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External market pressures are everywhere in the textile industry. To succeed, thread manufacturers focus on service and developing products in response to their customers’ needs. Growth areas are in specialty niches and supported by internal R&D.
Three market experts gave us their insights on this area of the market: Freddie Groce, vice president of business development at Fil-Tec™ Inc., headquartered in Hagerstown, Md.; Mike Kwasnik, vice president of Dunlap Industries Inc., of Dunlap, Tenn.; and Yiğit Durak, vice chairman of the board of directors at Durak Tekstil, headquartered in Bursa, Türkiye, which opened a new
U.S. sales office last year after moving its manufacturing from China back to Türkiye.
Cost-conscious textile customers
Industry representatives say that thread customers in general have a cost-conscious attitude.
Dunlap staff take pride in being receptive to customer needs: what they need when they need it, Kwasnik says. “Every penny counts for some customers just trying to stay profitable,” he says. Examples of personalized service include providing custom colors, employing make and hold orders, supplying larger cones that have to be replaced less often, or allowing for orders of smaller quantities as the customers try out different types of products. “I see a lot of companies saying, ‘Tell me if I’m using the correct thread, and tell me if there’s an alternative that could save me money and still give me the quality that I need,’” Kwasnik says.
Some customers are reducing the amount of colors they order, relying more on black and white thread and forgoing perfect matches to reduce SKUs, he says. “I tell people that we’re in an industry where we can make single-digit profit numbers.”
“Price competition will never cease to exist,” says Durak. In the past few years, however, he says production costs, including raw materials and labor, have tripled, and margins have decreased.
Groce notes that thread sales to outdoor products industries such as marine and awnings have softened in recent years.
In that market area, Kwasnik adds he was surprised to hear from outdoor products manufacturers of the desire to use sonic welds instead of thread for securing attachments. He says, “[They] told us it doesn’t make sense to perforate the product with a needle or with a thread when they are trying to maintain strength and water resistance.”
Durak says his company is working on thread that will expand when exposed to water. It could protect the down inside jackets if the fabric covering is penetrated, for example.
Geopolitical effects on markets
Fluctuations in fuel prices and unpredictable impacts on transportation, such as from the Iran war, factor into thread companies’ costs, says Durak.
Tariffs, says Kwasnik, “have been hurting us and helping us at the same time.” While tariffs imposed on imported thread allowed Dunlap to be more price-competitive, he explains, the company simultaneously had to pay tariffs on imported raw materials to produce its products. Uncertainty surrounding tariffs is also a challenge.
Both tariffs and transportation costs could be factors in reshoring to the U.S., says Groce. “I think over the next few years, we’ll see growth in our industry as more and more production comes back to the U.S.”
Challenges with reshoring, says Kwasnik, could include restocking factories with machinery as well as difficulties finding skilled labor. Most U.S. companies, he says, have had to diversify into working with global suppliers over the past decades. “Our domestic sources that we used to work with, most of them are gone, from our yarn suppliers to our chemical suppliers,” he says.
Specialty thread products growing
Suppliers to the U.S. military, however, are required under the Berry Amendment to provide products made with components of domestic origin. Fil-Tec has five U.S. plants, says Groce.
“We make everything in the United States, so we supply military contractors with a Berry-compliant thread.” Nylon and polyester thread for military applications, he says, is a growing market for Fil-Tec. The company is also working with NASA on specialized products. “Overall, in the industry itself, I don’t see too many changes for the standard product lines,” says Groce. “It’s mainly going to be specialty projects that are outside of the norm that I see happening over the next year or two.”
In one specialty niche, Kwasnik cites requests for threads for clean-room garments to be produced with no silicone lubricant. Generally, he says, thread is manufactured with 5%–8% lubricant to allow smooth passage through a sewing machine without breakage. For clean-room customers, that lubricant needs to be mineral oil. Despite silica’s natural occurrence within the environment, “They don’t want you to knowingly incorporate or add any extra silica to the equation, because that can affect the outcome in a laboratory,” he says.
Dunlap also greatly reduced the amount of silicone lubricant in a thread sold to a graduation cap and gown manufacturer after students mistook thread lubricant leaching into mortarboard interiors as evidence of hair product from previous users. “We had to reduce it down to a very low lubricant level, which caused them to have to slow their machines down,” Kwasnik says.
Fil-Tec’s equipment, says Groce, allows precise application of lubricant on all its thread lines. “Our proprietary blend of lubricant, we feel, dissipates needle heat better than anything else in the industry. So we apply that to our complete program of threads, whether commercial nylon used in upholstery, nylon or polyester used for military applications, or PremoBond® used in the outdoor markets,” he says. Fil-Tec additionally applies a technology to enhance the UV resistance of all its threads.
Needle heat resistance, says Kwasnik, is more important in some applications than others. In garment sewing, for example, “The longer the stitch, the faster that they’re sewing. The needle heats up so hot that sometimes you can actually see it glow red, and it will melt the thread.” To address this issue, Dunlap offers core threads in both polyester and cotton that wrap around a spun thread to insulate it from the needle heat.
What’s coming next in thread
Durak sees a growing demand for recycled material, in part for customers to meet Global Recycled Standard certification. It’s reflected in raw materials used that include fish scales, olive leaves and wood-pulp-based lyocell. Currently, about 90% of Durak Tekstil’s thread is polyester, but Durak foresees lyocell replacing rayon and partially replacing cotton after the product has developed to withstand high-performance machines.
Innovation excites him, Durak says, and is reflected in Durak Tekstil’s focus on R&D. “What [customers] always want is a product that will make it easier for them to manufacture what they’re manufacturing,” he says, whether through minimizing waste or a single product with many applications.
Recent developments from Durak Tekstil include Cut-Safe® cut-resistant thread for worker safety garments; Poly-Strong PC-IR thread, which uses light reflection technology to provide infrared invisibility in camouflage applications; and Bug Safe® thread, which has a nonhazardous, plant-based coating that repels insects. Currently in development are photochromic and thermochromic threads, which would change color under certain conditions. Monitoring hospitalized infants for fever through their hats is one potential use.
R&D can come up with exciting ideas, “but we need partners in order to try and see if they are worth marketing,” he says.
In threads’ future, Durak sees increased functionality. “The potential for innovation in thread technology is enormous,” he says. “Thread is often perceived as one of the smallest components in a product, yet when the right functionalities are added, it can become one of the most critical elements determining product performance.”
Kwasnik says, “We are excited about new things that come up. We never know who’s going to be the next big customer.”
Groce says, simply, “I think there’s a bright future for threads.”
Joanna Werch Takes is a writer and editor based in Minnesota.
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