Davis Wartlick, Emily Lane, Bret Schnitker
May 20, 2025
Davis Warlick 00:10
Operating the United States. The rules on environmental the rules on no traceability. We have OSHA. We have all the these different great you know rules that are in place to do the bare minimum, you know, absolute bare minimum, and to maintain that standard cotton is no different. You know, USDA. One of the reasons that cotton is in so high demand globally is that they we can trace every bale of us grown cotton all the way back to the gin. We have a PBI number, which is, I think, what you're you're mentioning, and so we as a company can have 100% traceability on where our raw material is coming from.
Emily Lane 01:01
Welcome to Clothing Coulture, a fashion industry podcast at the intersection of technology and innovation. I'm Emily Lane.
Bret Schnitker 01:09
and I'm Bret Schnitker. We speak with experts and disruptors who are moving the industry forward and discuss solutions to real industry challenges.
Emily Lane 01:17
Clothing Coulture is produced by Stars Design Group, a global design and production house with more than 30 years of experience.
Emily Lane 01:27
Welcome back to another episode of Clothing Coulture. We have a wonderful conversation lined up for you today. We've invited on our sofa talks here Davis Warlick, who is the COO of Parkdale Mills. Parkdale Mills is a legacy in the industry, and of course, Davis himself is a legacy in the industry. Parkdale Mills is one of the largest mill groups in the Western Hemisphere, specialty in yarn, cotton based consumer products and advanced materials. Bret and I had the extreme pleasure of touring one of the mills a few months ago, and we were absolutely blown away by the level of innovation that this group has embraced and their commitment to United States manufacturing, sustainability, transparency. This group has so many great things going on that we thought everybody out there needs to hear what is happening at Parkdale Mills. Hi!
Davis Warlick 02:27
Emily, thank you. Thank you Bret for having me.
Bret Schnitker 02:30
It's great to have you here.
Emily Lane 02:31
So Davis, you are a you come from a generation of people committed to Parkdale Mills, and you are third generation?
Davis Warlick 02:42
correct.
Emily Lane 02:42
being at the top of this company. Okay, I want to know a little bit about the background of the company, but I also want to know, how did you like? When did you go, this is going to be my business,
Bret Schnitker 02:53
and was it your choice? Or did dad go, Hey, this is where you're going.
Davis Warlick 02:59
It's a good start. I'd have to go all the way back. And I think about growing up in Gaston County, Gastonia, North Carolina, where we're headquartered, and where we've been headquartered since 1916 but Gastonia used to be the comb capital of the world, and so when we started, when Parkdale was started in 1916 there was 150 Mills alone in Gaston County. And Gaston County is not the size of St Louis. It's a small town, so it's always been a kind of a mega center for textiles. And so Parkdale was just another one of the mills. And my granddad lived in the neighborhood where the mill was, and has a great founder story, kind of but he was just a high school kid riding his bike down the neighborhood, worked in the mills in the summer, worked at the first Parkdale mill in the summer. It was a mill that was owned by most of the neighbors. Again, there was a mill in almost every corner in Gaston County. So he ended up going to war, came back, went to NC State, and kind of returned back to Gaston County with this college degree, and ended up running our business for the owner, Mr. Robinson, for 40, 50, years, and then ended up buying out the other shareholders in the 80s. And that's kind of the founder story for us. My father married my mother. He was starting his own career Milliken, which is another great textile company. And you know, one day my granddad, I think, called Andy, and who's my father, and said, Hey, I'd like for you to come work with me. And I think he wanted to have his own career. I think my granddad wanted to have a life with his granddaughter, and so that's kind of the start of the partnership. So second generation was Andy, and then I just grew up in the business. I grew up the business had two great role models, Duke Kimbrell, who was my grandfather, and then my father. Or Andy Warlick, so that was my exposure to the family business. You know, I think everybody that's in a family business, you grow up in it. I mean, the stats, 90% of business is family business. And so a lot of people grow up, you know, around the business. And I was no different. You know, my kids today go to the the office with me on Saturdays. But I think, to your point, you know, when did I know it was what I wanted to do? I will say one, one side note, this was where I think I always really enjoyed the business in kindergarten. You know, you write the books what I want to do when, you know, when you get older, and most of the kids in my class, fireman, police officer, astronaut, even at five years old, I put president of Parkdale Mills, and I drew a picture of this autonomous lint vehicle called Blinky. And so my mom actually has it framed now. So I always had, you know, always had that interest in the business. But I think, really, the passion came from, I think, two places. One, when I was 16 years old, first job, worked first shift in our mill in Gastonia, and was a part of the team. Got my paycheck that first week of cleaning, air washers and filtration, 6am to 1pm on first shift. I think when I received that paycheck for the first time, plant manager shook my hand. The pride that I had working with the team was a feeling that I've, you know, I've always had with me. So I think that was, and that was like a drug to me, you know, being a part of a team making something, you know, the machines, the people. So I think that was probably the first, and then the second was after every summer, working in one of our mills, and even in college. I think the second was I graduated from business school. Time to start my career, decided I wanted to go work at Parkdale. Day one, I went to go work again, right on the floor. And I had a really good mentor. He was the best plant manager that we had.
Emily Lane 07:17
We met him, didn't we?
Davis Warlick 07:18
Tad Rogers, and he just is so important about mentorship. But that was a make or break kind of moment for me. I was deciding that career had a lot of hunger and, you know, curiosity and to have somebody like him mentor and fuel my fire. I think, I think that was one of the key moments for me that I really want to be in this industry. This is what I love to do. And he was able to kind of stoke that fire. So I think those two moments, and then, you know, I think every day I'm reassured that this is what I'm supposed to do, because absolutely love what I do. We have the best people, the best team. It's an incredible culture. And so, you know, kind of reminded that I did make a great decision when I did.
Emily Lane 08:06
We're absolutely thrilled that you're here.
Bret Schnitker 08:09
Yeah, for sure, you know, it's wild. Our industry is always changing. It's not the easiest industry in the world. For sure, what are the biggest challenges you know, from the point that you you know were mentored and brought in. Obviously, the world's changed pretty dramatically from there. What do you see as the biggest challenges? And then also, like, is there anything that's kind of consistent, that has remained consistent with all the evolution that we're seeing in our industry?
Davis Warlick 08:35
I think I would probably start with what's been consistent, and I can speak for what I've seen in the 20 years was consistent, at least within our business. And, you know, that's put in the heart, I mean, the customer at the heart of our organization. And that's one of the things, you know, the founder story that we were talking about, you know, most of our investments, most of our decisions, have really been, you know, around either our people or, you know, for our customers. And I think that's always been consistent. I've seen that how we invest, how we think we try to find solutions for either the people on the front lines of our plants or the front lines of our customers. So I think that's always stayed the same. And I think that's a really good business model to take care of your customers. And I think there is a reason why that's the number one guiding principle for us as a company that's really lasted over time is to put the customer at the heart of the organization. Investment. I think that's one thing that stayed consistent. You have to continually invest at our company. We reinvest a lot back into the business, for automation, for innovation, you know, for new products, for our customers. So that has stayed consistent as a company. Industry has changed a lot, I think in 20 years, yeah, I think so much of it has changed because really two reasons in my mind, one, to telephone. You know, technology. You know, the last 20 years we have the iPhone, so easy to be able to shop. Now, push click of a button, you're able to buy apparel. And you know, the things about the traceability, the visibility into supply chains, I think that's changed a lot in the last 20 years, and it impacts the manufacturing side. And then the other things, the probably the transition to synthetics. You know, 20 years ago, the market share for synthetics was probably less than 50% and now it's, you know, 70% of the global market share is synthetic. So what we've had to do as a as a company to accommodate that and invest in blend lines and different types of machines to be able to handle different fibers. I think that's probably, that's probably been the biggest change.
Bret Schnitker 10:49
Interesting you in terms of fiber production. The US is, what second in the world in terms of cotton, cotton growing fiber crops, or whatever.
Davis Warlick 11:02
We be fourth today,
Bret Schnitker 11:03
oh we are fourth today. So it's
Davis Warlick 11:04
Well, we, we got displaced by Brazil in the past year.
Bret Schnitker 11:08
Interesting.
Davis Warlick 11:09
You've got, we're about 15% we do 12 to 15 million bales a year. China is probably 25% at number one, India, number two. In Brazil just past the US.
Bret Schnitker 11:22
so how much of that from the cotton growing and export of the fiber itself? How much of that translates into spinning? And how much do you guys, you know, use for domestic versus export?
Davis Warlick 11:37
I think as an industry, you know, again, it's anywhere from 12 to 15 million bales that the US grows. And there's really two types of cotton grown in the US, 95% upland, which is what we you know, we consume like 5% Pima. Pima, you know, it's an EOS. It's longer, typically than an inch and a half, very smaller, and that's kind of grown out west. And so our consumption comes from upland, you know, to our mills. And so all of our mills can, you know, consume 100% cotton grown from the US. The industry as a whole. The cotton industry exports almost all of it. You know, we used to be as an industry, a lot more cotton based in terms of textile mills and yarn manufacture. Manufacturers used to see three or 4 million bales, 5 million bales, years years ago, consumed domestically by the mills. Now that number is less. Some of it, again, has to do with polyester demand, but most of it's exported. I mean, the US cotton is in high demand globally. Yeah, sure, it's a we do a good job growing cotton in the United States. We have the USDA that classes every Bale, so traceability, quality, all of that is, you know, able to be verified globally. And so there's a lot of demand for the US grown cotton.
Bret Schnitker 13:00
And how many of your units are located in the US, and how many are do you have any offshore
Davis Warlick 13:04
we do on our textile business, our yarn manufacturing business, which is our core legacy business. We operate eight different states in about six different countries. So currently we have a very exciting investment for yarn manufacturing in Honduras that were underway. But we're in Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, and then we're in multiple states in the US.
Bret Schnitker 13:30
How much of your production is cotton versus synthetic? Now, is that following the trend, or you have to shift and follow that trend.
Davis Warlick 13:37
Absolutely and again, you know, what are, what have our customers wanted? What? What are the consumers want that transition. They want performance. They want polyester, they want nylons. And so we've had to introduce that, you know, we've had to change and adapt, you know, or or die. And so we certainly consume more poly today than probably we ever have
Emily Lane 14:02
you talk about investing in your business, and one of the things that we've had an opportunity to see firsthand is the amount of innovation automation that you've brought into your environment. It's it's pretty extraordinary.
Bret Schnitker 14:17
I'm talking to robots as they're moving up, yeah, and they stopped to greet. They're very light, absolutely, yeah, but the big blue eyes,
Emily Lane 14:26
tell me a little bit about the some of the measures that you've put in place, the automation that you've been, that you've embraced and and the benefits that you're seeing as a result.
Davis Warlick 14:39
Thank you for those comments about our facility. We take a lot of pride in our facilities. Obviously, I think we've always been adopters, early adopters, of innovation, and it starts back at the top with who I mentioned, Duke, and certainly with Andy, who's our CEO and Chairman now to as a culture, you know, we need to be first adopters of automation and innovation. And so we were, you know, couple examples. We were the first textile mill in the United States to have open end spinning. That was back in the 70s. And then we were the first mill to have HVAC, industrial HVAC, and a textile mill, and that was in the 80s. And we've continued to invest, you saw the robots. We continue to invest on technology that makes our quality better, speeds to go faster. And so we're always wanting to have close relationships with our machine manufacturers on the latest, greatest technologies. We're currently doing investment on autonomous vehicles. You saw some probably in our Gaffney facility. And so we it, we developed a culture to be early adopters of of innovation and automation. And I think it's a one of the main reasons why we've been around for over 100 years, because, you know, that's a primary focus, even from our shareholders, is to put money back in, into the business, into our facilities, to reduce costs, to improve quality, and a lot of that's come through our investments, and
Bret Schnitker 16:04
It helps you understand the American, you know, kind of mindset, you know, not many people want to do a lot of labor intensive things. Today, you can hire a lot more technicians if you have innovation, and that helps keep you going forward, right, absolutely. So you you you definitely see that happening when you're walking through that massive facility we walk through, yeah,
Emily Lane 16:26
absolutely. What are some technologies that are on the horizon that you're lookingat?
Davis Warlick 16:33
I think, as an industry, I mean, we're always looking for something that improves, improves quality. We're always looking and trying to solve solutions for our customers. Work backwards from our customers on Hey, what are you saying? What are the consumers doing? How do we service you better? How do we grow with you? How do we automate, innovate for our customers? And so a lot has been in sustainability, different aspects of sustainability. In the last couple years, we've seen a lot of innovation coming in the material space and sustainability, you know, and then as an industry as a whole, with AI now that is becoming so prevalent, is that going to help downstream processes in the Textile Supply Chain, you know, with AI with We're hearing about sewing and automation and sewing and finishing and things like that. That's seems exciting. And anything that's good for the supply chain, you know, is good for us. And so seeing some of the advancements downstream, I think it's very, very exciting.
Bret Schnitker 17:36
Yeah, I was kind of blown away. You know, when you when you talk about sustainability and sustainability, there's been a number of conversations, right? You know, there's a lot of people apprehensive about the word sustainability. There's two sides the fence about, you know, do we have an issue in our environment, or don't we? But you kind of took sustainability as I walked through that mill to a new level and a different mindset, where you said, Look, sustainability is not only good for the environment, but it's good for the bottom line. You know, you walk through that entire plant, and then at the very end, what the balance leftover stuff becomes food for cattle, you know, the pucks at the very end. And I'm just like, wow, this is such a brilliant thought process, because there is no waste almost, right, almost-
Davis Warlick 18:23
Besides the canteen waste right that goes to the landfill.
Bret Schnitker 18:27
Crazy preservation of waste and utilization all the way through that chain. And then even you're doing ear swabs with what real short staple fibers that you can't correct, it goes in a million different ways, and you're just thinking the utilization. This is a model for a lot of companies in terms of sustainability, because it helps the bottom line. It helps preserve profit and it helps it.
Emily Lane 18:55
Maximizes that resource, does it really? Yeah, in fact, Bret, you've set up a question for me really well. I was very impressed by the fact that you are a zero waste manufacturing facility, and I'd love for you to help people understand what that all means. As Bret mentioned, there's all of these different ways that, by products are then recreated into other products. Can you break that down?
Davis Warlick 19:20
You know, it's listening to Bret talk, I think. And I was so happy to hear that y'all picked that, pick that up. But I'd have to be honest, you know, before sustainability even became a word that was just ingrained, and a lot of that has to do with trying to be cost competitive, right? Lean, if you go back to lean and eliminating waste, a lot of that came from, from trying to eliminate waste and trying to be low cost in a, you know, in a global market, it's very, very competitive. But there's another aspect of that. It was just the right thing to do. You know, we take a lot of pride in the communities in which our mills operate in, and so, you. So, you know, there's, there was a pride sense there. Now, sustainability is much more mainstream. It's more in vogue, and we're continuing doing those, those those same types of processes. Now they have different terminologies and things for the processes that we've had in place for, you know, 20 and 30 years, yeah, because it was the right thing to do, you know, utilizing the waste that you mentioned, that was one of the ways that we got into the consumer products business, trying to control the waste stream and understand where our waste was going. Led us to the consumer products division. We acquired a company in 2008 that utilized our byproduct waste, the short fibers that Bret mentioned. You know, we have to clean organic material out of the cotton, and that can be reprocessed into a lot of many, many things. And so that's what led us to our acquisition of us cotton, 2008 and you know, we're always trying to figure out how to reprocess and how to reuse.
Emily Lane 20:55
There's some, some of the applications include cleanup when there's an environmental a spill or something along that lines, there's cattle being fed, yes, yeah. What are some others-
Davis Warlick 21:11
The dust, actually. So you mentioned you're so keen, you're you've got it. That was dust. So the very the all the dust that is eliminated from that cotton we're able to extract, and we put them into briquettes, and they're great protein for local farmers. And so that is a I'm
Bret Schnitker 21:32
Coming to a store near you. Yeah, absolutely yeah, with milk. Yes, that's absolutely happening, coming soon.
Emily Lane 21:41
Oh, gosh.
Bret Schnitker 21:54
The other thing that was amazing too is this whole traceability thing. So you know, with the Uyghur issue in China, traceability of bail has been huge, right? Figuring that out. And so people are like, how much you know? Are you you know? Are the Chinese importing certain amounts of us cotton? And there's been this whole conversation, this is just inherent in your supply chain. This whole traceability from a bail level too.
Davis Warlick 22:17
It is, and I don't want to take necessarily credit for that.
Bret Schnitker 22:20
Take credit
Davis Warlick 22:21
but just well, just by operating in the United States, I mean, there's so many great textile companies, there's so many great manufacturers in the United States. And just operating the United States, the rules on environmental the rules on no traceability, we have OSHA, we have all the these different great you know rules that are in place to do the bare minimum, you know, absolute bare minimum, and to maintain that standard. Cotton is no different. You know, USDA. One of the reasons that cotton is in so high demand globally is that they, we can trace every bale of us grown cotton, all the way back to the gin. They have a PBI number, which is, I think, what you're you're mentioning. And so we as a company can have 100% traceability on where our raw materials coming from, and which farm it came from, or which gin it came from.
Bret Schnitker 23:15
That's an amazing story,
Davis Warlick 23:16
It is. And we have great, great farmers, you know, throughout the southeast, some of them, we do, do deal directly with, but you know, some of the issues that are going on currently with traceability, you know, I think that's a that's a huge benefit of using us grown cotton.
Bret Schnitker 23:34
How much of your you know, with what's going on in Europe, with the whole digital passport and all these, you know, eco friendly, you know, initiatives that are going on. Do you find an increasing opportunity in the market, in Europe, for us, cotton, or spun, you know, yarn, to convert?
Davis Warlick 23:53
I'd like to think so. I think just in general, across again, I mentioned, you mentioned, some of the things that have changed, you know, the telephone. I mentioned the iPhone. I think everybody now today is more educated. You know, traceability, really, I think it's always been around more of a smaller scale, a smaller niche kind of conversation. But, you know, it's going more mainstream now. People are able to understand more through technology and where their products are coming from, and people kind of demanding that. And I think that will play very, very well into the demand for US cotton and products made with us, cotton, such as our yarn and and products that we make in our mills.
Bret Schnitker 24:34
Yeah, you just have such an amazing story. I think it would resonate a lot with what's happening, you know, for the initiatives in Europe today that we saw, yeah,
Emily Lane 24:42
with some of the dynamics that are happening on a global scale right now, are there any concerns about demand for US cotton shifting?
Davis Warlick 24:53
I think there's always going to be strong demand for cotton. I think the to reframe the conversation. I think it's a fiber conversation in general. You know, today, polyester and synthetics make up 70% roughly 70% of the global fiber demand. Cotton is anywhere between 20 to 25% of that. Then you have some other natural fibers in there. But demand for fiber is going to continue to grow globally. So we either have to increase the acreage globally, or, you know, more market share probably will go on the synthetic side. And so I think as long as that, we can grow it and have acreage dedicated to it. Currently, on average, probably 10 million acres in the US, for cotton, we'll have to keep up with fiber demand to main, you know, continue to grow it or to be displaced by a synthetic or a polyester or another type of material. So
Bret Schnitker 25:51
in terms of natural fiber, the US is uniquely positioned because of our water reserves. I mean, cotton's a thirsty crop, so you definitely see that as there are challenges elsewhere in the world, Pakistan, other places for water reserves, or India, you know, America is uniquely positioned to be able to feed that or water that thirsty crop right
Davis Warlick 26:12
I would, I would agree with that Absolutely. We're good at growing it. We're good at growing it. And I think we have great farmers throughout the southeast and Texas and places like that. And I don't see the demand going I think fiber consumption will continue to grow.
Bret Schnitker 26:28
And even though the percentage might shift, the consumption goes up exactly. Yeah, exactly.
Emily Lane 26:34
Are there some differences between us cotton and cotton grown in other parts of the world?
Davis Warlick 26:40
And I know you'll like wine, yeah. And so it's a it's like wine. I think it's like one body.Exactly the way that y'all talk about wine is how you know I talk about cotton, I guess, yeah, the fiber properties vary even within the United States.
Bret Schnitker 26:59
What are the key features that you would tout about us cotton in general.
Davis Warlick 27:02
I think you know, I think there's the main ones, but you the length, the strength of the fiber, you know, a lot of it has to do with the traceability, how we how we farm. But for the most part, upland cotton grown in the South has an identity. You know what you're probably going to get. But you know, seasons change, the weather changes. You may have some storms that make a crop differ year to year, but for the most part, you know upland US cotton is a cotton that can run in almost all spun yarn applications. You have the ELS conversation. You think about Pima, you think about Egyptian that takes a certain type of soil, certain type of environment to grow, and so that's one of the differences. But I think every every growing region has a little bit of a different quality based on the soil and where it's grown.
Emily Lane 28:00
Wow, it is an art, just like wine. You've mentioned a lot about synthetics, and the demand increase for our synthetics, and you've been very behind a huge initiative that is seeking to solve the problems that some of these synthetic fibers create. We've had a conversation a few episodes ago with a partner of yours, Andrea Ferris from CiCLO and and you're invested in the success of that company. Tell us a little bit about how, how you came into that picture,
Davis Warlick 28:36
you know, Andrea story, and thank you for that, for having her on. She's fantastic. She's our partner, and she's the founder of CiCLO. Her story that she shared when she was trying to source uniforms for McDonald's and try to find a solution to the synthetic microfiber and pollution issue is kind of similar to ours. We started a Advanced Materials division, we saw that Polymer and fiber was going to be important in terms of technology. Polyester was gaining market share, and so we wanted to develop a division that studied fiber and Polymer Technology as insiders in the business, similar to how she was an insider sourcing uniforms. We started converting more of our facilities over to consume synthetics, and understanding what a synthetic is. It's a petroleum based product. It's a great, durable type of fiber. But, you know, we knew that environmentally, it wouldn't biodegrade, right? And we understood that there was microfiber shedding that was happening that could potentially be here forever, and so we wanted to try to solve that for our customers, and go out and try to develop a solution to this polyester problem, the polyester we were under. Understanding the implications and the issues early on as insiders, and so we were trying to find a solution, and that's how we ended up finding Andrea, actually, and found CiCLO, and we partnered with them, and I will say it's one of the most exciting. It is the most exciting thing that I've ever worked on, my passion for what we're trying to do with CiCLO is at an all time high, and so I appreciate y'all support in the technology, and I think y'all can see the type of impact that it can potentially have.
Bret Schnitker 30:36
No for sure, it's it should be ubiquitous. We should spare no time rolling that out in mass, because the problem is not going away. It's like you mentioned, you know, the rise on synthetic production from 55 to 65 to 75 now they're saying 80 85% of manufacturing of Textiles is going to be in synthetics. You know, this is an issue. We have to solve it, and you have the solution, and it's not expensive and it's easy to implement,
Emily Lane 31:06
and it improves the end product.
Bret Schnitker 31:09
There's just so many things, and it's just, you know, the impatience of seeing that become everywhere sits with me, literally every day. I'm not even invested in your business. And I'm like, Holy Smoke, we have got to people have to know more about this, and it's got to be implemented. And now
Davis Warlick 31:29
that's what keeps me up at night as well. Is that exact, that exact thing?
Bret Schnitker 31:34
That was my next question. What keeps you up at night?
Davis Warlick 31:36
That is what is what keeps me up at night. But on, you know, Andrea's podcast, you mentioned Holy Grail.
Bret Schnitker 31:43
It is the Holy Grail.
Davis Warlick 31:45
And I appreciate you saying that. And I think when we were researching CiCLO, having our insider information, kind of how consumers act, how brands, the needs for brands and consumers, we kind of said the Holy Grail would be, hey, how do we give brands and consumers what they want, in terms of fashion, durability, cost, at the same time create this impact? And that, to me, was the Holy Grail, to be able to solve a huge problem that we have in the environment, but to be able to do it at scale, to be able to go into existing supply chains that already exist, to be able to take a technology and elevate it on low cost equipment globally, anywhere around the world, and to be able to do it in a cost effective way, to me, when we found a CiCLO That was the Holy Grail. Yeah, five, six years later, we're there, and I think we've really solved that, and we have an incredible team. Cheryl Smiyer leads our CiCLO team. She's done an amazing job globally, setting up supply chains being able to drive costs down so that we can take to consumers, a way to do better, to these consumers and brands. They want to do well. They want to do good for the environment, but, you know, needs to be cost effective. It needs to be scalable.
Emily Lane 33:13
Sure, yeah, there's a lot of
Bret Schnitker 33:14
everything that we do. I mean, you know, you're never going to see change on a on an eco friendly or sustainable front unless it can become scalable and affordable. That's one of the challenges we've had in our industry forever at all levels, right? Absolutely done that. This is a nominal difference in cost. It is an invisible process in terms of the the the ultimate result really from a tactile experience or a implementation process, and the result is biodegradability, right? That's just, you know, and no micro particulates. It's crazy. It just needs to be everywhere we hope
Davis Warlick 33:53
It is. That's what we're working on around the clock with a lot of enthusiasm to get this globally as a solution for synthetics. I think more and more news is coming out about the impact of microfibers in our ecosystem, in our own bodies. There's been a lot of reports about what we're consuming, and I think
Bret Schnitker 34:16
I took a shower today and it just stayed on the surface. Nothing soaked in I got so much plastic in my body.
Davis Warlick 34:22
I think those things are in our favor, though, for ceclo technology, as people become more aware, not only on the environmental side, but on the health impact, I think that'll help CiCLO expand where you and I both think it
Bret Schnitker 34:37
Yes, For sure.
Emily Lane 34:39
You've developed the fiber Innovation Center in Belmont rihgt?.
Davis Warlick 34:43
Nah, it's, I'm help to kind of CO lead that, okay, the textile-
Emily Lane 34:48
you're involved in,
Davis Warlick 34:49
involved, passionate about it. I'm a fan of what they're doing at the textile Technology Center. And get in Gaston County.
Emily Lane 34:55
Is there anything on the horizon that you see coming out of. This incredible innovation center.
Davis Warlick 35:02
think the you know, it's, it's, there's a ribbon cutting ceremony coming up, but you know, that was born after the pandemic. The Textile Technology Center has been a resource for the whole industry. It helped us develop reiterations of CiCLO. So it's been a really good resource for development, for the entire for the entire industry. But one thing I think that'll be different about the Fiber Innovation Center is it really is going to focus on Polymer and fiber technology, and so brands, the military, different universities, academics can go develop polymer technology, patented polymer technology, and put it into yarn, put it into fabrics, all under in one place. And that's something that the industry, you know, hasn't, hasn't had in the past. It's a playground. It should be a playground, and it should help innovate faster, quicker. And you know, to keep some of the great technologies that we develop, and fibers and polymers here in the United States,
Bret Schnitker 36:04
yeah, I'm really glad to see that, you know, we've, we've kind of exported so much in this industry offshore, and we've had a lot of conversations about, how do we bring it back onshore? And the first step is bringing the knowledge base back onshore, you know? And then the next step is obviously continuing what you've done in spinning units and technology and innovation and other aspects of that supply chain.
Davis Warlick 36:29
You know, people always say, remember how the country was? September 12, 2001 everybody was united and very patriotic during the pandemic, the textile industry United States, the every textile mill, every spinner, every sewing operator, was united to help the country and really got to see how awesome our US industry is. And one of to your point about bringing it back. It would be fantastic to see that every day in the United States, because over time, during that period of time where we were making PPE and as a whole industry, you started to see the speeds production, cost, things like that, start coming down, because we have great we have great Mills here. We have great industry here, still, it's just a little fragmented. Yeah, and I think that's-
Bret Schnitker 37:24
it's a lot Yeah, I think we, I think fixing that really weighing into innovation. Today, we're at a time in history where that's possible. You know, years ago, 10 years, five years ago, it would have been more challenging. Today, there's, there's certainly opportunities to do that
Emily Lane 37:40
with gaps in the supply chain being a challenge to overcome with Made in America. Are there other challenges that you see as things that we need to develop solutions for?
Davis Warlick 37:51
I like the simple approach to it, the pragmatic, simple approach. And we have a great textile base in the United States still. But you know, only 15% of what we import is from the western hemisphere. And so you think about where we are actively involved in supply chains, where there's rule based trade agreements, for instance, CAFTA, USMCA, Columbia. Those are, you know, if you think about the cost and you think about some of the shipping issues, moving things back to the Western Hemisphere, great way to re engage the United States and grow the United States, because the United States is already active in some of those supply chains. We export a lot of our yarn to the Kafta region. We export a lot of yarn to USMCA, down into South America, and so moving transitioning some market share, brands and other companies can move some of their production, not just back to the United States yet, but to the hemisphere. Is a great first step to be able to build base in the United States one step at a time.
Bret Schnitker 39:03
It's amazing. As manufacturers, you know, in our industry, we always look east. We never look south. Rarely look south. You know, I think, I think growing, growing that conversation is really.
Davis Warlick 39:17
You look at the lead times inventory, you look at the sustainability conversation. It makes complete sense cost. It makes complete sense to source in the western hemisphere. And they're incredible manufacturers, fully vertical manufacturers in the in the Western Hemisphere, I think it's just, you know, knowing that those types of manufacturers exist in the Western Hemisphere, that it's not just basics, which is kind of what the hemisphere has been known for a long time. But yeah, so I think that as the as the hemisphere can grow, that's really going to benefit the United States.
Emily Lane 39:57
That's great Well, before we wrap this conversation today, I have one last question. Question, unless you have anything,
Bret Schnitker 40:01
I'm good,
Emily Lane 40:01
you're good. Okay, so there's a lot of, a lot of positive things that we've talked about on the horizon. What's your what's your greatest hope that you think is relatively achievable in the near future?
Davis Warlick 40:13
You know, we talked about bringing manufacturing back to United States. That's something obviously, that we're always passionate about. I understand, you know, from when I was 16 years old, that pride that I got when I got that check from the plant manager, to be able to have that opportunity for so many in other communities, and just the power of having a manufacturing type of job our industry, every job that we create has a three to one multiplier on it. And so I am hopeful, you know, to continue growing that in the United States, continue growing the manufacturing base. And I'm extremely hopeful and excited about, you know what we talked about earlier, about solving this microfiber issue, creating awareness around the microfiber issue, and leveraging our technology to really solve a really big problem. So those are the two passions I think that I really hope to see happen in the next, you know, two to five years,
Emily Lane 41:09
I have no doubt you'll be right on the ground floor, helping to make all those things happen. So thank you, David just thank you Davis for joining us today in this wonderful conversation on the Clothing Coulture. How can people find you?
Davis Warlick 41:22
Oh, man, there's
Bret Schnitker 41:24
Full phone number.
Davis Warlick 41:24
Bret, yeah, address, yes, absolutely.
Emily Lane 41:30
Well, Parkdale Mills has a website.CiCLO has a website. Has some great new content coming available soon to promote all the things that are happening there, you don't forget to subscribe to stay apprised of upcoming episodes of Clothing Coulture.
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