Coats – Why Consider Thread

What is Coats?

Coats / Opti is a global thread and zip business with over 70 manufacturing sites, offices and distribution centres around all the key textile, apparel and footwear / accessory production markets, with over 20,000 employees supplying vendors who produce for most of the retailers and brands around the world.

The remit for the Coats global sales team is to support brands and retailers, to gain approval and specification for all Coats products which can then be converted to sales in each of the receiving production markets. The Coats technical advisory services are available to provide help, including thread and needle recommendations, presentations on a wide range of subjects, workshops to analyse and resolve customer issues and seminars similar to those we carried out with Fashion Enter. The sharing of knowledge can only bring about improvements in techniques and quality and the Coats team are committed in supporting  this ideal across our business.

Coats industrial threads within the apparel  sector was the key focus for the two days and the four key aspects of our business were explained – 

1) Product, 2) Colour, 3) Technical support and 4) Environmental and ethical standards.

It is important to recognise ‘why we should consider thread’. It is the only thing that is holding the garment together and so a full understanding of each thread type/ substrate / ticket/ tex size and their relationship is key to both better quality and productivity.

All of the product types and substrates were explained along with their construction / identification, end uses and why it is so important to know when and where to use each one in terms of garment end use, fabric type, needle and stitch types.

A section on ‘colour’ explained the subjectivity involved in shade matching and how Coats innovations have included the development of the Colour Capsure device successfully being employed by customers to improve lead times, reduce redundancy and importantly offer a an improved sampling service to customers.

Coats technical advisory services is an invaluable asset both with brands and retailers but also in the production markets where vendors benefit from this service which differentiates Coats against the competition. A detailed list of these services were explained and an example on ‘how to reduce puckering‘ showed where the Coats technical team can help improve seam appearance by identifying the contributing factors involved.

As a Global business you would expect and all our customers receive the confidence in knowing Coats products meet the necessary requirements in ethical and environmental standards.

Innovation is never ending theme with designers and the brands and retailers they work for. Coats have actively over the last two years developed products to offer solutions to problems, improve aesthetics and add to embroidery design. Examples were shown and explained and details of the Coats portal explained as to where all of these and all Coats products data sheets are available to download.

We covered an overview of zip fasteners, zip terminology, the choices available in the various product types both in the Opti range as well as in the wider market, the advantages of using one type against another, problems and solutions and the environmental, ethical and quality standards required and expected by our customers and the industry as a whole. Plus the technical support available to help issues to advise on the right zip application and support in concealed / invisible zip insertion.

One of the apprentices Shannon commented – ‘The presentation given by coats gave me a lot of information I will need in my future career in the fashion industry. It made me aware of the different zip styles and what sort of garments they would be used for along with the threads.’ 

A huge thank you to Ian Butcher, Andy McQueen and Coats team for taking the time to present this to our learners and for all the information!

Members can click here to review the presentation by Coats