70% of performance fabrics
This isn’t the first time Taiwanese textiles have appeared at the World Cup. When Asia hosted the competition for the first time in 2002, the South Korean team impressed viewers not just with its first appearance in the final four, but with its bright red uniforms. Taiwan’s Everest Textile provided the fabric for those uniforms.
That professional athletic wear is lightweight, breathable, long-lasting and tough is a given. Ideally, it also wicks away sweat, neutralizes odors, blocks UV radiation, is water-resistant, antibacterial and antistatic, and is able to retain all of these properties through numerous washings.
Taiwan began developing performance textiles sometime around the millennium, and now holds about 70% of the global market for performance fabrics used in sports and outdoor wear.
Achieving this level of success required several transformations. It began with the retreat of mainland Chinese textile companies to Taiwan with the Nationalist government, and their establishment here. But Taiwan’s lack of natural materials like cotton and wool caused the industry to refocus on chemical fibers.
Later, when our economy took flight and the cost of labor rose, the production chain began moving offshore. International brands relocated their purchasing to mainland China and the local industry’s output fell, setting off alarm bells in Taiwan’s business community.
Reflecting on that period, Taiwan Textile Federation secretary-general Justin Huang says, “The industry, and government agencies such as the Industrial Development Bureau and Department of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, were in agreement: Taiwan needed to develop new products that could open up ‘blue ocean’ markets.”
Justin Huang, secretary-general of the Taiwan Textile Foundation, relates the history of Taiwan’s textile industry from its early days through its ongoing evolution.