Creating New Demand
February 13, 2012 Do you grow cotton to meet mill and consumer demand?
Yield is number one, but fiber quality and its effect on demand is growing in importance.
Because of work done at Cotton Incorporated, the next potentially explosive growth in demand will be in athletic apparel. National and world-wide brands – Puma, Under Armour, Nike, adidas, Reebok, Russell and Champion – are now producing athletic wear with up to 95% cotton.
“I can explain that in three ways,” says Mark Messura, Senior Vice President, Cotton Incorpoprated’s Global Supply Chain Marketing.
“Number one, performance apparel is a category where cotton has less market share than competitive fibers, such as nylon and polyester,” he says. “Those are the dominant fibers in performance apparel.”
Messura pointed to Cotton Incorporated market research done several years ago that demonstrated that the biggest obstacle to cotton breaking into the performance-wear market was moisture management – the ability to wick moisture away from the skin and for the garment to dry faster. That problem has been solved.
“This is significant because it allows cotton to compete head to head with the key fibers,” he says. “Not just compete, but beat them in the performance category.”
Messura says, “the second reason this new market is significant is because what’s happening as these companies move into what you would call general, everyday wearing apparel. What happens in trends in fiber and fabric used in that category bleeds over into what’s used in the general apparel market where cotton has a 60% share. But it’s always being threatened by other fibers.”
Third, by moving cotton into this category, it is effectively displacing synthetic fibers.
“And in a very real way to cotton farmers, we are increasing the pounds and bales used,” says Messura. Those programs by Puma, Under Armour, Nike and adidas, collectively will lead to tens-of-thousands of bales of additional cotton usage. Again, they allow us not only to compete with synthetics, but we’re winning.”
For cotton growers, this is also significant in a year that saw cotton prices soar to record levels.
“While most cotton farmers who sold cotton were pleased and looking at the market positively with that run up in price, from a manufacturing and retailing standpoint, high prices were in fact a negative for cotton,” Messura explains. “Prices got too high, and many companies, brands and clothing retailers were looking for ways to get around cotton to use something else. Even at a time when cotton prices reached record levels, companies can still be successful launching cotton products into the market place. That’s an outstanding achievement.”
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