TAYPA: from Social Sustainability to Industry 4.0 Application
Cenker Akdemir is the design and product development director at Taypa, a Turkish supply organization that puts sustainability at the heart of its operations. Just about anyone with a love for denim is familiar with Taypa’s reach—the company’s customer roster has included denim all-stars like Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Zara. Akdemir believes strongly in Turkey’s potential to become a hub for cutting-edge tech and environmental action in the garment industry.
Carved in Blue caught up with Cenker to get his insights on the company’s work with Özlem Süer, the role of corporate social responsibility, and using innovative finishing techniques to make denim more sustainable.
Carved in Blue: Can you tell us about your latest CSR project?
Cenker: Özlem Süer is a multi-store and concept luxury boutique. Süer is an academic designer, and her style has been integrated into all areas of our corporate brand collaborations with celebrities and industry leaders.
Özlem Süer and Taypa brands are cultivating awareness of social responsibility with an upcoming capsule. The ”denim” capsule collection will be produced under the mentorship of Özlem Süer, focusing on interdisciplinary fashion performance with its very special 20-piece selection and highlighting the successful global impact of localized production. Revenues from the sale of the collection will be used to further the employment of hearing impaired and deaf individuals, in projects developed for language education and awareness.
Carved in Blue: Why is this project important to the company? How important is social responsibility at Taypa?Cenker: Approximately 3,000 people work at Taypa. We launched “Voice Coffee” on Valentine’s Day. It’s an informative and interactive project at Taypa Textile’s headquarters in Hadımköy, Istanbul. In a coffee shop in our headquarters, Taypa Textile employees, under the mentorship of hearing-impaired individuals, used Turkish sign language to order their coffee. Taypa Textile will continue to support awareness of hearing impairment and to promote sign language sensitivity. Corporate social responsibility is not just a program for us, but it is a culture and lifestyle.
Carved in Blue: What else is new with Taypa denim for 2019?
Cenker: In this year, we will start the production in our Serbian and Algerian facilities and increase our production capacity to 45 million. In all our factories Turkey and Serbia, we will start using the industry 4.0 applications in sewing and washing that will be applied for the first time in denim sector. We manage all our facilities with this algorithm.
Carved in Blue: Can you tell us about the capsule collection with TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ Denim? What made you decide to use TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™? What has been the customer response?
Cenker: For Taypa, sustainability is one of our main goals. We believe that sustainability starts from the fabric. So we combine our sustainable innovations with yarn and fabric technologies, such as TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ with washing. In this collection, we have used the washing methods that will make a difference by combining the zero wash technique, which we developed in our design studio CreaTay, with laser technology. Consumers are now more aware of sustainability and the environment, so they prefer purchasing such products. This demand will continue to increase with each passing day.
Carved in Blue: How important is sustainability to Taypa?
Cenker: More efficient use of natural resources is not only for individuals. Companies have enormous responsibility there too. Sustainability is especially important in industries such as denim, water, energy and chemicals. As one of the pioneers of the sector, we have built all our production and management processes on sustainability.
Carved in Blue: What’s missing from the denim industry today?
Cenker: I think there are still a lot of issues that we still need to improve on sustainability.
Carved in Blue: What does Carved in Blue mean to you?
Cenker: Carved in Blue is an important platform that connects people from all across the denim industry. It’s where we get fresh news about the industry with a sincere view.