SAMITE: Systematic Approaches to the Management of Innovation in Textiles

The World of Textiles embraces some of the most vibrant, fast-paced and innovative industries in the world; with innovation arising at any stage: from ground-breaking industrial processes and ingenious materials promising new opportunities, to creative business models and inventive design affording new ways of realising these. Yet, while the need to manage innovation is universally acknowledged and pursued, there is no unifying agenda that promotes and supports a holistic perspective on the management of innovation throughout the various value chains that obtain. We present a framework that explicates the interactions of process, material, product, market, (design) intention and consumer preference. We introduce a notion of “innovation trajectory” to assess the “upstream” and “downstream” influence of innovation in textile pipelines, facilitating the exploration of both “push” and “pull”. We show how these promote systematic approaches to the management of innovation; and elucidate their potential to clarify how new technologies are developed into products; how technology can serve the needs of design and fashion; and how to identify market opportunities.