Posted March 9, 2017

My callout in last week’s blog – a rebuttal to a professor’s pronouncement in The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., that the state's textile industry is “all but gone” – was for readers to become “ambassadors” for our great industry. I asked that you “advocate, evangelize and shout from the mountaintop” that the industry is very much alive a well.

And this week, I would like to call out someone who did just that. Thomas Poston, senior key account representative for Daikin America, Inc., actually invited the writer to attend as his guest the Southern Textile Association’s (STA’s) Northern Division Meeting at N.C. State’s College of Textiles on April 4 – and he accepted. “I think you would be interested in seeing the amount of investment being made in the North Carolina textile industry,” Poston wrote to Dr. Peter A. Coclanis, Albert R. Newsome Distinguished Professor of History and director of the Global Research Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill.

In my blog, I had suggested that Dr. Coclanis make the 25-mile trek to Raleigh to visit the College of Textiles and see all the exciting research and industry collaboration occurring there. And Poston took it one step further with the personal invitation. I think Dr. Coclanis will be impressed with what he sees and learns there. Thank you, Thomas.

And I’d like to also thank INDA’s Brad Khalil. I had failed to mention nonwovens’ mighty contributions to the health of the industry, but Khalil did just that in a note to the professor. And, of course, The Nonwovens Institute at N.C. State may certainly serve as another eye-opener for Dr. Coclanis during his visit.

That’s what I call engaging the misinformed. In some respects, it’s exactly what the National Council of Textile Organizations’ (NCTO’s) #WeMakeAmazing rebranding campaign is all about – teaching and showing those who may have a negative perception of the textile industry that it’s not only surviving but is showing billboard-sized signs of new life.

I would also like to thank all of you who sent nice emails about the blog, or who commented directly on the page. All feedback was positive and reaffirmed that those who ply their trade in textiles have a deep-seated love for the industry.

“Spot on,” one writer wrote. Another offered: “After spending the first 20 years of my career engaged with an N.C. textile mill and being witness to the industry’s toughest challenges, I stand proudly with American textile manufacturing and now bear witness to the reimagined and ever-strengthening USA textile and apparel ecosystem.” And this came in: “You knocked it out of the park – bravo!”

This type of passion is just what we need as an industry, especially these days when so many of our elected officials, policymakers, media members and neighbors think we’re dead or on life support.

Please keep up that spirit and continue to promote who we are and what we do. That fervor will go miles in pushing the populace into our high-tech, innovative corner of the manufacturing world.