Qingdao companies are experiencing an unprecedented transformation in materials – the fundamental of development in textile and garment industry. 

Innovative materials have flourished in recent years as the industry kept moving forward, including seaweed fiber, chitin fiber, multicomponent fiber, and batik fabrics. 

The batik fabrics produced in Qingdao have taken up a 30 percent market share globally. One national and 12 provincial research centers have set up in the city for facilitating progress in the industry. 

Hongni Group produces underwear made of seaweed fiber. Its general manager Chen Qiang said that in comparison to cotton for underwear material, seaweed fiber is inflaming retarding, moisturizing, and has antibacterial effect. And there is an unending supply of the resource. 

To provide an alternative to traditional fibers, Hongni collaborated with Qingdao University in the past 10 more years and discovered technical solutions to the industrialization production and automated production of seaweed fiber. 

Jasfeel Co, headquartered in Jimo district, developed chitosan fiber from the fibers growing on legs of Alaska snow crabs. This new material has great bioactivity and biocompatibility, and the cloth made of it blended with cotton or modal fiber is antistatic, antibacterial, and has whitening and moisturizing effects. The development of the new fiber paved the way for the company to enter the medical textile area.