Abstract:
Smart textiles are revolutionizing the scopes of Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers, professional
designers, and textile and electronic engineers. Even though Sri Lanka is a country which
exports textiles and apparel in large scale, the contribution to the Smart textile sector and its
development is insignificant. This research aims to investigate the awareness of smart textiles
in the Sri Lankan apparel industry, explore ongoing smart textiles projects of the industry, and
also to study the consumer behavior and attitude towards those products. To explore the
industry, according to the EDB data, seven uppermost apparel industries who directly involve
with apparel innovations were interviewed. An apparel industry related survey were carried out
using 100 randomly selected people who are directly involved with the Smart Textile subject.
A consumer survey was carried using 100 randomly selected people in the general public in
Colombo, Sri Lanka. Data were analyzed using Google forms and Excel charts. Further SWOT
and PEST analysis were used to get to a conclusion about macro and micro environment of
Smart Textile market in Sri Lanka. Analysis indicate that there is a considerable diversification
and development on smart textiles in Sri Lankan apparel industry. While, Sri Lankan consumer
awareness of smart textiles is limited to wearable technologies which comes under ultra-smart
textile, Sri Lankan apparel industry has already started working towards capturing the
manufacturing technologies of Smart Textile and its developments globally. If the Sri Lankan
apparel industry focuses on producing or developing smart textiles for local consumers, the
potential market segment is between age 18 and 38. Although there are number of leading smart
textile brands all over the world, NIKE and Adidas are the suitable brands to introduce smart
textile to the local market considering the familiarity of these brands in Sri Lanka. This study
informs the Sri Lankan apparel sector in two ways; shows an emerging profitable niche market
in the country and informs the apparel manufacturing boundaries to capture the global smart
textile trends before it’s too late.
