[VIDEO] Sourcing Hosiery from Taiwan – All About Socks and the Multi-million Dollar Industry

by Tom McGrenery (Content Lead)

Global Sources LIVE Sourcing Talk is back, running until November with all-new episodes featuring the Taiwan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (THMA). The event kicked off with Supplier Stories on July 27 with an introduction to the booming demand for socks and hosiery worldwide, how demand is changing, and why you should get into this multi-million-dollar industry now.

Resident host Tom McGrenery was joined by guests, QueenTex sales manager Yvonne Chang, THMA secretary-general Diane Chen, and The Smart Hosiery Co. sales manager Samina Tsao to discuss the benefits of tapping into this thriving market and what the future holds for socks.

• “Socks and hosiery are staple consumer products – everyone has them, and there is demand everywhere in the world,” said Diane Chen. “On the other hand, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lifestyle and consumption habits have changed.” The ‘stay at home’ economy and other new lifestyle trends have created demand for specialized hosiery such as sports socks with functional fabrics or health-focused items like compression socks.
• “Although hosiery originated in America, in the main, Taiwan revolutionized the hosiery industry,” said QueenTex’s Yvonne Chang, citing more than 50 years of development in the industry and explaining that Taiwanese suppliers focus not only on technological improvements, but also product development and ever higher quality in lingerie and related products, to expand international markets.
• Samina Tsao shared how a supplier’s experience with one kind of product can create transferable skills that come in useful when making other products stand out from the pack: “Because our special background is from [putting] characters on licensed socks, for graphing we can do very detailed. Warner Bros or Disney will not be happy if they get their character looking like Mickey Mouse’s cousin, just looking similar. They cannot accept that. It has to be exactly how kids see it in the cartoon. … So that helps us when we do fashion socks. … and our sports socks are not just boring, solid colors. We try to improve with some fashion ideas, fun ideas.”

Click the play button above to view the whole live panel.

Coming up next in the series:

Functional Socks: Combining Fashion with Function – August 5

Don’t miss this Analyst’s Choice episode on Aug 5 at 10AM GMT+8 featuring the Taiwan Hosiery Manufacturers Association. Join host Arvi Dacuba and her guests, and discover a plethora of stylish socks from Taiwan according to function: thermal socks, diabetic socks, toeless socks, outdoor socks and many more! It’s time to diversify your hosiery catalog and source various functional socks to meet specific customer demands.

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