NEW YORK CITY—The International Oeko-Tex Association and Textile Insight will present A Focus on Workwear, the next installment in their Insight on What’s Next textile and apparel industry roundtable discussion series. The event will be held in New York City Friday, March 12, 2010, 12–1:30 p.m. at the DuPont Corian Design Studio.

With a mission to create global public awareness of the threat posed by high-carbon-footprint living, Carbon Teeshirt Limited’s climate and carbon-neutral Ts sport a simple footprint design on the front and footprint-reducing message in back. Making their way into celebrities hands during last year’s Emmy Awards and onto the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green series, all within its first year of business, the T-shirts help the company achieve its earth-focused initiative while employees strive to set an example, getting a handle on their own planetary impression.

When it comes to the environmental buzz of late, T.S.Designs’ Tom Sineath has a lot to say and even more to show for his company’s persistent commitment. A T-shirt decorating and dyeing company, its CEO’s viewpoint as it relates to apparel is threefold, encouraging patrons to ask: “Is this shirt’s fabric sustainable? Is it made by a socially-responsible manufacturer? Is it decorated in an environmentally-friendly method?” Breaking it down even further, Sineath describes a sustainability spectrum of sorts on which each eco-component can be plotted. Between, for example, choosing between 100 percent organic produce or simply fruit from factory farms, everyone makes choices within a set of extremes. Sineath hopes to skew people toward better choices. “You’re picking some point along the way.  -Read more-

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to interpret the statistics of the present economy—from consumer confidence indices to a record number of bankruptcies and foreclosures, and a skyrocketing unemployment rate—and realize things are not good these days. But, these are not the worst economic times in American history.

It may, however, be the worst journalistically. As we are bombarded with a ceaseless barrage of negativity from the media day in and day out, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep the faith and see any glimmer of hope on the horizon. It is almost as if people are wishing for a repeat of the Great Depression just to say later they survived it . . . or succumbed to it.

Okay, you are more than likely either a screen printer, an embroiderer, running a cutⁱ-and-sew garment plant or you are embellishing fabrics and garments in some manner. Whether it’s a thumb-print from a careless loader, a miscue on a test print, a drop of oil from your embroidery machine, or just some smudge you don’t know where came from, you are faced with fabric stains. In the process of any kind of embellishing, it can’t be helped. And stains are costly. You can’t deliver the goods with stains and, if you can’t get them out, you’ve got to replace those goods. Worse, you are facing a deadline and may not have time to replace the damaged goods.

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Even though the author’s plant now clicks with over 100 heads of embroidery capacity, that old single head (seen in background) long held a position of honor in daily production.

Nearly every company has growth in mind. In a public company, the idea is that growing earnings creates a growing stock price. While we cannot measure that in privately held companies the same way, growing earnings does increase the value of your business.

The way we spend our typical business days trying to grow the business is known as “organic” growth; this applies to any way we try and grow the company from the inside. New products, new services, new sales people, more business from existing customers, new distribution channels are all examples of organic growth. In this discussion we will consider how to grow your business externally, via acquisition of other businesses or product lines.

Reasons to acquire