Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang models Nike's polyester T-shirt.
WHY DOES Nike’s polyester T-shirt retail for S$60, compared with S$5 for a Giordano cotton tee?
Demand for high-tech fabrics is replacing fabrics with no more than two functional properties, says Mr Lin Wenzhang, CEO of recently-listed China Taisan Technology Group.
China Taisan manufactures the "Lianjie" brand of polyester fabric with high-tech functions and has a market capitalization of about S$190 million on SGX.
Some of the most popular high-tech functionalities today include dry-fit, anti-bacteria and anti-odor, stain-resist, anti-UV and water resist, says Mr Lin.
Taisan boasts an A-list of customers who are behind numerous large sports apparel brands in China.
Why is the polyester fabric maker able to get “Approved Supplier” status from many renowned fashion labels?
Polyester fabric technology from Taiwan
Part of the credit goes to Taisan’s Taiwanese roots, according to Mr Lin, who wants “Lianjie” to be known as a Taiwanese brand.
“Taiwanese are more like Japanese, with an emphasis on efficiency, quality and team work,” says Mr Lin, referring to Taiwanese management culture inherited from the Japanese after 5 decades as its colony (1895-1945).
China may be the world’s largest textile producer, but its niche is in cotton, says the management.
CEO Lin Wenzhang brought polyester fabric technology to China.
Industry buyers generally acknowledge that Taiwan has the best factories for polyester fabric, says Mr Lin.
China’s polyester fabric history is only a decade old.
Its genesis was when Mr Lin, a Taiwanese, founded the "Lianjie" brand (1997) by persuading 8 Taiwanese colleagues to relocate to China and start a polar fleece factory in Fujian.
Fujian is China’s hub for synthetic textile, and Jinjiang, where Taisan is headquartered, is known for sports apparel.
Back then, polar fleece was exclusive up-market apparel. Available only in first-tier cities such as Shanghai, a polar fleece coat could retail for as high as Rmb 600-700.
In those early years, Taisan sold mainly to the export market.
By the year 2000, however, polar fleece was so popular every person in China owned at least one polar fleece winter jacket.
As polar fleece had become a mass-market product, its factory gate price fell from about Rmb 70,000 a ton in 1998 to about Rmb 30,000 a ton currently.
So Taisan decided to switch to high-grade fabric (i.e. functional polyester) used only by top apparel brands.
Mr Lin saw his customers importing large amounts of functional fabrics from Taiwan and decided to invest Rmb 125 million in upstream machines so that his factory could also produce such fabrics.
As late as 2006, there were only 2-3 Taiwanese manufacturers of knitted functional polyester fabric in China.
Buyers for established brands such as Nike or Adidas are exacting in requirements for fabric function, quality, consistency and a supplier’s ability to deliver on time for the brand owners’ product launch schedules.
Five years of track record was typically required of a supplier before getting their stamp of approval.
By then, Taisan’s standing with large foreign buyers or traders representing renowned fashion brands had long been established.
Taisan’s polar fleece production lines were retrofitted to process functional knitted polyester.
So, its first batch of functional knitted polyester (China’s first) was produced in 2006, which it sold for Rmb 68,000 a ton.
Functional knitted polyester proved such a roaring success FY07 sales was 3-4 times that of FY06.
Mr Lin believes Taisan is one of China’s top five knitted functional polyester producers.
Maintaining technology edge
China Taisan works with Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan's hub for applied technology development.
It is easy to produce fabric with a single function such as anti-stain etc but Taisan’s strength is coming up with new permutations of up to 5 fabric functions within a single roll of cloth.
Taisan has strong technology partners, such as the Industrial Technology Research Institute (“ITRI”), a government funded technology incubator pivotal in transforming Taiwan’s economy from agricultural to industrial.
ITRI counts in its track record for commercialization of technology spin-offs such as United Microelectronics Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, two of the world’s top semiconductor foundries.
By providing funding of a million Taiwan dollars (S$50,000) a year, Taisan gains access to ITRI’s research findings on functional fabrics.
One of Taisan’s commercial successes was ITRI’s invention of Polydron-T4 (四角莎) polyester fiber, an environmentally friendly substitute for PFOS, which is a dye for making clothing waterproof and stain-resistant.
Unlike PFOS, ITRI’s Polydron-T4 polyester fiber is non-toxic to humans.
The new fiber holds potential to replace polar fleece. Polydron-T4 properties that make it suitable for making winter coats include ability to block out winter chills and water-resist. Advantages over polar fleece include being breathable, lint-free and paper-like.
”Imagine a winter coat that you can fold into the size of a book,” quips Mr Lin.
Including Mr Lin himself, there are currently 13 researchers in Taisan’s R&D department. These include the 8 managers from Taiwan each with 20 years of experience.
Dr Yeh Jen Taut (叶正涛), a scientist renowned for research findings on functional fabric, is the technical advisor.
Mr Lin believes China’s economic progress will result in the industry upgrading to high-tech fabric.
So what high tech-fabric can consumers expect next? Taisan’s latest offering is its unique skin-care Aloe Vera and pearl powder fabric, which does for the body what a facial mask does for the face!
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