Antai Textile: AI Empowers Intelligent Manufacturing Upgrade, Seizing the High-End Sports and Outdoor Track through Precise Material Innovation
(Main Text) In the production workshop of Antai Textile in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, Factory Director Huang of the Production Department is staring at the jumping data flow on the screen—the newly launched AI intelligent color matching system is controlling the color shade error of a batch of peacock blue colored acrylic sliver within 0.5ΔE, which is nearly 60% better than the industry average standard. "Manager Li just sent the second-quarter report of sports brands; the outdoor category has grown by over 50%. Our batch of high weather-resistant acrylic yarn for outdoor clothing must be delivered by the end of the month," Director Huang said to the technician beside him, as his fingertips drew a production schedule curve on the touchscreen, and the system automatically matched the optimal process parameters.
On the desk of Li Xiong, Marketing Department Manager, in the spread-out industry report, annotations such as "Anta Outdoor 50-55% growth" and "Saucony high-end running shoes 20%+ growth" are particularly eye-catching. "The boom in the high-end sports and outdoor track is essentially an upgrade in material demand," he explained, pointing to the charts in the report. "Traditional sportswear mostly uses cotton spinning, but outdoor scenarios require lighter, warmer, and friction-resistant materials, and acrylic's properties perfectly fit. For example, our acrylic yarn, through hollow cross-section technology, can make the fabric 30% lighter than traditional cotton spinning, with a moisture regain rate below 4%, and can still maintain over 90% warmth retention in humid environments. This is exactly the 'lightweight warmth retention' solution that outdoor brands urgently need.
This acute capture of the market has long been engraved in Antai Textile's genes. Since its establishment in 1993, this textile enterprise starting from Zhangjiagang has always centered on acrylic series products, evolving from initial single acrylic sliver production to today's full-category layout covering acrylic yarn, colored acrylic sliver, and fancy yarn, backed by in-depth insight into industry trends. At the China Textile and Apparel Artificial Intelligence Conference held in Guangzhou this July, Li Xiong participated with his team throughout. "AI is not simply automation, but making production understand the market better," he gave an example: In response to the dual demand for 'design sense + functionality' from high-end running shoes like those of Xtep-Saucony, the company's fancy yarn production line has introduced an AI pattern design system. When designers input the demand for 'lightweight support + dynamic texture', the system can generate 10 sets of yarn structure schemes within 2 hours, increasing efficiency by 8 times compared to traditional manual design. "The slub acrylic yarn customized for Saucony's new running shoes last month was 'calculated' this way—it has visual impact and can enhance upper support through changes in yarn twist.
On the production side, Director Huang's team is putting this 'AI empowerment' into practice. Entering Antai Textile's intelligent workshop, 6 continuous acrylic sliver production lines are operating at high speed, each equipped with 32 intelligent sensors that real-time monitor 16 parameters such as fiber moisture content and drafting ratio. "In the past, adjusting a color shade required senior craftsmen to conduct 3-5 trial productions. Now, the AI system, through historical data modeling, can achieve a first trial production pass rate of 95%," Director Huang pointed to the colored acrylic sliver production data on the central control screen. "For the recently popular 'Aurora Purple' color shade, it only took us 72 hours from receiving the order to mass production, cutting the industry average cycle by half. This is our confidence to meet the 'small orders with quick response' needs of high-end brands.
Having deeply cultivated the acrylic field for 32 years, Antai Textile has long formed a full industrial chain capability from raw material R&D to finished product delivery. Its acrylic sliver production lines, with an annual capacity exceeding 10,000 tons, adopt German Schlafhorst equipment, controlling fiber uniformity CV value within 1.8%. The independently developed 'dope dyeing' technology allows colored acrylic sliver to avoid subsequent dyeing, reducing sewage discharge by 80%, which exactly aligns with the ESG strategies of leading sports brands. "Last year, we jointly developed recycled acrylic yarn with an outdoor brand, made from recycled PET bottle flakes, with a strength of 3.8cN/dtex. It has been used in their flagship down jackets, with single-style sales exceeding 100,000 pieces," Li Xiong took out a cooperation case book, which records cooperation stories with more than 30 domestic and foreign sports brands. "From Li-Ning's high-end training series to ski suits of international outdoor giants, our acrylic yarn has always been the 'invisible core competitiveness.'
Industry data also confirms this strength—the July SW Textile Manufacturing Index rose 2.4%, outperforming the broader market, driven by manufacturing enterprises like Antai Textile seizing structural opportunities through product upgrades. While most major brands have seen slowed growth, Antai Textile, by precisely entering high-end niche tracks, achieved a 15% year-on-year growth in second-quarter orders, with outdoor-specific acrylic yarn and high-end running shoe fancy yarn accounting for 40% of the total. "Thirty-two years ago, we started as a small factory in Zhangjiagang, relying on 'specialization and refinement'; now, facing the AI wave and consumption upgrade, what we need to do is 'use technology to make materials better understand needs,'" Director Huang looked at the AGV logistics vehicles shuttling in the workshop, which were transporting the next batch of raw materials for Saucony orders to Fujian. "This is not just Antai's story, but a microcosm of China's textile industry's transformation from 'manufacturing' to 'intelligent manufacturing.'