the latest numbers … they were liked 123 times and shared 246 times … and they reached 4,772 people – an impressive number of impressions. But more astounding is the number of people beyond those stats that saw or liked the shared posts, which can't be quantified. Several thousand, I’m sure – and that’s just my posts alone.

Can you say, “wildfire?”

If little ol’ me and eTC can produce those kinds of numbers for just one story, think what we could do collectively on social media and beyond to reach the ambivalent, device-staring populace. So I’d like to repeat NCTO’s rallying call to mobilize as an industry and help spread our good news.