Producing over one billion meters of umbrella fabric annually and holding 60% of the domestic market, Qiyang's Dongjun Textile alone underscores the county's scale advantage. Yet the more significant story is not the output numbers but Qiyang's ambition to translate its intermediate-goods strength into a competitive edge in outdoor end-products and higher-value links.
Scale strengths and structural gaps
Qiyang now hosts 159 textile enterprises, including 41 above-scale firms. In 2025, the cluster's total industrial output reached 8.094 billion yuan, accounting for 17.94% of the city's industry. From 2023 to 2025, the annual growth rate of total output averaged about 11.5%. Baishui Textile Town has become the only textile-featured industrial town in Hunan Province, and the functional fabric cluster has been recognized as a national SME characteristic industry cluster.
Supporting this scale are approximately 6,300 air-jet and water-jet looms. Besides umbrella fabric, the annual capacity for bag fabric and tent fabric is around 300 million meters each. Leading enterprises such as Dongjun Textile, Kaisheng Footwear, and Yian Sports hold strong positions in umbrella fabric, sports shoes, and high-end helmets, with Yian's helmets commanding a 33% global share.
Behind the scale, however, lies a pronounced 'strong middle, weak ends' structure. Upstream raw materials like nylon and pre-weaving processes are insufficient, constraining supply-chain stability and cost control. Downstream high-value outdoor end-products such as jackets and tents are scarce, limiting profit capture. Supporting services—accessories, public testing, industrial design, and brand channels—also remain underdeveloped.
Outdoor economy tailwinds and policy support
The national 15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand and Promoting Consumption identifies outdoor economy and sports consumption as key growth areas, opening upgrade space for functional fabrics and scenario-based products. For Qiyang, this means its existing capacities in tent fabric, bag fabric, and high-elasticity fabric align neatly with incremental demand in outdoor apparel and gear.
At a promotional event in Shanghai, Yan Yan, vice president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, advised Qiyang to secure the industry chain, drive innovation, and promote integration. The core logic is to extend from mid-stream weaving to outdoor apparel and end-equipment, strengthen self-owned brands, deepen green printing and dyeing, and foster industry-academia collaboration while leveraging local cultural tourism to merge manufacturing with event economy and outdoor consumption.
Qiyang's location and cost advantages facilitate industrial transfer. The area is already within a three-hour economic circle of the Pearl River Delta and will soon enter a 1.5-hour circle. Comprehensive factor costs are over 10% lower than in coastal textile hubs. The first county-level customs service station in Yongzhou, an enterprise service center, 'move-in-ready' standard workshops, and flexible industrial land policies reduce entry and operation barriers.
From enterprise clustering to cluster upgrading
Qiyang's industrial policy has evolved in clear phases. In the start-up period, standardized workshops and agency services attracted enterprises. During the growth phase, a three-year action plan, a chain-chief system, and coordinated environmental infrastructure guided dyeing and finishing into parks. Now, in the upgrading phase, the focus is on technological innovation, digital transformation, and talent development, such as free digital diagnostics under Hunan's 'Smart Empowerment' initiative and partnerships with Central South University.
Notably, Dongjun Textile has installed five DMF&toluene recovery towers, achieving near-zero pollutant emissions. Technologies like waterless printing and functional finishing provide a foundation for green production. As carbon neutrality and export compliance requirements tighten, these are not just environmental investments but implicit thresholds for entering international outdoor brand supply chains.
Qiyang's '1347' action framework targets building a nationally influential outdoor sports textile and apparel cluster, emphasizing 'complementing the front end, expanding the terminal, upgrading capacity, and building brands.' This signals that over the next three years, the cluster will focus on filling upstream material and downstream brand gaps, pushing from 'enterprise clustering' to 'value upgrading.'
For buyers, Qiyang's scale and cost advantages in basic functional fabrics remain significant, but watch for product-mix shifts as it moves toward high-end outdoor products. For factories and trading firms, local digital diagnostics and green technical support offer a practical path to lower upgrade costs and capture international orders.