The China Garment Association held its 8th Second Council Meeting in Huizhou, sending a clear signal: the timeline for China's garment industry to transition from a manufacturing giant to a brand powerhouse is set—2035. This means the next decade is the critical window for the leap.
The meeting disclosed H1 2026 industry data, painting a mixed picture. Exports faced multiple pressures from weak international demand, heightened geopolitical conflicts, and disrupted supply chains, showing a volatile downward trend. Domestic sales maintained relatively fast growth driven by consumption stimulus actions, with improving market activity. Production remained stable overall, but investment continued to shrink, and corporate profits were under severe pressure.
Niche Sectors as Growth Engines
Against the backdrop of overall pressure, several niche sectors showed strong resilience. Guochao (national trend) consumption, outdoor sports, and the silver economy continued to thrive, with brands deepening omni-channel layouts. This reflects diversified demand driving consumption upgrades and industrial innovation. For buyers, this means competition in traditional commodity orders will intensify, while differentiated products with cultural narratives or functionality have greater pricing power.
The continued contraction of industry investment is noteworthy. Profit pressure directly reduces willingness to expand production, slowing equipment upgrades and technological transformation. If this trend continues, it will affect procurement demand for mid-to-high-end fabrics and smart equipment in the next 1-2 years, while also forcing companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency through digital means.
AI Restructures the Core Logic of the Supply Chain
Case studies on digital transformation at the meeting revealed the depth of industry change. The convergence of generative AI, industrial simulation, embodied intelligence, and organizational intelligence is restructuring the garment ecosystem from three core dimensions. On the design end, human-machine collaboration is realized, with designers transforming into curators of aesthetics and trend judgment, significantly compressing new product development cycles. On the manufacturing end, factories evolve into intelligent agents with autonomous perception and feedback capabilities, tacit process knowledge is accumulated, and quality control and sample replication efficiency are significantly improved. On the supply chain end, linear models are broken, forming real-time collaborative networks among brands, factories, and consumers.
Jeanswest, as a case study of traditional brand transformation, offers a reference path. From launching a digital brand ecosystem in 2018 to initiating an enterprise-level AI agent matrix in 2025, the company completed a leap from e-commerce layout to full-chain digitalization in seven years. Its core experience lies in building three capabilities—product development, precision operations, and supply chain integration—and three systems—brand, partners, and industry-academia-research collaboration.
Eastern Aesthetics as a Competitive Moat
Brand building was positioned as the strategic core of the '15th Five-Year Plan.' The consensus among participating companies is that brand building requires long-termism to forge brand resilience. Technological empowerment and cultural creativity have become the two engines of brand differentiation. Eastern aesthetics were particularly emphasized as a unique cultural asset for local brands in the global fashion context.
In the digital era, a brand's values, aesthetic system, and spiritual core constitute an irreplicable competitive moat. Apparel, as a dynamic carrier of Eastern culture, needs to organically integrate traditional craftsmanship, color symbols, and artistic expression with modern wearing scenarios. This means designers and buyers must reassess the cultural added value in the supply chain—no longer simple pattern copying or logo printing, but a systematic expression of Eastern aesthetics from fabric patterns, cutting structures, to overall styling.
Five Mindsets Define Industry Leap
Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, proposed five development mindsets for the industry's leap. The intelligent-native mindset requires AI penetration across the entire chain while addressing new risks like algorithmic security. The future-industry mindset calls for expanding application scenarios through new materials and advanced manufacturing. The experience-economy mindset emphasizes emotional expression and cultural empowerment in diverse scenarios. The shared-value mindset transforms green and adaptive fashion into competitive advantages. The open-development mindset requires companies to shift from capacity export to simultaneous export of capacity, brand, and capital.
These five mindsets provide a clear strategic framework for foreign trade companies and brands. Particularly, the open-development mindset means that pure OEM models are no longer sustainable. Companies must strengthen their cross-border management and cross-cultural narrative capabilities to build brand recognition in international markets.