Garmatex identifies opportunity in performance textiles

But Garmatex will also invest dollars in building up its sales force and sales methodologies. “It’s both a challenge and an opportunity,” says Doane, who likens the current state of the global textile market to the state of the telecommunications market of the 80s and 90s. “You still have major companies relying on technology that is old — like cotton technology, or wool technology,” he says.

“But technical textiles are taking over in a wide range of specialized categories, and also in more conventional consumer markets. We think Garmatex is at the arrowhead of that development, working towards bringing retail companies into the 21st century — demonstrating to them how our product line is so far superior to what they are using right now.”

Garmatex fabrics have already attracted worldwide attention, particularly in such specialized fields as hospitals and nursing homes, in medical devices and rehabilitation aids, and in the automotive and aeronautical industries. “The key is to pick the low-hanging fruit — the markets we can penetrate quickly, the markets that have the greatest need for performance fabrics,” says Doane.

As an example, he cites a pending joint venture deal to supply a major Australian manufacturer of bed linens with “millions of meters” of a Garmatex fabric with performance characteristics Doane says are superior to any other product on the market.

“It kills 99.9 per cent of staph infections in hospital environments through its anti-microbial features. It launders better than anything else in the market — up to 2,000 launderings without any deterioration — and it utilizes our proprietary cotton substitute, KottinuTM, which gives it unbeatable performance aspects, including durability, cooling effect, breathability and anti-pilling.”

Doane believes that eventually 80 to 90 per cent of Garmatex revenues will accrue through the sale of bolts of its fabrics to major manufacturers. A Garmatex subsidiary, Firstar Performance Apparel, has developed a line of men’s and women’s leisure wear that sells direct to consumers. “Firstar is like a store window for us,” says Doane. “We can show our Firstar products to potential buyers of our fabrics and help them to visualize how they might work for them.”