Last March, Dan St. Louis was excited about the upcoming international
hosiery show in Charlotte, a short drive from the Hosiery Technology Center
(HTC) in Hickory, N.C. At the Charlotte show, HTC Director St. Louis and
his staff of eight planned to unveil a newly developed machine to solve
a tough problem in "boarding" socks, the manufacturing step
that gives socks their shape and is traditionally done by hand.
St. Louis, who has years of experience in the hosiery industry, hoped
that HTC's three years of developmental work would pay off if a manufacturer
at the April show bought his machine and put it into production. It would
thus meet one of the center's prime objectives, which is to help manufacturers
cut costs and serve what St. Louis calls "our short and sweet and
to-the-point mission statement: to help the North Carolina hosiery industry
compete in the global economy." Automating the boarding process is
a good example of the Hosiery Technology Center's work at the center of
a public-private partnership designed to buck the economic tide that has
battered U.S. hosiery and textiles for years. It is characteristic of
the center's collaborative approach that the center drew on the expertise
not only of its staff and of industry but of textile engineering students
from North Carolina State University as well.
Working with an annual operating budget of about $350,000, the center
is advancing innovative initiatives that include: Legsource.com, an electronic
bulletin board to help hosiery plants do business with state and federal
governments and let hosiery buyers locate manufacturers that can supply
needed goods.
Scientific testing standards to maintain quality for buyers and cut
costs for manufacturers. Presently, independent labs test fit, abrasion,
and color fastness, but each lab is on its own and there is no uniformity
of standards, methodology, and results. The HTC has developed tests to
assess toxic elements in dyes and yarns; it is on the verge of unveiling
its scientifically valid testing for hosiery fit and is working on a way
to develop tests for abrasion.
New ways to add value to North Carolina hosiery goods, such as environmental
labels claiming that North Carolina hosiery is free of formaldehyde, DDT,
and other chemicals used in some countries but banned in the United States.
North Carolina hosiery plants produce 60 percent of all hosiery made
in the United States, and for 40 years, North Carolina has produced more
hosiery than all the other states combined. Some 38,000 people work in
North Carolina hosiery mills, most of which employ fewer than 100 workers.
In 1995, annual sales of North Carolina hosiery were running about $2.86
billion. Even so, the state's manufacturers saw trouble coming - increasing
competition from foreign manufacturers, aging technology, increasing government
regulation, and changing labor demographics.
These pressures spurred hosiery manufacturers to get together to plan
a common strategy. A series of meetings generated a 1995 survival document
for the industry: "Preserving Hosiery Manufacturing in North Carolina."
Players included regional and national hosiery industry groups, with funding
from the North Carolina Alliance for Competitive Technologies. "My
job is to implement that plan," says St. Louis. "We knew we
have to change to preserve hosiery and grow the hosiery industry."
Along with Catawba Valley Community College, which houses HTC, the center
provides skills training, GED and other educational services, and teaches
"Basic English for Hosiery" in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Hmong
for the growing number of workers who are Hispanic or Asian.
But HTC goes beyond the usual education and training: It also provides
the industry R&D services, creates marketing tools such as Legsource.com
that will help hosiery stay competitive on a nationwide basis, and thinks
creatively about new products such as filters or covers used in cleaning
up oil spills. Moreover, it does industry problem-solving, then tries
to implement the solutions throughout the industry. And because the industry
is composed largely of small firms that don't have the expertise to do
this work on their own, a collaborative partnership like HTC is necessary.
"Networking is more important to us than anything else in doing
these things," says St. Louis. "I can't do anything by myself,
and I don't care where the ideas come from. If a Mars guy comes in with
an idea to help hosiery compete, so be it!"
