Friday, September 8, 2006

Transcal Graphics · 1283 13th Ave. Dr., NW Hickory, NC 28601
Tel: 828-324-5795 Fax: 828-324-9102 Web: www.transcalgraphics.com
Email: info@transcalgraphics.com

Transcal Graphics goal is to unite quality and service to produce the highest level of customer satisfaction. Our premiere Art Department can transform your idea into a reality, taking your company and its image to the next level. Whether you are providing the artwork or need us to design something for you, our highly qualified designers will adjust to your needs. From simple computer cut graphics to full vehicle wraps, we can customize your graphics to fit your needs.

This edition of the Hosiery Insider is sponsored by TRANSCAL GRAPHICS

EXHIBITORS COIN MAGIC BOOTH A HUGE SUCCESS


(L-R – John Schmonsees, DOC; Sally Kay, THA; Dan St. Louis SEAMS,
Sarah Friedman, SEAMS, Jim Leonard DOC)

Below is a note from of the exhibiting companies….

“I just wanted to thank you all for all of your efforts and sponsorship of the You wear US Well ™ catalog and booth for Magic. You all did so much work and gave so much support to make the Magic experience happen. All of your efforts are greatly appreciated. I would never have attended Magic representing my company by myself - the financial burden would have been too much and the time that it would have taken away from my real business to organize beforehand would have been to great as well. I also do not think it would have been worth it for me to be 1 of 40,000 exhibitors. The You Wear US Well ™ booth had a real reason for being and provided a destination for those seeking goods made in the US. Personally, the experience was very rewarding - getting to meet other domestic manufacturers and talk about real, current issues, and what a great education regarding the larger marketplace as well! Your work really promoted an atmosphere of cooperation and working together. I thank you again for providing this experience and opportunity."


HOTEL RESERVATIONS CAN BE MADE NOW by calling the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina (CHR&M) directly at 843-856-0028 or 888-856-0028. The CHR&M reservations office is open from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. (Eastern). In order to get the Convention Rate of $199/night, make sure to identify yourself as being with THA. Reservation cut-off date is at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 26, 2007. Don’t delay, make your hotel reservations for THA’s 102nd Annual Convention – Thursday, April 26 – Sunday, April 29, 2007 at the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina.

EXHIBIT at THA CONVENTION: THA SUPPLIER MEMBERS will be provided an exclusive opportunity during the 2007 Annual Convention. 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 and “booths” will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are interested in exhibiting, please email vicki.camp@hosieryassociation.com so you can be contacted regarding specific exhibit information when it is available.

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 – 3rd & FINAL NOTICES were mailed August 31. Companies whose dues are not paid by September 30 will be resigned automatically. Please don’t let your membership with THA lapse due to non-payment of dues. Mail your dues payments in as soon as possible to avoid being resigned as a THA member. Thank you to all those companies who have paid their 2006-2007 dues!

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. A link to Lyon Mercantile Group is now available on THA’s website – Member Section. If you have questions or need more information, please contact Karen Smith at Lyon Mercantile Group at 800-272-4183.

Seamless Apparel Consortium working group has been meeting regularly during the past several months to develop a comprehensive education and informational program for the retailing community to better understand the features and the benefits that seamless apparel offers the consumer and how it can make them more successful in their business. For more information, be sure to look in the September/October issue of Hosiery News magazine.

GOLF TOURNAMENT NEARLY SOLD OUT – There are just a few remaining slots available for THA’s 2nd Annual Industry-Wide Golf Tournament, scheduled for Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at Birkdale Golf Club? Register now - http://www.hosieryassociation.com/docs/2006THAGOLFFORM.doc. Special thanks to GROZ-BECKERT as the major sponsor for this golf tournament. Additional sponsors include: Fiber & Yarn Products, Frontier Spinning, Globe Express Services, Henderson Machinery, HIFOMACO, Ken Smith Yarn Co., McMichael Mills, PAM Trading/PAF Sales, Parkdale Mills, RadiciSpandex, Regal/Worldtex, R. L. Stowe Mills, Swift Spinning and Unifi. Those interested in a sponsorship (which includes guaranteed entries) should contact Mike Austell at THA. Special thanks to the sponsors already committed to this event.

September/October Issue of Hosiery News Soon Available: Copies of the Association’s official magazine will soon be issued in both printed and electronic formats.

CHA Suppliers Luncheon will be held on Thursday, September 28 at the Peppertree Inn in Greensboro, NC.

Legwear Communications Program will hold its next meeting on Monday, October 2 at Hanes Brands Inc. in Winston-Salem, NC.

THA Executive Committee will meet on Tuesday, October 10 at THA offices in Charlotte, NC.

The 18th Annual Golf Outing, sponsored by the Alabama Chapter of THA will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, October 11 –12, 2006 at Terrapin Hills Country Club. Dinner will be at 6:00 pm Wednesday with the Calcutta to follow. The 18th Annual Golf Tournament will be Thursday at Terrapin Hills Country Club. The Captain’s Choice Tournament will begin at 12:00 A.M. CDT with a shotgun start. Look for information on THA’s website soon.

THA Board of Directors will meet on Thursday, November 2 in Charlotte, NC.

The Global Manufacturers Committee (GMC) has issued the August trade report to participating member companies. This report contains the latest legislative, regulatory and statistical information that directly impacts the hosiery industry. Additionally, this group has scheduled meetings in Washington next month with various governmental agencies and key members of Congress prior to Recess. For further information on how your company can get involved, please contact GMC Chairman Sandy Browder Global DBMM, (336) 723 0729 or gbrowder@global-dbmm.com.

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.

 

Hometown Hanesbrands Eye Potential World Market: In Winston-Salem, NC, for Hanesbrands Inc., the name says it all. That's because the Winston-Salem manufacturer is - and must be - all about extracting as much value and appeal as possible from venerable apparel brands such as Bali, Hanes, Champion, L'eggs, Playtex and Wonderbra if it is to survive in a fiercely competitive world market.

Hanesbrands officially assumed that challenge after the stock market closed on Tuesday, September 5 as the company cuts its branded-apparel ties to Sara Lee Corp. and begins operating independently for the first time since 1979. Its stock will begin trading Wednesday under the "HBI" symbol.

"The single greatest asset is our powerful brands," Lee Chaden, the executive chairman of Hanesbrands, said in an interview last week. "They're embedded in our DNA, and consumers and the investment community understand the power of those brands. We're not about to let those advantages go to waste." The spinoff, 18 months in the making, signifies a full-circle return of the textile conglomerate - at least in name - which began producing goods here in 1901. But it's clear that Hanesbrands will be very different from the Hanes Corp. that for many years kept Triad residents in underwear and T-shirts and thousands of their parents and grandparents gainfully employed in plants that once dotted Northwest North Carolina. (Winston-Salem Journal)

AATCC Announces its 2nd Annual Engineering Design Competition for Students: Submissions are invited from both graduate and undergraduate students. The aim of the competition is the promotion of innovative product development from an engineering design perspective. The theme of this year’s competition is “Design of Material Structures,” and the contest has been divided into three areas:

• Industrial/Technical
• Protective/Medical/Biomedical
• Smart/Electronic

Entries must be submitted in the form of a preliminary design proposal on CD and must be received by March 1, 2007. For complete competition guidelines and entry forms, go to http://www.aatcc.org/membership/students/AATCC_2007design_comp.cfm or contact Suzanne Holmes; e-mail holmes@aatcc.org; telephone 919-549-3537.

AATCC Announces 3rd Annual C2C®/CITDA Design Competition for Students: AATCC continues to expand this competition by inviting submissions from institutions with textile design programs and those with art, interior design, and fashion merchandising programs. The aim of the competition continues to be the promotion of innovative product development. The theme of this year’s competition is “Rainy Days and Picnics,” and the contest has been divided into two main categories: Interior Design and Apparel Design. Each of these main categories has been broken down further into sub-categories: Print Design and Product Design. Entries must be received on CD by December 1, 2006. For complete competition guidelines and entry forms, go to http://www.aatcc.org/membership/students/AATCC_2007design_comp.cfm or contact Suzanne Holmes; e-mail holmes@aatcc.org; telephone 919-549-3537.

HUE Hits the Streets, Footless & Fancy-Free, for NY Fashion Week! HUE kicks off the fall Legwear season with a two-day, How to Wear Footless Tights event, showing all of HUE’s latest trends. Friday, September 8 from 12:30 – 4:00 p.m. in Times Square and Sunday, September 10 from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at the HUE Tents and from 1:30 – 5:00 p.m. in Times Square. HUE street teams take their colorful HUE custom carts for a spin around the city from Times Square to Bryant Park. Fashionistas in footless tights will man the carts, handing out HUE’s latest styles along with a cute bookmark including footless fashion tips. “Why: Because Legwear is the must-have accessory for Fall 2006!”

AAFA’s Restricted Substances Seminar is important for all the factories that supply you, and for all of the materials and components’ firms which sell to them. Encourage your factories to participate and make sure their supplier factories attend as well. You are only as good as the weakest link when it comes to problems with restricted substances. Seminar will be held at the Sheraton Hotel in Dongguan China on September 21. All sessions will have simultaneous translation from English to Chinese or Chinese to English as appropriate. To register go to www.apparelandfootwear.org (English) or www.acafa.org (Chinese). Registration fee is $100 and no refunds will be given after September 1. For additional information email Leanne Wieczorek at lwieczorek@apparelandfootwear.org.

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.

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.

Export Financing Solutions – The US Department of Commerce is offering a one-day workshop on your principal export financing solutions. Learn how to compete globally. Topics to be discussed include: Methods of Payment, Letters of Credit, Incoterms, Role of the International Freight Forwarder and Legal Aspects of Export Transactions. The seminar will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 pm September 27 at the Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, NC and again on September 28 at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. To register, please visit: www.buyusa.gov/northcarolina/exportfinancingsolutions.html. Space is limited and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Final 2006 Seattle Trend Show – This is the final 2006 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 show will be held at the Qwest Field Event Center in Seattle, Washington on 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.

Dallas Market Center Show – The final 2006 Men’s & Boys’ Apparel Market and the Women’s & Children’s Apparel and Accessories shows will be held at the Dallas Market Center in Dallas, TX October 26-29. 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. For more detailed information, visit www.dallasmarketcenter.com.


 

In Asia: Tokyo girls set fashion rules - It's ruffles, ribbons and bows on the streets and in boutiques - If you're not a girly girl and Japan proves once again to be the inspiration for North America's next hot fashion trend, you're in trouble. In Tokyo stores and on the streets, bows and ruffles and other ultra-feminine details rule. On Omotesando-dori, sometimes called the Champs-Elysees of Tokyo, I was transfixed by two strands of pearls, dotted with tiny velvet bows, hanging from the back of a gauzy, lace-trimmed pink camisole.

If that's not enough to send you running to Eddie Bauer for a nice pair of khakis -- and yes, the Seattle-based retailer does have a toehold in Tokyo -- the boudoir trend in hosiery just might. No longer, it seems, does it run from toe to waist. On sweet young things with not a trace of cellulite, it ends mid-thigh, where it defies gravity with the inconsequential help of a wisp of a ribbon around the top. Whether it's the naughty secretary look or the more demure Victorian trend of high-necked lace blouses, it's hard to escape the fanaticism with all things feminine here. (Vancouver Sun)

 

Boehner Indicates House Vote on Vietnam PNTR Unlikely until November - House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) recently indicated that a House vote on permanent normal trade relations for Vietnam will likely be put off until after the Nov. 7 election. Boehner said a vote early in the lame-duck session, which is set to begin Nov. 13, would leave a small window of opportunity to pass PNTR before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Hanoi Nov. 18-19. President Bush plans to attend the summit and has said he would like to secure congressional passage of PNTR before the trip.

U.S. and Kuwait Hold TIFA Meeting, No Plans to Negotiate FTA - The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative hosted the second meeting of the U.S.-Kuwait Trade and Investment Framework Agreement Council in Washington, D.C. this week. Since it was signed by both governments in 2004, the TIFA has established a formal ministerial dialogue between the United States and Kuwait that allows the two countries to jointly identify concrete steps for deepening trade and investment relations.

UNCTAD Report Strengthens Call for Managed Trade Policies in Developing Countries- The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development issued a report recently in which it strengthened its call for developing countries to selectively implement managed trade policies in order to develop domestic industries that can compete in the global economy. UNCTAD argues that the market-based international economic policies of the past 25 years have failed to increase development or reduce poverty in developing countries and that a new approach is needed.

U.S. Blocks Brazilian Request for WTO Compliance Panel on Cotton
At a recent meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body, the U.S. blocked a request by Brazil to establish a compliance panel to examine U.S. implementation of a previous WTO ruling against its cotton subsidies. Brazil resumed its effort to secure WTO authorization to retaliate against the U.S. in this dispute Aug. 18. Brazil’s submission to the DSB downplayed the U.S. repeal of its Step 2 subsidy program and reform of three export credit guarantee programs, saying that the delay in implementing these measures caused continued harm to Brazilian producers. The submission also argued that the U.S. has not removed the price-contingent marketing loan and counter-cyclical programs that the Appellate Body ruled to be in violation of WTO subsidy rules in March.

ITC Releases Study on Probable Impact of Modification of Baby Sock Definition
The International Trade Commission has released a public version of a report on the impact of two possible modifications to the definition of certain baby socks in the HTSUS. The report is the result of a May 26 request from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that the ITC provide advice as to the probable effect of these modifications on U.S. imports of baby socks from China, total U.S. imports of such products and U.S. baby sock producers. To review the report, please refer to the following web address http://hotdocs.usitc.gov/docs/pubs/332/pub3880.pdf

 

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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