Friday, July 28, 2006

This edition of the Hosiery Insider
is sponsored by
THUNDER ROAD BRANDWORKS

MARK YOUR CALENDARS - THA’s 102nd Annual Convention will be held April 25-29, 2007 at the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina.

THA SUPPLIER MEMBERS will be provided an exclusive opportunity during the 2007 Annual Convention. All SUPPLIERS that are members of THA will have a chance to gain great company exposure and networking opportunities with hosiery company decision makers. These supplier companies will be able to occupy their own display table and feature their product samples, information, have give-a-ways, etc. The exhibit times will be held in conjunction with the Continental Breakfasts and Breaks during General Sessions on Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28. Complete Exhibit information will be available soon.

Socks NEEDED: We need Men’s Uniform Black Boot Sock- 80% cotton, 20% Stretch Nylon.” The total quantity required are approximately 400,000 units covering sizes Small through X-Large. Delivery is required within 8 weeks from order. If you are interested in speaking with this inquirer, please respond to mike.austell@hosieryassociation.com or call 704-365-0913, ext. 204.

The password to enter the MEMBERS ONLY portion of THA’s website will expire soon. All members will be provided with a new password. Please make sure you have renewed your membership so you will still be able to access this section and vital THA information.

The Hosiery Technology Center (HTC) Piedmont NC Office has moved and is now located at the Archdale, NC campus of Randolph Community College. The Archdale Off-Campus center is located right off of Interstate 85, exit 111. It is within one mile of I-85 on Hwy 311 south once you exit off of I-85. HTC is inside of Creekside Park (a city park). The address is 110 Park Drive, Archdale, NC 27263. Call 336-861-2272 for directions. Ask for Dean Allred or Rick Small.

If you know of someone in your company who would also like to receive Hosiery Insider, please email us at insider@hosieryassociation.com. Please provide complete contact information, especially email address.

THA Membership – 2nd Notices Have Been Mailed: Please help THA save on the cost of mailing out additional notices, by paying your dues promptly. Renewals for the 2006-2007 THA Membership Year continue to be received by THA, and we THANK those companies for their prompt attention.

THA Global Manufacturers Committee (GMC) welcomes on board Nicole Bivens Collinson, Vice President of Trade Negotiations & Legislative Affairs, Sandler, Travis & Rosenburg (P.A), a person known and respected by many. In addition to being an excellent communicator and part of a global firm that many of us use, Nicole is very savvy to the ways of Washington and is a great asset in making sure that the playing field stays as even as possible. Those companies who are actively participating in this new initiative will receive a number of benefits including hosiery specific legislative summaries, in house seminars focusing on their particular needs, discounts on all STR seminars, industry “fly ins” among others. For further information on how you can get involved, please contact GMC Chairman Sandy Browder of Global DBMM, 336-723-0729 or gbrowder@global-dbmm.com.

Hosiery Association Trade Reference Interchange: THA is in the process of teaming up with Lyon Mercantile Group to offer our members a Trade Reference Interchange on a six-month trial basis. There are no upfront fees, on subscription fees and no obligation to purchase reports. This is an excellent opportunity for Hosiery Member Credit Managers to share their industry-specific customer payment experiences with one another in a secure environment. Participating Hosiery Members will be issued a user ID and password to access reports via Lyon’s website. We are excited about this new benefit for THA Hosiery Members, and will be sending you more information via e-mail next week. In the meantime, if you have questions or need more information, please contact Karen Smith at Lyon Mercantile Group at 800-272-4183.

CELEBRATE HOSIERY WEEK is coming up - July 31-August 6. Take this time to show your employees how much you really do APPRECIATE them.

Hosiery 101 & 102 Classes will be offered at the Hosiery Technology Center in Hickory, NC on August 2 & 3. For more information, visit www.legsource.com.

SALES TAX HOLIDAY - August 4-6 – Don’t forget to stock up and buy all your HOSIERY products during this tax-free shopping weekend! The sales tax holiday will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday, August 4 and end at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, August 6. Other items that are considered tax-free items are:

• Clothing, footwear, and school supplies under $100
• Sports and recreation equipment under $50
• Computers under $3,500
• Computer equipment under $250

AL Supplier Luncheons: The next Alabama Chapter Supplier Luncheon will be held on Thursday, August 17 at the Western Sizzlin’ in Fort Payne.

CHA Supplier Luncheons: The next CHA Chapter Supplier Luncheon will be held on Thursday, August 24 at the Hosiery Technology Center in Hickory, NC.

THA is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual Industry-Wide Golf Tournament will be held Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at Birkdale Golf Club. Birkdale is in Huntersville, NC, a short drive just north of Charlotte. THA is also pleased to announce that GROZ-BECKERT will be the major sponsor for this event. Those interested in a sponsorship, should contact Mike Austell at THA. More information will be posted soon to THA’s website.

Industry Support with Style! Take Advantage of Complimentary Member Access While It Lasts…. With the thousands of consumers, retailers and industry professionals that visit us from across the globe on a daily basis, this new platform will offer its users with more functionality and more information readily at their fingertips than ever before. Keep up to date on the latest statistical, legislative and trend information available. We are offering “free” access until the end of this month...please visit us at our new website www.hosieryassociation.com. …the user name is tha and the password is hosiery. We invite you to work through the site and give us your feedback! 

July/August Issue of Hosiery News has been mailed. Be sure to look out for the special MAGIC and WSA featured sections!

Hosiery Insider Sponsorship: Do you want a cost effective venue for communicating your messages to thousands worldwide? Sponsor the next issue of Hosiery Insider. For details, contact Mike Austell at 704-365-0913 Ext 204 or mike.austell@hosieryassociation.com.

THA provides Members Web Based Commercials – Visit THA’s home page, www.hosieryassociation.com and experience the MAGIC/WSA video. This technology is available to you and your company. Contact the THA office for details at 704.365.0913.

WSA Style Walk Fashion Show will feature the following THA member only benefit for: HUE ® Thor-Los, Knit-Rite and Fox River Mills. Thank you for providing hosiery products for this event which will be held on August 2 at the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas. The potential fashion show spectators will consist of 34,000+ industry professionals and buyers from department stores, specialty retailers, footwear chains, independent footwear retailers and boutiques across the globe. The WSA show delivers the largest concentration of buying power in the footwear and accessories industry. If you want to get your products included in the February 2007 WSA event, contact Sally Kay at (704)365-0913, ext. 212 or email sally.kay@hosieryassociation.com.

VISIT OUR BOOTH #OD 20945: Sourcing at MAGIC. In conjunction with SEAMS, the Hosiery Technology Center (HTC)and The Hosiery Association (THA), the nine hosiery companies and seven apparel makers have joined together to secure exhibit space at the 2006 MAGIC show in Las Vegas - where as you know each year thousands of retailers come to find the products that they want to offer their customers. The nine hosiery companies are Johnson Hosiery, WY Shugart, Kentucky Derby Hosiery, Twin City Knitting, Wells Hosiery, Knit Rite, Wrights Hosiery, Fox River Mills and Angel Hosiery. The apparel manufacturers are A.S. Tees Mfg., Carolina Apparel Group Inc., Creative Outlet, Cal Cru, Kellsport, Vinci Clothiers and Ultimate Sports and Apparel. Check out these company exhibitor profiles in the current issue of Hosiery News.

Check out these hang tags! Apparel and hosiery products will proudly display these hang tags and stickers on their items at MAGIC.

Blue-chip socks – New York designer gets big bucks for special men's hosiery: …socks, in certain quarters, are becoming an alternative to the power tie as a man's point of distinction. "Men who dress up are beginning to treat the socks like they started treating ties 20 years ago," says Trish McHale, executive vice president of marketing for Gold Toe Hosiery. … Nagrani, ordinarily does not flinch at charging exorbitant prices for socks. A pair of his basic cotton socks, manufactured in either Italy or France, cost $30. The average price of a pair of socks sold in the United States this year was $1.52, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm.

Seven years ago, Nagrani founded Ovadufut Hosiery, which specializes in men's luxury socks but is now expanding into men's underwear and small leather goods such as briefcases and overnight bags. Before socks, Nagrani designed toys. "I was designing junk toys," he says. He wanted to create "something of importance." He chose socks. "Why should a guy be stuck having to wear cheap socks?" Nagrani asks.

Most men stock their sock drawers with utilitarian shades of navy, gray, khaki and black. Sixty percent of all socks sold are black, according to Gold Toe Hosiery, which should know, because the Burlington, NC, company controls 54 percent of the sock market. There is a Candy Land quality to the socks that Nagrani makes. He sells socks in shades of orange, pink, red and teal. His socks are like fanciful gumdrops. They are charming, luscious, delightful.

Nagrani makes a "Gatsby" sock with the image of a woman sipping a martini, strategically resting along a man's Achilles' tendon. "She's holding him up," he explains. Another pair, "Luther," have a floral pattern winding up the inside of the calf; the flowers are revealed only when a man sits down and crosses his legs. Stylized paw prints are all over the "Brian" socks, named for a customer who is attached to his dog.

What is this sock madness? Is it possible for a pair of socks to actually be worth $30, to contain that much expensive labor and fine yarns? No, socks are one of the least labor-intensive apparel products to produce. But really, that's a rhetorical question, akin to asking a woman whether a pair of shoes is actually worth $400. What's the price of pleasure?

Nagrani sold about $500,000 worth in 2005 and expects to have about $750,000 in sales this year. That would be around 25,000 pairs of socks sold directly and through specialty stores. Compare that with Gold Toe, which sells an average of 144 million pairs annually, McHale says. It recently began offering socks to go with the preppy trend: lots of argyle in shades of pink, blue and orange, and rugby stripes such as navy and Kelly green.

Truth be told, however, the big sock companies are more obsessed with technological perks than rainbow colors. Keepers International in Los Angeles manufactures and distributes labels such as Stacy Adams, Florsheim and 2(x)ist. The company makes ergonomic performance socks for 2(x)ist with a padded ball, a slanted toe box, antibacterial properties and mesh ventilation that retail for around $14. Gold Toe makes socks that regulate the temperature of your feet for $9. Nagrani once auctioned a pair of taupe socks called the "Newton" with a geometric print for $145. They were not ergonomically engineered. They do not have bells and whistles to prevent a man's feet from smelling or overheating. They don't massage his feet. They're just pretty socks.

Vivek Nagrani's ''basic'' socks start at $30 and go way, way up from there. Most of his customers are businessmen looking for a sartorial kick in the pants. (Washington Post)

The Commercial Services Division of GMAC Commercial Finance (GMAC CF) recently announced today the funding of a $5 million advance factoring facility to Canadian apparel company Richelieu Hosiery International, Inc. (Richelieu). "Our new partnership with GMAC Commercial Finance guarantees our ongoing ability to grow and expand our market share," said Michael Penner, president of Richelieu. "I am confident that their in depth understanding of our goals, markets and sources will give us a distinct competitive advantage." "We're excited about working with the Richelieu team and helping them achieve their strategic objectives," said John Waxlax, president of GMAC CF's Commercial Services Division. "This transaction further demonstrates our commitment to the apparel industry."

Managing Decisions in a Global Business – This conference will be held August 16-18 at NCSU in Raleigh, NC. If interested in attending, email Patrice Hill at patriceh@itt.edu.

Developing Digitally Printed Products – [TC]2 in Cary, NC will be hosting this seminar on August 24. For additional information visit www.tc2.com/what/seminars.html or email Maria Muniz at mmuniz@tc2.com.

NC State University’s 2006 Continuing Education Schedule: Upcoming sessions for September include: “Color and Dyeing” – September 26-29 – topics to be covered include: basic wet processing steps, dyestuff properties, lab dip techniques, and basic color theory as applied to shade matching and evaluation. Most of the courses are held on NCSU’s Centennial Campus. To view the entire 2006 schedule or if you are interested in registering for one of these courses, visit www.ContinuingEducation.NCSU.edu.

2006 Seattle Trend Show – This show is a regional tradeshow for the Pacific Northwest, featuring women’s, children’s and men’s apparel and accessories. For 65 years this show has served independent retailers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia. The shows will be held at the Qwest Field Event Center in Seattle, Washington. Dates are as follows: August 5-7 and October 5-8. For more information about this show, contact Patricia Hodges, Executive Director, Pacific Northwest Apparel Association: T – 206-767-9200, F – 206-767-0707, E – pnaa@earthlink.net, W – www.seattletrendshow.com.

Accessories The Show & FAME Show – Both shows will be held at the Javits Center in New York August 6-8 and then only Accessories The Show will be held again August 28-30. For additional information, visit www.accessoriestheshow.com and www.fameshows.com.

NY Accessories Market Week will be August 7-11 in New York. www.accessoryweb.com.

Los Angeles Fashion Week will be August 11-15 at the California Mart in Los Angeles, CA. For further information, visit www.californiamarketcenter.com.

Register Now for the First-Ever RFID Event Designed for Apparel and Footwear to be held August 15–16 in New York City at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Center for Professional Studies for this unprecedented event. The RFID Journal – AAFA Apparel & Footwear Summit is the first event designed by the leading RFID publication and the leading industry trade association to address the issues and concerns of companies in the apparel and footwear industry. [www.rfidjournal.com/apparel/2006/]

By attending this one-of-a-kind event you’ll get a critical understanding of how RFID can benefit companies in the apparel and footwear sector, including:

• The benefits of tagging individual items
• The timeframe in which major retailers are likely to mandate tagging of individual items
• How RFID can improve internal process and cut costs for manufacturers and retailers
• How manufacturers can use RFID to gain more visibility into work-in-process and order fulfillment
• The benefits and challenges of implementing RFID in small and mid-size manufacturing and retailing companies
• Best practices for using RFID to improve delivery speed and accuracy in the complex supply chain
• Insight into how RFID can and is being used to deter theft, diversion and counterfeiting of high-value apparel and footwear brands
• And more!

Dallas Market Center Show – The Men’s & Boys’ Apparel Market and the Women’s & Children’s Apparel and Accessories show will be held at the Dallas Market Center in Dallas, TX August 17-20. Dallas Market Center, the largest wholesale merchandise resource in the world as recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records, is the one location where retailers from around the globe source a wide range of products including textiles, fashion accessories and women's, men's, children's and western apparel. With more than 50 markets each year attended by more than 200,000 buyers, Dallas Market Center offers an array of services geared toward helping retailers expand business & increase profits. The final 2006 show date will be October 26-29. For more detailed information, visit www.dallasmarketcenter.com.

ASAPShow – Authority in Global Sourcing – Two Shows, Two Cities, One Trip, for One Price. ASAP Vegas – August 27-30 and ASAP Los Angeles – September 1. They have extended their show hours from 9:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. the first three days and will be 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. on the last day. Overseas apparel manufacturers will be showcasing their production (sourcing, contract manufacturing, outsourcing) capabilities to international buyers all under one roof at the Sands Expo/Venetian. For more information, go to www.asapshow.com.

Material World Show – Material World will have one more show in 2006: September 26-28 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, NY. “From Design to Delivery, the Premier Global Trade Event for the Sewn Products Industries.” Additional information can be found at www.material-world.com.

Diane Von Furstenberg was named President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America just beating out fellow designer Joseph Abboud. She replaces Stan Herman who filled the post for the last 15 years. The CFDA constitution has now been changed to limit the President's term to only 2 years. After the announcement DVF was chauffeured to the CFDA's Broadway headquarters in her green Bentley to make her inaugural speech.

In what is being called The Curse of The Devil Wears Prada, the stocks of the parent companies of paid product placements in the box office blockbuster have taken a bounding since the film was first released. These include costly cameo appearances by Calvin Klein, Tiffany & Co., Starbucks. Smith & Wollensky and Barnes & Noble.
"The share prices of brands that got placement in the movie have almost all slumped more than the wider stock market in recent weeks -- possibly reflecting a new caution about discretionary spending among American shoppers.” Reuters reported.

Karl Lagerfeld is still infatuated by Lindsay Lohan. In a recent Extra interview the German uberdesigner revealed his true gushing feelings. “[When] you see her in a crowd, you see only her face," he said of Lohan. "She has what Elizabeth Taylor had, something very special, something you can't buy, can't learn. Something inborn.”

It is very much an open secret that if Lagerfeld had his way Lohan would be the next face of Chanel.

The contents printed in this document are informational in nature. They are gathered from various industry sources and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or actions of THA.

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