At the 21^st edition of Spinexpo Shanghai, a new Knitwear Pavilion is bringing together the best and the brightest of Asia’s new generation of knitwear producers. These young entrepreneurs defy old stereotypes with the latest equipment, dedication to design, and willingness to engage in an open exchange with their partner customers from traditional as well as new markets. It’s a new way of doing business, bringing fresh ideas to stimulate customer thinking, and resulting in differentiated product that reflects the trends yet is tailored to the needs of the customer.

Brilliant Global Knitwear

Service is the credo of Hong Kong’s Brilliant Global Knitwear, where a team led by Ty Bhojwani has created “a brand of service” with the goal of helping the designer/buyer/customer to realize their vision. Beginning as a cashmere spinning mill in China, in 1990 the company added garment manufacturing in order to utilise its excess yarns. Mr. Bhojwani joined the company in 2002 with the belief that “there are ample suppliers in the world. We need to be a true resource and work to understand the customer.”

Unhappy with the practice of knocking off the European samples their customers would bring them, Mr. Bhojwani set to work to develop a range of knitwear that would appeal to the US brands. The company’s US sales team spends a lot of time with its buyers and in their stores, in order to really understand consumer habits and tastes.

Guided by Senior Design Director Majda Coza, the company also works with trend forecasters, then develops a vision and makes it relevant to Brilliant’s customers, combining strategic input with collaboration.

With an output of some 60,000 sweaters a day, Brilliant Global has no pre-defined parameters regarding raw materials or knitting techniques. “Our goal is to be the significant supplier to a handful of customers. We are not in the commodity business,” explains Mr. Bhojwani. “We collaborate with the yarn and fibre companies to really come up with something beautiful and aspirational as a starting point—then we engineer it further for our customers—helping them adapt the trends to their customers.”

Building on their success in the US, the company is looking to develop partnerships with significant brands in Europe and the UK. Brilliant’s exchange program with Nottingham Trent University also nurtures the development of talent, and the company works with Spinexpo’s Sophie Steller to develop trend garments for the show’s General Forum. “Shows like Spinexpo allow us to release our creativity,” says Mr. Bhojwani.

PT Jaba Garmindo 

From Indonesia, PT Jaba Garmindo comes to Spinexpo Shanghai with the goal of showcasing the potential of their cutting-edge design and manufacturing, which utilize Shima Seiki knitting machines and software systems. Established in 1983 by Dr. Djoni Gunawan, today PT Jaba Garmindo is the largest automated knitting factory in Indonesia, with 1000 computerized flat knitting machines in gauges from 1.5 to 14, and top-of-the-line inkjet printers. All steps of production are housed under the company’s own roof, ensuring quality, speed, flexibility, and transparency in the manufacturing process.

“We want to change the image of Indonesia as a supplier base of only basic styles,” explains Felice Gunawan Beckman, who has recently overseen the development of a new Hong Kong-based design team to create fashion-forward styles to inspire customers. “We want to create styles that are wearable—that our customers can adapt for their markets—but with a twist, using different combinations of yarns and unusual knitting structures to create new textures.”

Executive Director Edward Gunawan lauds the company’s relationship with Shima Seiki as one of the contributing factors to PTJaba Garmindo’s rapid growth. Mr. Gunawan explains that Shima’s training, service, and innovative software systems have opened the doors to the potential for the collaborative design, programming, and manufacturing of knitwear, promoting teamwork between design and manufacturing.

“Over the past ten years, hardware has driven change in the knitting industry. In the next ten years, software will drive change by enabling communication throughout a global supply chain,” he believes. Toward that end, PT Jaba Garmindo will exhibit jointly with Shima Seiki, along with several spinners, in the July edition of Spinexpo in New York. “Spinexpo is vital to showcase the design potential of our way of working, and show the benefit to the customer.”

“The interesting thing for our customers is to see what we can do—they’ll be pleasantly surprised,” adds Mrs. Beckman. “If we can’t do it, we are willing to learn—we intend to be a game-changer.”

The Gunawan team emphasizes that they are continuing to grow and expand with their customers, and Mrs. Beckman cites China as well as the US as new markets for PT Jaba Garmindo. “We see that a lot of buyers are consolidating their supply base, while continuing to expand as markets open up globally. As a result, there is a high demand for capacity, and we see a strong need for businesses to create long-term partnerships with suppliers who are willing to grow with them,” she concludes.

Shanghai Xinnuo Garment Company

Like many of Spinexpo’s exhibitors, Shanghai Xinnuo Garment Company, founded in 2000, is a vertical operation that is embracing technology to expand at a rapid pace. In 2005 the company established Shanghai Xinnuo Zhanchuang Yarn Company, spinning yarns of cotton, silk, linen, synthetics, and blends; and Shanghai Fuyi Knitting and Dyeing Company, creating an integrated production system with productivity of some 80 thousand pieces a month.

Moving away from commodity products and into added-value knitwear, Xinnuo is currently devoting great efforts to develop seamless knitwear products, using Shima Seiki’s highly technical Wholegarment knitting machines. According to Lina Deng, head of business development for the European and American markets, the company can produce high-elastic knitted outerwear, underwear, and sportswear that is “comfortable, considerate, fashionable, and changeable. Because there is no excessive squeeze, uncomfortable pressure, or side seams, the clothes are fitted to the body so that it feels like a second skin.”

Xinnuo’s capabilities include 1.5- to 18-gg knitting, with a recent emphasis on the finer gauges for the company’s specialty, the knitted dress. An in-house team of Japanese designers researches and develops product in keeping with seasonal trends and customer requirements. Their creativity will be on display in Spinexpo’s General Forum, as well as in the Knitwear Pavilion.

Exhibiting a high degree of quality, design, and passion, these knitwear companies, and others like them, are the future of the Asian textile business; and they can be found at Spinexpo.