The market for textiles has offered such items with smart added value for quite some time now. It is precisely these smart textiles that will feature at the PromoTex Expo held in Düsseldorf from 8 to 10 January 2019. Acting as a partner for designing the programme content of this trade show for the first time will be the Academy for Textile Finishing.

Advertising with Smart textiles

 “Textiles of the Future” are the theme for Nora Kühner. As part of the Forum 13 lecture programme the expert for fashion, design and consulting will explain how smart fabrics are changing our lives already and will do so even more in the future. “Apparel has already been determined by functionality over the past few years,” she says and adds “the integration of electronic and sensor functions is therefore a consistent further development.” Applications for smart textiles that predominantly focus on monitoring body functions can already be seen in sports and medicine. “Smart textiles, however, open up far more versatile possibilities to develop personalised applications for very different customer needs,” predicts Kühner.

In her view there are also new possibilities emerging for advertising with smart textiles. “Luminescent textiles are very popular for high-impact visuals. But as a rule, smart textiles offer functional solutions that go far beyond optical effects,” remarks Kühner. New competencies are also called for in marketing, she feels, since a garment with health-promoting attributes also calls for a different marketing approach to one for a classical utility jacket. Kühner will explain the new challenges resulting from this for the industry in her lecture held on 8 January.

From Singing to Luminescent Textiles

 Smart textiles will also be the topic addressed by ZSK Technical Embroidery Systems at Forum 13: to be more precise, the ability of technical embroidery to produce pillows that play music or sweatshirts that glow in the dark. Those also interested in current figures should attend the talk delivered by author, lecturer and journalist Sabine Anton-Katzenbach of the Textilberatung Hamburg. She will share the results of a current study on “fashionisation and functionalisation” as part of the supporting programme.

Questions revolving around digitalisation in everyday entrepreneurial practice are answered by the “Mittelstand 4.0-Kompetenzzentrum Textil”. The SME 4.0 Textile Competence Centre focuses on linking and supporting companies from the textile industry, textile machinery manufacturing and associated industries that want to work on their digital fitness. This is also the point of departure for their lecture at the Forum. Technical embroidery and smart textiles will be the subject addressed by Prof. Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer of the Niederrhein University. Here, too, visitors are in for a presentation on current challenges, opportunities and chances.

Exhibitor Portfolio on the Textile Campus

 Numerous suppliers specialising in smart textiles not only feature in the lecture programme but are also represented on the Textile Campus, the “centrepiece” of Hall 13. Presenting technologies and textiles “Designed in Germany” is Lunative Electric Apparel. Their product highlight is the luminescent LUNATIVE Flash Hoody. The Niederrhein University, Mittelstand 4.0-Kompetenzzentrum Textil as well as ZSK Stickmaschinen with their Forum contributions will also be present on the Textile Campus alongside other suppliers.

Strong Trade Fair meets Strong Academy

 In future, the textile industry will benefit from the strong links between the PromoTex Expo and the Academy for Textile Finishing all year long. This tandem will be kicked off by the PromoTex Expo in January, where networking and information exchange will be centrestage. The Academy for Textile Finishing will predominantly provide support here by designing the content on the Textile Campus. Between trade shows the Academy for Textile Finishing will be supported by the PromoTex Expo offering various continuous education schemes. This means the sector will now have an opportunity all year long to sharpen its profile by further training, interaction and debates on current issues.

The first PromoTex Expo 2019

 Mass customisation, smart clothes, sustainability in the textile production chain as well as textile finishing services in all their diversity: these are the trend themes at the new PromoTex Expo. Serving as a new information and knowledge platform for the sectors this Trade Show for Promotion, Sports and Workwear in Düsseldorf is the “port of call” for international textile finishers, promotional product distributors, signmakers, textile experts and agencies. The first PromoTex Expo will be held from 8 to 10 January 2019 in Düsseldorf concurrently with the trade shows PSI – the Leading Trade Show for the Promotional Products Industry and viscom – Europe’s Trade Show for Visual Communication. Together they are Europe’s biggest trade show alliance for advertising and selling where more than 1,000 exhibitors and to the tune of 25,000 trade visitors are expected from throughout the world.