While most county-level apparel industrial belts are still worrying about domestic inventory, Xiaoli Town in Rongcheng County, Xiong'an New Area, chose to extend its entire autumn-winter new product fair to two months. The fair, which opened on August 1, looks like a routine production-marketing matchmaking event, but behind it lies a clear transformation path: cross-border e-commerce, AI+3D design, renewable fabrics, and intelligent production lines—four keywords that correspond almost exactly to the most pressing pain points of small and medium-sized garment enterprises today.
Background
Xiaoli Town is not an unknown name. Starting from family workshops in the 1980s, it has accumulated over forty years of development, forming an autumn-winter apparel cluster centered on middle-aged and elderly jackets, fleece, winter cotton wear, and outdoor functional clothing. Products sell well domestically and internationally due to craftsmanship and cost performance. However, Mayor He Wanyu admitted at the opening ceremony that homogenized competition and a single domestic market have become development bottlenecks. This dilemma of 'having manufacturing but lacking brands and channels' is quite representative of northern county-level apparel industrial belts.
The fair is held at the Xiong'an Design Center, with a two-day opening ceremony including keynote forums, fashion shows, industry chain sharing, roundtable discussions, and cross-border e-commerce practical training. The exhibition period lasts two months, covering the production area of Dongxiaoli Village, with over 100 local garment manufacturers participating. Notably, the organizers placed cross-border e-commerce training alongside the industry exhibition, signaling that for industrial belts like Xiaoli, going overseas is no longer an option but a necessary task.
Industry Impact
From industry data, the current situation of domestic demand pressure coexisting with overseas rigid demand is a common background for Chinese textile and garment enterprises. The value of the Xiaoli fair lies in providing a differentiated upgrade path for county-level industrial belts: consolidate the core advantages of autumn-winter clothing manufacturing, use digitalization to improve production efficiency, leverage cross-border e-commerce to reach global end-channels, and promote the extension from processing and manufacturing to design, branding, and marketing. What does this mean for buyers? Simply put, in the future, sourcing from such industrial belts may no longer be a simple cycle of 'order-production-delivery', but more likely involving ODM or even OBM cooperation.
At the technical level, AI+3D digital design is reshaping the R&D and sampling process. Traditionally, a new autumn-winter style takes weeks from design to sample, but digital tools can compress the cycle to just a few days. For factories, this makes small-batch, multi-order production feasible; for buyers, it means faster response to market changes. Meanwhile, the promotion of recycled polyester (rPET) fabrics reflects that international buyers' requirements for supply chain environmental attributes are being transmitted to county-level factories. Jinyi Chemical Fiber's promotion of rPET fabrics at the fair is not an isolated case—greenization is shifting from a 'bonus item' for brands to an 'entry threshold'.
The implementation of intelligent sewing equipment is also noteworthy. The complete intelligent solutions displayed by Hebei Lantian Sewing Equipment point to how county-level factories can maintain cost-performance advantages amid rising labor costs. The upfront investment for an automated production line is substantial, but it can significantly reduce dependence on skilled workers and improve quality stability. For medium-sized factories with annual output values of tens of millions, this may be the most worthy investment direction to evaluate in the next three years.
Practical Recommendations
For Buyers - Focus on the digital capabilities of industrial belts: prioritize suppliers that have introduced AI+3D design or intelligent production lines for faster sampling response and more stable quality. - Verify green fabric certifications: if the target market is the EU or North America, confirm certification documents for environmentally friendly fabrics like rPET to avoid customs risks. - Utilize the exhibition period for on-site factory inspections: the two-month exhibition provides ample time for inspection, so buyers are advised to visit the production area of Dongxiaoli Village to compare different factories' craftsmanship and capacity.
For Foreign Trade Enterprises - Seize cross-border e-commerce policy dividends: the Xiong'an New Area Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Service Center has clarified supporting policies. Local enterprises should quickly identify available subsidies and services to reduce initial costs of going overseas. - Diversify platform layout to spread risk: the training covers mainstream platforms like Amazon, TikTok, Ozon, and Etsy, each targeting different customer groups. It is recommended to choose 2-3 platforms for trial based on product positioning. - Explore the 'one-person company' model: for startups in foreign trade, the OPC model can reduce operating costs, allowing a lightweight approach to test overseas market reactions before gradually increasing investment.
Whether this fair can truly revitalize the Rongcheng garment industry remains to be seen. But at least, it provides a vivid sample for observing the transformation of county-level industrial belts: when manufacturing advantages meet new digital and global tools, old industrial belts can also grow new growth curves.