What We Saw at Kingpins Show Amsterdam
Last week, the TENCEL™ Denim team participated in Kingpins Show in Amsterdam. We were one of more than 100 exhibitors, alongside many of our mill partners.
We presented the twin collections “Zero Cotton” and “Zero Virgin Cotton” for the first time at Kingpins. Fifteen of our mill partners from around the globe—including Spain, Türkiye, China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh and more—collaborated with us on this, and the outcome was a rich variety of products using either no cotton or solely recycled cotton. The scale of this partnership shows that these concepts are not niche anymore.
Another partnership on display was Naveena Denim Limited’s (NDL) collaboration with TENCEL™ on a concept collection of fabrics called Swift n’ Sway. This range has a sustainable moisture management solution using TENCEL™ Lyocell at its core, leveraging the fibers’ high absorbency that is double that of cotton. These specially engineered denim fabrics are balanced in construction with the right mix of warp and weft to achieve excellent absorbency and wicking performance, creating a cooling effect for the wearer.
Swift n’ Sway denim fabrics are biodegradable and decomposable, compared to other conventionally available moisture-management denim fabrics.
The collection has a classic look and natural hand feel without a shiny surface or a synthetic touch. Swift n’ Sway denim made with TENCEL™ is the perfect choice for jeans that can handle all of our daily activities.
In the week before Kingpins, we released our TENCEL™ fiber recycling initiative in partnership with three mills: Artistic Milliners, Canatiba and Textil Santanderina. Pre-consumer TENCEL™ waste in yarn and fabric scrap form is mechanically recycled into new fiber to decrease the enviromental footprint of the denim production. The samples that Artistic Milliners exhibited in their booth received great attention.
Throughout the course of the two-day fair, we got a chance to see many retail and brand partners. While it was a good show, our interactions with fellow attendees reflected some of the challenging trends we are seeing in the market. Some customers are still facing inventory issues, lower margins and cost cutting. Although there were attendees from the U.S.—including our customers American Eagle, Gap, Lucky Brand and Target—the turnout on the brand and retailer side was notably stronger among the more local European companies including Bestseller, Zara, Mud Jeans, PVH, Varner Group and H&M.
The day before Kingpins Show, its sister organization the Transformers Foundation held its first in-person conference since the start of the pandemic. Tuncay Kılıçkan, head of global business development of denim at Lenzing, participated as a panelist for a session about decarbonization. Many supply chain partners also gave comments about how to improve our industry. It was an opportunity for a rare dialogue between suppliers and those working in sustainability capacities—whether at brands or in the nonprofit space.
