With a new international trade deal set to affect import taxes on clothing and other goods, businesses at this week’s MAGIC show in Las Vegas said they’re scrambling to prepare for the recently signed Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“This is a ‘me’ generation, and people are always looking for ways to digest both fashion and the fashion industry in their head,” said Don Pietranczyk, senior marketing manager for UBM Advanstar, MAGIC’s parent company that hosts the semiannual Las Vegas show. “It’s the most comprehensive event for some of the best in the industry to come together.”
The trade-only show, which wrapped up Friday at the Las Vegas and Mandalay Bay convention centers, featured nearly 5,000 exhibitors and 65,000 participants from more than 50 countries. The show began Monday for its 17th straight year in Las Vegas.
On Wednesday, international exhibitors at MAGIC’s Sourcing show displayed signs advertising TPP’s effect on business in their respective countries.
For Vietnam’s Thai Son Sewing Factory, which markets knitted garments from suit coats to dresses and sportswear, the Trans-Pacific Partnership could drop United States import duties from 16.5 percent of their garments’ value, to tax-free, a company spokeswoman said. Such a drop would make products from Vietnam more affordable to American buyers, who currently pay the same rate for imported goods from other Asian countries, like China.
“We’ve already seen movement to Vietnam away from China,” merchandising director Betty Huyen said. “The opportunity for business, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, is enormous.”
The trade agreement, signed Feb. 4 by the United States and 11 other countries, including Vietnam, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Australia, likely won’t go into effect until “late fall at the earliest,” said Christopher Griffin, president of Sourcing at UBM Advanstar.
But the fashion show’s focus on TPP prompted MAGIC to dedicate at least four of its combined 20 industry education seminars to the trade deal.
“At the Sourcing show, it’s our role, our obligation, to educate the supply chain about what’s going on,” Griffin said. “This is important stuff and people are putting their pieces in place to take advantage of it. Sooner or later it’ll get ratified.”
Also displayed on Wednesday’s showroom floor were technology-inspired garments, including 3D-printed and GPS-enabled light-up clothing.
Less than two years removed from college, Lumenus CEO Jeremy Wall stood next to his self-inspired clothing line, including an LED light-up backpack with a GPS-integrated, construction vests and winter jacket.
Wall, a 2014 graduate of North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles and an avid cyclist, said he designed the products for “self-preservation.”
“I’ve had a couple of close calls with car mirrors passing within two inches of my hands while riding,” Wall said. “These light up so people can see you, and they turn off when you want to look more fashionable.”
Exhibiting products like a 3D-printed dress and high heel shoes, Craig Walker, the chief sales officer of Blue Dragon 3D-printing company, said the future of clothing design and fashion will move toward consumers printing their own clothes at home.
The 3D machine, which costs $2,500, can make just about any article of clothing out of a wide range of filament, like NinjaTek brand’s “Cheetah” material and Recreus’ “FilaFlex.”
“Anything you see from a clothing manufacturer, you’ll soon be able to make for yourself,” Walker said. “The future of clothing is in our own minds."