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By SPESA
Happy December everyone! Let’s see what you’ve been reading all year.
Below are the top 10 most read original Behind the Seams articles from 2022. Unsurprisingly for a show year, there was a lot of Texprocess Americas content. But there was also a lot of interest in the Ukraine war, nearshoring, supply chains, and you, our members and readers.
Kicking off 2022, Chairman Ed Gribbin addressed the SPESA membership and Behind the Seams readers with insights on SPESA’s 32nd year as the association for suppliers to the wide universe of sewn products industries.
Bonus: Just missing the cut-off, #11 on our list was Part 1 of the Behind the Seams Q&A Series with SPESA Chairman Ed Gribbin. Part 2 and Part 3 weren’t far behind.
Last month, Behind the Seams featured a guest post from our friend Xochil Herrera Scheer, a freelance pattern maker, product developer, small business owner, and adjunct faculty member in the Fashion Studies Department at Columbia College Chicago. Xochil attended the 2022 SPESA Advancements in Manufacturing Technologies Conference in Detroit and shared insights on how the things she learned during the conference can be applied across the sewn products industry and academia.
8) May Flowers
Following our uber cheesy April Showers post, and some of the worst metaphors of our collective writing careers, the May SPESA Speaks pumped readers up for Texprocess Americas 2022. We also looked back at where the SPESA team was during the last show, and reflected on how much things can change in four years.
In our February SPESA Speaks, the SPESA team discussed how it felt to finally be traveling again after (during) Covid. Plus, we got to plug our kids and pets, which is always a good day in SPESA-land.
The first Behind the Seams issue of November 2022 came out while we were in Atlanta meeting with SPESA’s Board of Directors. So, we thought it was a good time to re-introduce our readers to our association’s wonderful leadership, and remind SPESA members of a few ways in which they can increase their engagement within the organization. Plus, it was another opportunity for Marie to sneak in a musical reference.
During our conversations with exhibitors and attendees at the 2022 Texprocess Americas show in Atlanta, we realized there was some confusion about Texprocess vs. Texprocess Americas vs. Techtextil vs. Techtextil North America. We welcomed the opportunity to set the record straight on these tongue twisters and announce the future show dates.
Despite numerous challenges — including a lack of fabric, notably synthetic yarn and thread, and increased materials costs due to both inflation and supply chain uncertainty — 2022 was a good year for the sewn products industry in Latin America. In April, we rounded up news expounding on the opportunities in Latin America, especially Mexico, related to the sewn products industry and nearshoring.
As we geared up for Texprocess Americas in May 2022, Behind the Seams highlighted the SPESA members who would be exhibiting at this year’s show. Take a look to learn more about these outstanding companies and the products they demonstrated in Atlanta.
And don’t forget, Texprocess Americas 2023 is coming up soon! Email Pinar.VanDerVegt@usa.messefrankfurt.com if you still need to book your booth space.
This one was a bit of a cheat as we updated it twice over the course of a month and a half, but each addition gained significant readership on its own as well. In March 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we began pulling together the latest news on the impact on the global sewn products industry.
For reasons we can’t explain, this article that we published in the very first issue of the new Behind the Seams (July 2020) has made this list for the 3rd year. In fact, it was the second-most viewed article in 2022 overall, following Weak Euro, Strong Dollar: What It Means for Fashion. Who knew folks would still get so excited over U.S., Mexico, Canada trade?
We want to thank all of our loyal readers for your support in 2022 and a big thank you to our advertisers for helping to keep us going! We can’t wait to see what will happen next year.