One out of every five sweaters globally is produced in Dalang, Guangdong—a cluster that churns out about 900 million sweaters annually. Yet the region is now striving to shed its 'contract manufacturing' label and reposition itself as a full-chain service provider. On August 26, the Dalang National Foreign Trade Transformation Base (Apparel) brought 22 local companies to Shanghai, hosting a supply-demand matchmaking event at the POP headquarters building, offering buyers from the Yangtze River Delta a close-up look at the entire yarn-to-garment value chain.
Event Background
This matchmaking event was not a simple exhibition but a strategic move by the Dalang base to step out of the Pearl River Delta and penetrate the core market of the Yangtze River Delta. The 22 companies covered a full range of products, including blended-color yarns, worsted wool, intelligent temperature-regulating functional yarns, and men's and women's knitwear, effectively bringing the entire Dalang supply chain to the venue. For buyers, this means that the process of sourcing, price comparison, and sampling—which once required visits to multiple production bases—can now be completed in one place. For Dalang factories, it elevates 'order-taking' to 'capability demonstration.'
Notably, the event featured dedicated negotiation zones where suppliers and buyers could examine samples face-to-face and discuss details, facilitating the conversion of inquiries into bulk orders. This 'seeing is believing' approach has become increasingly valuable in an era dominated by remote communication—texture, color cards, and stitch types are details that can only be trusted through direct touch, and trust is the first threshold for order conversion.
Industry Impact
The debut of pet knitwear apparel was the most signal-rich part of the event. By applying mature techniques such as coarse gauge, fine gauge, and jacquard to pet sweaters, Dalang is essentially seeking new outlets for its production capacity. The pet economy is heating up, but few suppliers possess the knitting expertise required—this is precisely Dalang's differentiated advantage. A single strand of yarn can now clothe not only people but also pets, offering factories not just a new category but a higher-margin incremental market.
The trend-release session was equally insightful. It interpreted key stitches, colors, and detailing for the 27/28 season and shared AI-aided design and style forecasting. For many Dalang factories, this holds more long-term value than mere orders—knowing which yarns will trend and which silhouettes will sell determines development direction. As AI design tools begin to land, the competitive dimension of the knitwear industry is shifting from 'capacity' to 'data and design,' meaning smaller factories without trend-forecasting capabilities may face further squeeze.
Dalang's confidence stems from its complete industrial chain: over 2,000 yarn companies selling millions of tons annually, 150,000 computerized flat knitting machines running around the clock, and a total transaction value exceeding 72 billion yuan. This scale enables flexible manufacturing, which is attractive to domestic and foreign brands and cross-border e-commerce buyers. But scale is a double-edged sword—when global demand fluctuates, Dalang must proactively secure orders by connecting with quality resources, and Shanghai serves as a hub for Yangtze River Delta sourcing.