Western World Textile industry future

[max b]

What do you think about the future of the textile industry of Europe and USA ? Business changed dramatically after 2008 and the situation is still very confused. Our manufacturing Companies still based in US and Europe will survive ?

 

[Galix]

I think they'll have to specialize in what they do better, that it's differentiate the product. Make better clothes, invest in research and development to create new ways of be more cost efficient without compromising quality, etc.
Plus, I personally think we'll see a change in mentality: last decades was all about buying a lot of stuff, no matter what. Whereas now we're probably more conscious when spending, which doesn't mean that we're less prone to spend, but we'll be more rational which in my opinion means buying better quality products.
And then we find the hard-to-explain qualities of a product: I'm a quite rational guy who tends not to act without thinking things first, but give me two shirts of similar quality and not an exaggeratedly price difference, one made in China and the other made in Italy (or France, Spain, UK, USA, etc for that matter) and I'll go for the latter one. "Cucita a mano" in Napoli sells.


Edit: Sorry, I didn't give a clear answer: IMO some will close, some will move production to other places, but we'll see many of them still producing here. Specially those small to medium sized companies that clearly have their niche well defined are more or less secured. I guess big companies will tend to move production out of Europe or the USA.