A two-month autumn/winter apparel trade fair has brought Xiaoli Town in Rongcheng County, Hebei, back into the industry spotlight. Known for middle-aged and elderly jackets and fleece products, this industrial cluster opened the 2026 Autumn/Winter Xiaoli Garment Trade Fair on August 1, with the main venue at Xiong'an Design Center and product displays at the manufacturer exhibition area in Dongxiaoli Village. This layout—design in the new district, manufacturing in the town—signals that county-level apparel industries are attempting to extend from pure production bases to design, branding, and marketing.
Industry Status: Four Decades of Accumulation and Bottlenecks
Xiaoli's garment industry began in the 1980s, evolving from family workshops and rural markets into a distinctive product system featuring middle-aged and elderly jackets, fleece, autumn/winter cotton-padded jackets, and outdoor functional clothing, known for solid craftsmanship and high cost-performance at home and abroad. However, public industry data shows intensifying homogenized competition in the domestic apparel market and relatively single domestic sales channels, leaving many county-level clusters facing the dilemma of 'having output but no brand.' This trade fair represents a concentrated effort by local government and industry chain players to break through these bottlenecks.
Four Upgrade Directions of the Fair
From the industry-sharing sessions at the opening ceremony, four upgrade paths were clearly articulated: cross-border e-commerce, AI+3D digital design, renewable green fabrics, and automated intelligent production lines. These are not vague concepts but are supported by concrete solutions—Hebei Bodo Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park shared export models suitable for small and medium-sized garment enterprises, platforms like Amazon interpreted support policies, Lingdi Technology showcased AI+3D reshaping R&D, design, and sampling, Jinyi Chemical Fiber promoted recycled polyester (rPET) fabrics, and Blue Sky Sewing Equipment presented complete intelligent sewing line solutions.
Notably, cross-border e-commerce was given prominence. The person in charge of the Xiong'an New Area Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Service Center delivered a special policy briefing, detailing supportive policies for cross-border e-commerce development. For manufacturing-oriented clusters like Xiaoli, cross-border e-commerce means bypassing traditional middlemen and reaching overseas end-consumers directly—a channel revolution and an opportunity for brand premium. However, in practice, small and medium-sized garment enterprises commonly face challenges such as insufficient platform operation experience, unclear product compliance standards, and high logistics and after-sales costs. The fair's two-day cross-border e-commerce training, covering Amazon, TikTok, Ozon, Etsy, and other mainstream platforms, is precisely designed to address these pain points.
Transmission Effects on the Upstream and Downstream
The transmission effects of this fair on the industry chain deserve attention. For upstream fabric suppliers, the promotion of recycled materials like rPET means green procurement will become a hard requirement for future orders. For equipment manufacturers, if intelligent production line solutions are implemented, they will directly enhance automation in sewing processes and alleviate labor cost pressures. For buyers, Xiong'an New Area's location and policy advantages may bring more stable supply chains and shorter delivery cycles. Some analysts believe Xiaoli's transformation path—from processing and manufacturing to design, branding, and marketing—could serve as a demonstration model for county-level garment industry upgrades nationwide.