Haiyang knitwear festival: Tradition meets technology

The 9th Haiyang Knitwear Art Festival began on May 23 in Haiyang, a county-level city in Yantai, East China's Shandong province. The event highlighted the industry's move into digital intelligence, technological advancement, and brand development.

This two-day event acts as a platform for industry display, trade matching, and collaboration between academia and businesses, reinforcing Haiyang's status as a national knitwear center.

Festival visitors explored two main exhibitions. In the fashion zone, nine leading companies displayed hand-embroidered and hand-crocheted knitwear. The tech zone incorporated AI, with intelligent robots in Haiyang knitwear walking the runway alongside human models. An AR virtual fitting mirror allowed visitors to try on dozens of knitwear styles in seconds.

Haiyang Xingshang Fashion, Haiyang's first state-owned knitwear enterprise platform, made its debut at the festival. The China Textile Industry Federation also brought over 100 e-commerce platforms, brands, and buyers for sourcing sessions with local manufacturers.

A talent promotion event connected a local university with knitwear enterprises for internship programs. A supply chain innovation forum discussed topics like digital transformation and flexible production.

Haiyang's knitwear now includes more than 500 core enterprises, 5,000 processing units, and 100,000 workers, with an annual output exceeding 10 billion yuan ($1.38 billion). The city has been "China's Knitwear City" for seven consecutive years.