Research & development on carbon reduction finishing methods
Founded in 1987, Advance Denim has the distinction of being the oldest denim mill in China and today, with over 1,100 employees, supplies denim to renowned brands around the globe. Fibre2Fashion spoke to Mark Ix, Director North America Marketing, Advance Denim, to find out the cutting edge dyeing and washing techniques the company uses, the new innovations it is working on and top 5 goals for the future.
Where does Advance Denim rank today in the world denim market?
Advance Denim has always strived to be a leader in the world denim market. I am not aware of an official rank but it is our constant focus the be an industry leader.
From which geographies is the demand for your products most from?
Advance Denim sends its fabric to all markets in the world but since we are based in Asia, we supply majority of our denim to our industry partners in the Asian region that services many large global brands.
What is your approach towards sustainability? What are the factors you think act as the biggest hurdles in inculcating sustainable fashion?
Amy Wang, the leader of Advance Denim, has fostered a culture within Advance Denim that drives for constant innovation and continuous improvement. Sustainability is a critical part of Advance Denim’s DNA and it is Amy’s goal to make denim one of the world’s most environmentally friendly products. You will see this commitment not only in our pledge to have 90 per cent of all fibre used in Advance Denim be green fibres by 2023 but also in innovations in sustainable manufacturing such as Bigbox dyeing and BioBlue indigo. It is Amy’s passion to see the sustainable problems within the denim business and find solutions.
How has the company grown through the years in terms of size, scale and revenue?
Driven by the support from our customers and the continuous self-improvement which includes making innovative new products, acquiring newest technology and constantly upgrading production equipment, we achieved revenue of around US $0.2 billion and are able to maintain double-digit growth almost every year.
You have been associated with the denim industry for more than 40 years now. How has the world of denim changed through different periods of time?
The denim industry has gone through many changes since Advance Denim was founded in 1987. As the first denim mill in China, we have embraced the change. The denim industry today embraces innovation and fibre technology that just was not part of business at our inception.
How have the US-China tradewar /Brexit etc impacted your business? Kindly share at length.
The political and economic turmoil around the world in recent years is all part of the macro environment, this certainly has negative impact on the fashion industry. Having said that, we are still doing our best and proactively co-operating with our customers to fulfill their needs as best we can.
In addition to China, we also have a production facility in Vietnam. Our Vietnam facility can work closely with our customers growing supply chains in both Vietnam and surrounding countries as well as take advantage of free trade agreements with various countries (EU, Japan, etc).
Most companies faced supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic. How were you impacted and what steps you took to tide over them?
The pandemic has had an adverse impact on the global economy and certainly the supply chain of the fashion industry is affected as well. We have worked closely with our core suppliers to enhance the resilience of our supply chain, so as to sustain business operations to serve our customers. We have also been as flexible as we can to strengthen our ability to address customer demands for personalization and customization in such ever-changing environment.
In addition, we continue with our tireless research and development efforts, focus on our strength and continue to overcome difficulties.
What are the strengths of Advance Denim as a denim manufacturer? What qualities are ingrained in your legacy?
Advance Denim is focused on innovation and sustainability while creating beautiful denim that accentuates the classic shades and constructions of vintage denim. An important legacy that Advance Denim is pursuing right now is the creation of a mill that uses cutting edge sustainable technology to fully upgrade the entire denim making process to be the greenest low carbon mill in the world.
What are the cutting-edge dyeing and washing techniques used by you?
Advance Denim has introduced several groundbreaking dyeing innovations in the past 2 years. The first innovation is Bigbox dyeing which shrinks the normal 8-13 boxes plus wash boxes that are traditionally used to dye indigo into just 1 Bigbox while still using liquid indigo that gives you consistent quality and great wash down. Bigbox dyeing uses 94 per cent less water, 99 per cent less wastewater emissions, 25 per cent less chemicals, 30 per cent less gas emissions and 65 per cent less electricity compared to traditional indigo dyeing.
The newest dyeing innovation is our BioBlue indigo. It is a cleaner way of dyeing Indigo that replaces the toxic and flammable sodium hydrosulfite in the dye process. Sodium hydrosulfite has been used for many years and is the preferred way to put indigo into reduction but it is unsafe in the workplace and creates an effluent that is hard to clean and harmful to aquatic life. BioBlue eliminates the need for this toxic chemical and creates a dye process that does not require immersing of sustainable fibres into toxic chemical for dyeing but still gives us dark rich indigo shades that our customers love.
What are the new innovations, fabrics, materials and forms of productions you are currently working on?
We consider sustainability a critical part of our DNA at Advance Denim and that is why we created the “GreenLet” environmental protection plan and standards about 10 years ago. In the entire clothing production process, about 38 per cent of carbon emissions come from the production of materials. In order to reduce the environmental impact, we must first start with the raw materials. Thus, we keep researching environmentally friendly and sustainable raw materials for production such as biodegradable spandex that is truly degradable in nature while still maintaining the elasticity and resilience of spandex at the same time.
As one of the founding initiators of the denim zero-carbon initiative in China, we advocated the practice of low-carbon production. We are doing research and development on carbon reduction finishing methods lately with the aim of making denim one of the most environmentally friendly fabrics and creating a cleaner industry and environment for the future generations.
In addition, we are also working on some new stretch technologies, such as bare Lycra aiming to bring stretch denim to a whole new level.
What are the top 5 goals of the company for future?
• To become the world’s leading denim brand and world leader in sustainable manufacturing
• To make denim one of the world’s most environmentally friendly fabrics
• To tirelessly make innovative and quality products to create maximum value for our customers
• To strive for carbon zero production and aim to be climate positive
• To use sustainable and environmentally friendly raw materials and renewable energy as much as we can for circularity.
Which are the international markets/players you are currently competing with?
Denim is a global industry, and we are currently involved in markets around the world. We have offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Amsterdam, New York and of course our home office in Shunde, China. Currently, we have manufacturing facilities in both China and Vietnam.
