Home Textiles | Thursday, November 12, 2009

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Supima Attends Imabari Towel Show In Tokyo

By Marc Lewkowitz

Imabari City in the Ehime Prefecture in southwestern Japan is recognized to be one of the premier quality towel manufacturing centers in Japan. A few years ago the towel manufacturers combined their marketing efforts to create Imabari Towel as a unique identity and brand for towels manufactured in the Imabari area. Along with these efforts came a tradeshow to highlight the quality of the products as well as the creative design and innovative efforts of the various members. New for this year the tradeshow was moved from Imabari to Tokyo to facilitate greater access to media and to heighten the awareness of their products.

With the focus on quality and a soft touch, it is not surprising to know that Supima has found a growing role in new product developments out of this region, and as such Supima was invited to be a guest speaker to update the show attendees about Supima and current activities. Supima’s Executive Vice President, Marc Lewkowitz, was put to the task and received a traditional warm and hearty Japanese welcome. Many samples on display at the show already featured products made with Supima cotton. The innovation of the manufacturers was also very apparent in the variety of the collection presented. Items shown included towel art and a variety of non-traditional towel fabric constructions, including one with a one-faced micro loop fabric that was made into a dress shirt and provided to Mr. Lewkowitz to wear during his presentation. The shirt was conceived by Maruei Towel Co., Ltd. and is being sold under their iděe Zora brand.

During the same time, Tanaka Industries Inc. was being recognized for having the best feeling towel. An independent test of 30 towels was conducted by an organization called “Dialogue In The Dark”. This organization was created to enable visually impaired individuals to overcome barriers and turn deficits into potentials. The 30 towels were compared by this group to find the towel that had the best touch and hand – and the Tanaka Industries Inc. Supima towel won. The towel will now be featured on Japan’s shopping channel starting on December 4.