Two sides of the relationship between nanotechnologies and textiles popped up this week. On one hand, Forbes gushes about how the textile industry Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina is being revived by smart technologies, including ITC, Nano-Texs parent. While this may be true on a local scale, the switch to knowledge enabled materials doesn’t seem to be happening fast enough, with the US and China heading for a showdown over the on/off removal of textile quotas.
In one of those rather sweeping statements that may have anti nano protestors THONG up in arms again (much to the delight of readers of a certain blog) and Euro MPs calling for stricter labelling, Forbes notes that if you’ve recently bought a tie with a Brooks Brothers label or shirts or chinos from the Gap or Eddie Bauer, you’re probably wearing Nano-Tex treated fibers.
What these stories in fact illustrate, is that despite all the enthusiasm in the nano community, nanotech is for now, just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the global economy.