Business Update: Performance Apparel Markets, Issue 20, 1st Quarter 2007

The Four Heads of Coverage

Financial results come first: the trading figures of the performance apparel industry's key players, the evidence base for every other judgement in the update. Joint ventures, cooperation, licensing and distribution agreements follow — the arrangements by which fibre and fabric technology reaches garment brands, and by which brands reach new markets without building their own operations. Markets covers the trading environment itself: where performance apparel demand is growing and how product categories are moving. Mergers, acquisitions and divestments close the update — the ownership changes that redraw the industry's map each quarter. Together the four heads turn a quarter's scattered company announcements into a single, comparable record.

The Publication Around the Update

Four times a year, Performance Apparel Markets provides subscribers with business and market analysis of worldwide trends in high performance activewear and corporate apparel. Each issue contains a report on major developments in the global performance apparel market, focusing on new products, new technologies, new fibres and key players; a detailed, independently-researched report on one topic from a standing list — moisture management, temperature regulation, stretch, high strength, reflective wear, support wear, UV protection, windproof, waterproof and water-resistant technologies, flame retardancy and smart textiles; a company profile outlining the business, product, market and manufacturing strategies of a key player; and a summary of business news and developments, majoring on innovations, mergers and acquisitions, investments, joint ventures and financial performances.

Why Performance Apparel?

Performance apparel represents one of the fastest growing sectors of the international textile and clothing industry. Market growth is being fuelled by the emergence of new fibres, new fabrics and innovative process technologies, and boosted by changes in consumer lifestyles: people are living longer and spending more time on leisure activities. New high-tech fabrics are being developed for a wide range of active sports — aerobics, athletics, running, cycling, hiking, mountaineering, swimming, sailing, windsurfing, ballooning, parachuting, snowboarding and skiing. Innovations are emerging in fire retardant materials and those which protect against extreme temperatures, the market for corporatewear is growing and in some cases becoming increasingly fashion-oriented, and high-tech fabrics and apparel designed for high performance wear are increasingly crossing over into everyday fashion. For a subscriber, the Business Update is the section that connects that growth story to named companies: which of them reported strong results, which of them bought, sold or allied, and which markets their agreements were aimed at.