Textiles & Apparel

My research on the textile industry began with conducting the first ever in-depth mapping of the NC textile industry (2006). This entailed developing a database of over 1,000 companies, providing a detailed analysis of NC’s position in the chain and identifying geographic clusters. The second phase (2007) was the creation of Textile Connect, a website that provides the results of the initial mapping that serves as a resource to find local textile suppliers. The third project (2008) improved the initial version of the website by adding enhanced visual features and in-depth company profiles. The final project (2009) was developing a strategy for the NC textile industry. I also completed the first two phases for South Carolina’s textile industry. I interviewed and visited over 100 textile companies in North and South Carolina and conducted phone interviews with every company in the database (1,000+). This is the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted on the textile industry in the Carolinas and continues to serve as a primary data source for domestic stakeholders. The following news articles provide short project descriptions:

Fibre2Fashion.com (Aug, 2008)

Textile World article (January 24, 2008)