Blue Cast: Neil Bell on Denim’s Innovation Focus and Future
Blue Cast is a podcast series from the TENCEL™ Denim team. Each episode features a conversation with a special guest from within the industry or the fringes of the denim community. The following is a recap of Episode 519.
Neil Bell’s resume reads like a laundry list of the biggest names in the business: Wrangler, Levi Strauss & Co., Gap, Arvind, Artistic Milliners and more. The throughline of these stints was the textile engineer’s work to help establish innovation hubs and rethink processes ranging from stonewashing to dyeing.
“Innovation runs completely through my whole life story,” Neil explained to Lenzing’s Tuncay Kilickan on the latest episode of Carved in Blue’s Blue Cast podcast.
After striking out on his own, Neil has continued to focus on innovation. His work today revolves around taking material developments to the market and scaling them by connecting each link in the supply chain. “I’m really the bridge between the lab and scalability and commerciality. And how do you take a material out of the lab and bring it to the consumer?” he said.
Fiber innovation—such as the introduction of stretch and hemp—has ushered in some of the most impactful changes in denim creation, creating what Neil called “wow moments.” “These are the kind of wow moments, where you really start to see that you’re making denim in a completely different way from the past,” he said.
Neil noted the need for a creative director to guide these innovation efforts and build a cohesive story around them. “The most exciting thing about denim is the fact that you do have this blank canvas, and you can always turn a new product,” said Neil. “And if you have the right sort of creative mind, you can always find a breakthrough.”
While brands used to be the main entity driving novelty, today that same innovation is happening within mills. Another thing that has shifted is that the focus is on developing new fits and styles rather than fabrics and fibers. This could be because of market challenges, or the fact that silhouettes are easier for the consumer to see and understand than fiber blends. “If you’re not razor focused on consumerism and what the consumer wants, then the innovation doesn’t come to market,” Neil said.
One innovation that is on a rising trajectory is denim printing, which replaces dyeing and washing. Neil expects a printing “revolution” in the next five to 10 years.
If industry players are looking for inspiration on the next big thing, Neil suggests looking outside the denim world. While denim-focused trade fairs have their place, he has found more new ideas at shows centered on other categories like safety.
“If you’re really looking for denim innovation, and you’re trying to figure out where’s this industry going over the next 10 years, you have to look outside this box,” Neil said. “And you have to push yourself, and you have to be aware of what other markets are doing and start to think about how other people are making products and creating.”
Listen to the full episode here.