Spinexpo New York sees 10% increase in visitors

The three-day fair attracted 1379 visitors, a 10% increase over the 2012 edition.  This increase was mainly due to the fact that the exhibition took place from Tuesday to Thursday, versus Monday to Wednesday the previous year. 

The majority of visitors represented major brands mostly from New York and surrounding States, with an increased number of visitors from other States compared with the previous session.  37% of the attendees represented the flatbed knitting sector, with 16% involved in knitted fabrics for outerwear, 10% in weaving for clothing, 8,5% working in knitted accessories and 6% in hosiery.

The exhibition showcased 82 exhibitors and a bright and modern show layout.  Exhibitors included fibre manufacturers, yarn spinners, knitwear and machine manufacturers, and design studios from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mauritius, Italy, Germany, Turkey, France, the UK and USA.

A general forum on the second floor of the venue displayed knitwear trends developed by Sophie Steller Studio, featuring an array of yarns from the exhibiting spinners and executed by knitwear manufacturers Brilliant Global, PT Jaba Garmindo, GTIG Hubo, and Shanghai Xinnuo; as well as a capsule display of knitwear from graduate students at Nottingham Trent University.

“The trend forum is a great opportunity for our merchants and design teams to see the way the yarns look in knitdowns,” commented Trish Pasquino, Senior Director, Product Development and Sourcing for Knitwear at Lands’ End.

Also on the program were seminars from WGSN, Nelly Rodi, knitwear designer Steven Oo, and a presentation on textile recycling and garment longevity from Helen Hill of NTU and Karla Magruder of the Textile Exchange.

Knitwear manufacturers with a variety of specialties added their expertise to the show; some offered complete vertical service from yarn to finished garment. A collaboration between machine manufacturer Shima Seiki and yarn spinner Nikko Textile created excitement at the interactive stand of PT Jaba Garmindo, Indonesia’s largest knitwear manufacturer. The stand attracted a large number of visitors who could check the manufacturing quality of the Indonesian company.

A seminar by Shima and Nikko is planned for the upcoming September SPINEXPO in Shanghai, and promises a fascinating look at the new technologies being developed for knitwear.

“SPINEXPO gives me the ability to see the full picture, from raw materials to finished product. I was really pleased to see vendors with full-service operations such as PT Jaba Garmindo,” enthused Kristin Schmidt, Director of Product Development for Knitwear at PVH. “The show’s seminars were quite rich and full of information,” she added.