Featured Guest: Courtney Williams, Vice President of Operations and Product Development at brrr°
Hosted by Lori Atone and Dan McGowan
Dan: From the products we use to the components that make everything to the nature of logistics, globalization is an inevitability in the textile industry and in consumer consumption.
Lori: Every once in a while, you cross paths with a fellow textile nerd who brings such a wealth of personal and professional experience that you want them back again to talk more and more. That’s what we’re doing today with Courtney Williams.
Dan: Courtney previously shined a light on circularity. Awesome stuff to listen to if you haven’t already. Today we talk about globalization with the brilliant, itinerant professional.
Lori: She’s worked, collaborated, and studied in the US, France, East Asia, the Caribbean and more. And we asked her about how fabric gets from fiber to final destination.
Courtney: A great resource is AAPN, the Americas Apparel Producers network, comprised of yarn spinners to the full gamut of yarn production, logistics, and one of the best resources for information.
I was looking at a report from February 7 in The New York Times, and for the first time in two decades, the U.S. buys more from Mexico than China. The first time in 20 years shows how those trade routes have shifted, industrial hubs have been revamped. Looking at that shift, and what is the opportunity to have here in the US to get around tariffs.
One of the things I looked at was costing exercises when I was at Everest, is how much more can I really save the brand by getting around paying duties and tariffs in the hemisphere than having something done in the U.S.. Biggest support we need is on the geopolitical side, and making sure that those incentives are being followed through and not just talked about.
But overall, everyone is talking about reshoring and making it happen. There is the flow of goods. I don’t have an exact number to give off the top of my head, but if I look at the increase of interest we’ve had in Western Hemisphere that has really grown since 2020, we have done a lot of investment in keeping yarn here domestically and going through that production. And now of course we’re getting more interested in recycled. We’ll see where it goes.
I see an uptick in a lot of capacity being taken out. A lot of my friends in the Southeast don’t have any capacity in their production facilities, whether the application is for sportswear brands, military as well.
Our good friend, she was just invited to be on a task force or a joint committee on trade. Amy Bircher of MMI Textiles, she took over the company from her father, and she has grown it like crazy. She has been invited to be on a task force to support initiatives to spur our industry.
Lori: Courtney currently works for a textile innovator brrr°, that’s B with three Rs, fabric technology. In addition to her focus on fabric development, she also acts as a bridge for so many facets for the Atlanta-based performance cooling fabric company, helping with language, cultural, business barriers and more.
Courtney: We are an ingredient brand, so it’s an additive we are putting into the spinning process. There is a proprietary mix and the size of the minerals that are extruded into the fiber, so they are bonded to the polymer, and when you are touching the surface of the fabric, you feel the cooling sensation. The minerals are pulling moisture away from the skin and creating wicking, and then they also enhance the quick drying function of the polyester and make nylon more quick drying. Nylon has a higher moisture content so it’s less dry, but with the brrr° minerals added in, it makes it more cooling. We have not changed the structure of the fiber, so it is a circular cross section, that means we can still run all the same colors and have no limitation of design.
Whereas, there are some other wicking fibers in the market that are different structures and those can create channels and they are also more expensive to run, they don’t run as efficient. They also reflect the light differently so would have a different look in the fabric. The other option is to add a finish on top, but those tend to wash off. They claim 50 washes, but really it’s about 20 washes is the most you can get on those topical washes. And they’re more carcinogenic than having a natural mineral.
The original concept was thought about in 2015, but how do we get this performance to work without having to be wet? Most of the other moisture and water technologies out there, you have to have it snap or wet to really have that feeling. How do you be dry and comfortable, and get that same performance?
Lori: We know there are a lot of experimental fibers being done today, mushroom leather, fruit leathers, vegetable leathers, but the key to all of that is to scale those processes so they’re not as expensive, and they’re actually an affordable alternative and perform in the same way that the current products and fabrics and yarns and fibers do. I just think it’s so interesting, using the imagination, having that idea of what could be, not being afraid to say it out loud, I guess. Really having the technical expertise to dive in and see what’s possible and not possible. Courtney mentioned the idea of compost to create future yarns and fibers. How cool would that be? If we could all do that with our own personal 3D printers at home to have true internal circularity within our own homes using and reusing and making products. It’s the future, it’s sci-fi, but when you have someone like Courtney to combine all her knowledge and forces, it definitely feels like a possibility.
Dan: And she’s gone from retail side to wholesale side to the fiber side where she currently is, so that broad view serves her well. We talked about 3D printing and that whole idea of additive manufacturing. Textiles are the OG of additive manufacturing. You’re starting with a smaller component, you’re starting with yarn, then weaving or spinning or knitting or whatever technique you’re using to make the fabric. More or less that’s additive manufacturing. 3D printing would just meld right in there to create those materials or a fabric or a finished piece. Seems like such a peanut butter and jelly situation.
Lori: Totally. It’s really quite exciting when you think about what the future might hold, and even things we’re not thinking about today. It’s the unknown that’s even more exciting.
Dan: Thanks again to Courtney Williams. Her company, brrr°, can be found at brrr.com.
Lori: If you like what you’re hearing from us textile nerds, tell a friend, share it on social media, and subscribe. We’re glad you’re here. I’m Lori Atone.
Dan: And I’m Dan McGowan. Thanks for joining us, and thanks to our Executive Producer Desiree Friedman.
