“As we’ve matured as a company, we’ve discovered that we’re quite good at innovating.”
This year marks Tietex International’s 50th anniversary and to celebrate this major milestone, the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based fabric producer is holding a variety of events for employees at its production and office sites in the United States, Asia and Europe.
But while the anniversary provides a natural opportunity to applaud past accomplishments, the company is not resting on its laurels as the world’s largest producer of stitchbond fabrics. Indeed, as the sleep products industry saw at the ISPA EXPO in March in Columbus, Ohio, Tietex is rolling out a variety of new initiatives and products for the bedding market.
Tietex started the ball rolling at ISPA EXPO with the introduction of the latest generation of its popular SmartCap FR barrier fabric. Originally launched in 2021, SmartCap is an easy-to-install FR solution with unique stretch features that offers an alternative to traditional FR sock products, according to the company. Unlike FR socks, which typically take two workers nearly two minutes to install on each mattress, SmartCap requires only one worker and 30 seconds per mattress — with no machinery, sewing or stitching required.
To achieve these faster installation times, SmartCap features an FR top panel with stretch along both the length and width. The side panel has elasticated FR skirting with zoned stretch along the length. The stretch enables SmartCap to be easily slipped on by a single worker, and only four sizes of fabrics are needed to cover all six primary mattress sizes — twin, twin XL, full, queen, king and California king.
Because there’s no need for extra hands, SmartCap cuts labor, speeds production and slashes costs, says Tietex CEO and Chair Martin Wildeman.
SmartCap Revolution: Faster Installation, Enhanced FR Performance
Like the rest of Tietex’s sleep fabrics line, SmartCap features proprietary stitchbond technology. Often confused with knits, this method of fabric formation uses needles to stitch either a simple or complex network of yarns into nonwoven substrates, such as films, papers and foams to form nonwoven hybrids. The stitching strengthens and reinforces the substrates, adding a variety of performance-enhancing properties, such as stretch, to the resulting composites.
Primarily designed for memory foam mattresses, SmartCap can also be used with other constructions. The new version of SmartCap features several enhancements over the previous iteration, including an updated composition that reduces weight and improves FR performance, company officials say.
“The lighter weight results in better FR insulation and superior performance while retaining all the original comfort and thickness attributes that make SmartCap so compelling,” Wildeman says. “With SmartCap, we offer a high-performing FR fabric that contains no irritating chemicals, fiberglass or modacrylic fibers.”
“SmartCap offers exceptional FR protection, even with certain hybrid mattresses with unique nonfoam encasement designs where the coils on the side are exposed,” says David Skellie, Tietex’s president and chief operating officer. “The burn tests on these products can be challenging for traditional sock covers because of that lack of side support. But on every measure, from char strength to heat transfer, SmartCap is proving to be very effective.”
The new version of SmartCap received an enthusiastic reception at ISPA EXPO, says David Holt, global sales director for Tietex. He says customers see three benefits of the product: “The first benefit is the ease of installation. Second, there are the performance features — the comfort, stretch and superior FR protection. And third is the way that SmartCap can improve the performance of a factory by improving productivity and process flow.”
Based on anticipated growth of the SmartCap line, the company has invested in a second production line and improved automation to double its capacity. The company can now produce 3 million SmartCap covers per year in Spartanburg. Tietex has an additional company-owned facility in Laem Chabang, Thailand, that could be used to supply other filler fabrics to the U.S. market if more capacity is needed for SmartCap at the Tietex plant in South Carolina.
In addition to SmartCap, Tietex has also debuted a new FR filler cloth barrier called Essential Black, an extension of the company’s Essential line of barrier fabrics used on the bottom of mattresses and foundations. Tietex’s filler cloths reduce slippage for no-flip mattresses. Tietex also produces non-FR filler cloth for select mattress products, as well as nonskid fabrics for use with adjustable beds.
“Fashion is playing a bigger role in mattress design, as seen in products like the Beautyrest Black line (from Serta Simmons Bedding LLC),” Holt says. “While our focus is squarely on function and performance — and always will be — we came out with this new Black version of Essential to show customers what we can do in terms of adapting our fabrics to meet emerging market needs. We worked hard to get the black tone just right so that it won’t rub off or change during use.”
The new Essential Black filler cloth is available in a range of versions, from basic to premium.
Cross-Pollination of Ideas: How Tietex Leverages Expertise Across Industries
Going forward, research and development will play an even more important role at Tietex as the company strives to develop new stitchbond applications and approaches. Currently, the R&D team is working on ways to add antimicrobial properties to SmartCap. The team is also finalizing a new half-split king version of SmartCap for introduction this summer.
“As we’ve matured as a company, we’ve discovered that we’re quite good at innovating,” Wildeman says. “We reside in this rather unusual space of integrating nonwovens and textiles together to create hybrid composites for a range of industries, and we’re realizing that it’s a very fertile area for further innovation.”
Tietex’s presence in other markets, such as the athletic footwear, roofing and automotive industries, allows it to share ideas across its engineering and design teams. “We’re constantly exploring new types of substrates and material combinations in each of the markets we serve,” Wildeman says, “and a breakthrough in one industry often can lead to new applications in another.”
Wildeman is the son of company founder Arno Wildeman, who introduced stitchbonding in the United Kingdom in 1968 and then in the United States in 1974, when he launched Tietex and created the industry’s first barrier fabrics. Martin Wildeman brings a similar spirit of enterprise and innovation to the company he now leads.
“Tietex was the first manufacturer to commercialize the use of stitchbonding technology in the West,” Wildeman says. “My father conceived a dramatic redesign of the original concept that had been developed by Dr. Heinrich Mauersberger, an East German textile engineer in 1949 and the machine he then created to produce it.”
That technology platform that Arno Wildeman pioneered laid the foundation for proprietary capabilities that continue to evolve at Tietex to this day. “We’re always looking for new ways to improve and enhance our fabrics,” Martin Wildeman says.
Enhanced Customer Focus: Tietex Prioritizes Direct Communication
As part of this mindset of continuous improvement, Tietex aims to listen even more closely to its customers. To encourage more input and ideas from manufacturers, the company is creating a new factory-direct distribution option that will enable customers to deal directly with Tietex, rather than placing their orders through local distributors. The company is also beefing up its sales staff to service current and potential customers.
“Having a better sense of what the customer needs is really important to us,” Wildeman says. “We want to have more conversations with the people who use our products so that we can identify new ways to help them improve their mattresses and their production processes.”
The company has updated its website to place more emphasis on its unique position as a leader in stitchbonded products. This year, it is including a 50th anniversary logo on its marketing and communications materials, including email blasts to customers, promotional apparel and other items.
“Celebrating 50 years in business reminds us of our many achievements,” Wildeman says. “But there’s no question we also have a new spring in our step.”
A Stitchbond Powerhouse: Tietex’s Global Manufacturing Footprint
Since Arno Wildeman founded Tietex in 1974, the company has established a strong footprint across three continents. In Spartanburg, it operates a 1-million-square-foot production, distribution and office facility. In Laem Chabang, it operates a 500,000-square-foot production facility that it opened in 1997. In 2023, Tietex began production at a 50,000-square-foot facility in the Dong Nai province of Vietnam to support the footwear market.
Together, these facilities — along with sales and marketing facilities in India, Indonesia and the Netherlands — employ 700. The company’s textile capabilities include fabric formation, dyeing, coating, finishing and converting. In addition, the company has a global engineering team dedicated to developing machines to produce its fabrics.
In the sleep segment, Tietex’s efforts are focused on the U.S. market, where no-flip, or single-sided, mattresses are more prevalent than in other parts of the world. The facility in Thailand is set up to mirror the South Carolina site, except for SmartCap, which it is not currently producing. That operation supports customers who are making beds in Southeast Asia for the U.S. market. The company’s Vietnam operation is dedicated to the global footwear industry.
Tietex also sells some barrier fabrics for use in beds sold in other markets, but that accounts for only a small portion of business. “This may change in the future, but right now we are largely focused on serving our U.S. customers,” Wildeman says.
In recent years, U.S. consumers have been putting a higher priority on domestically produced products. “They’re paying more attention to where products are made and have a better understanding of how their purchases connect to American jobs,” Skellie says.
While Tietex tries to source most of the raw materials it uses from North America, there are certain items — such as FR silica rayon — that it must bring in from overseas. In the past, China was the go-to source for these raw materials but, in the past few years, Tietex has made a strategic decision to diversify its suppliers to lessen its dependency on any single country or region.
“The pandemic taught everyone valuable lessons about how delicate the world’s supply chain is,” says Jesse Beasley, Tietex’s international sales manager. “One of the lessons we learned was to be more deliberate about decoupling ourselves from China and moving the sourcing of our raw materials to multiple countries. We still buy a small amount from China, but now we also source from Korea, Japan, Thailand and India, and the list goes on.”
“Disruptions can arise anytime, anywhere in today’s volatile environment,” Skellie adds. “Whether it’s the Houthis threatening ships in the Red Sea or China choosing to be aggressive in the Taiwan Strait, the ability to source materials or products from a particular region can change overnight.”
Green for the Future: Sustainable Practices at Tietex
As Tietex heads into its sixth decade, Wildeman is optimistic about the company’s future. While business across the bedding industry has been slow since 2021, when a pandemic-sparked consumer spending spree waned, Tietex is seeing signs of “fresh shoots in the business landscape,” Holt says. In preparation for an upturn, the company has augmented its management team, including the addition of Beasley, who came on board as international sales manager in April. It also has invested in new production systems to improve efficiency.
“We have a strong management team in place with a complementary mix of skills and a talented, loyal workforce,” Wildeman says. Two of his sons also are now involved in the business — Jesse, who serves as vice chair and newly appointed director of the company’s Thailand operation; and Wilson, who recently joined Tietex’s engineering team.
“Despite our growth and our increasingly global nature, we remain an American-based, family-oriented company that upholds the utmost respect for all people,” Wildeman says. “We focus on customer needs as the keys to our success, and we’re always looking for new ways to improve the quality of our products and services.”
As part of its continuous improvement process, Tietex focuses on sustainability. For example, for 20 years, Tietex has operated a recycling system with its footwear customers that significantly reduces the waste generated by shoe factories during the cutting process.
In addition, Tietex has formed an Environmental Excellence team that works to eliminate waste and toxic chemicals, reduce energy and water consumption, and cut VOC and CO₂ emissions at its facilities. The company also recycles as much as possible.
On the sleep products side of its business, Tietex made a decision heading into ISPA EXPO to convert all the polyester fiber that it uses in its products to recycled content.
“We made an across-the-board change, without changing our pricing, because it was the right thing to do,” Wildeman says. “We take sustainability seriously, and we’re doing what we can to make a difference.”
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