Page 250 - Handbook of Properties of Textile and Technical Fibres

224 Handbook of Properties of Textile and Technical Fibres

Now, cotton still accounts for about 25% of the world fiber production, and syn-
thetic fibers have made a huge leap in the total market share of fibers around the world,
as they collectively amount to more than 50% of the market share. In recent years, the
polyester fiber industry has made substantial progress, not only in fiber engineering to
suit a diverse range of products but also in achieving competitive prices with cotton. A
combination of engineering work and market strategies has allowed polyester to
surpass cotton fibers in the market share for the first time in 2002, and ever since, it
has never ceased to do so. In the period from 2002 to 2015, the demand for polyester
fiber has increased by about 250% (reaching more than 70 million tons) against 60%
increase for cotton (reaching about 30 million tons).
What has happened to cotton, the fiber of people’s choice? Well, it is the authors’
opinion that this was an inevitable change that has always been predicted by many
fiber researchers, though denied by cotton producers and cotton promoting agencies
around the world. In 1989 Engineered Fiber Selection (EFS) Conference (Elmogahzy,
1989), Dr. Elmogahzy stated that “without establishing a cotton fiber-to-fabric
engineering system, the demand for cotton will inevitably decline giving way to
polyester fiber to displace cotton in numerous textile products.”
The decline in demand for cotton is largely attributed to the simple fact that cotton
producers and textile technologists around the world have always treated cotton merely
as a commodity with a market value determined by classic factors such as the law of
supply and demand, the level of cotton reserve, and the possible chaotic changes in
cotton production. During the 1980s and 1990s, the cotton promotion was primarily
based on bombarding consumers with phrases such as “the fabric of our life,”“the
world’s finest cotton,”“denim is cotton,” and “cotton is comfort,” etc. Apparently,
those promotional phrases have lost their effectiveness with the rising of the Internet
generation, and the introduction of numerous alternative products that stemmed from
consumer wants and needs such as design, style, fit, color, and innovation. These new
trends were revealed in a recent survey made by EL-Learning, LLC in 2014 and
reported in two presentations (Elmogahzy, December, 2015, 2016).
In light of the above brief, it is critical that cotton fibers should be processed based
on a fiber-to-yarn engineering program that provides a competitive edge to this impor-
tant fiber in comparison with synthetic fibers. Producing strong and tough fibers will
always be of a major concern to cotton producers and textile manufacturers because of
the need for durable end products. In today’s information age, consumers have the
right to wonder about how many times a cotton fabric can be washed and dried before
the initial appearance of a bedsheet or garment deteriorates; how many times a person
can wear a knit shirt or underwear before it develops pills or fabric holes; and how long
can a denim maintain its integrity with all the fashionable distorted appearance that
today’s denim is made of. Consumers also have the right to know why 60% cotton/
40% polyester, or vice versa; why not 100% cotton or 100% polyester; what blend
combinations that serve certain usage or style integrity; and why US cotton, not
Chinese or Indian cotton. In other words, the era of silent labels and underscoring
consumer’s ability to know and differentiate between products has long been gone,
and the new generations seek new promotional approaches based on true information
verifiable by consumer’s knowledge and experience with the products.