Helmut H. Hergeth, Ph.D.
Chair of the University Course and Curriculum Committee
College of Textiles, NC State University
HHH@ncsu.edu

Business is all about change, and anyone in textiles and apparel has more stories to tell about the changes than he or she likes to recall! And this is no different as we prepare textile and apparel leaders of tomorrow for managing their business through ever-changing economic times. Consequently, the Department of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management has redesigned the BS degree concentrations for their Textile and Apparel Management degree for Fall, 2005 semester. This has resulted in an exciting new program for Textile and Apparel Management students.

Student and Industry Inputs
Good product design starts with the customer in mind, and as a first step the Textile and Apparel Management team evaluated student and alumni surveys and held several meetings with industry leaders discussing what the future skill and education requirements for managers in the integrated textile complex would likely be. These discussions led to three focus areas for future textile leaders:

-Textile Supply Chain Management
-Textile Brand Management and Marketing
-Fashion Development and Product Management

It was clear that future textile managers need to be highly adaptable, and that no matter what area they are working in, they would have to show great insight into other business aspects as well. They would need to show strong, integrative management skills and strong technical skills at the same time.

Faced with this challenge the faculty group defined specific learning outcomes for the required managerial and technical skills and built these outcomes into the overall university requirements for a well-rounded education. The result is a BS degree with a common core and three areas of concentration:

Three Concentrations

Fashion Development and Product Management

As you are trying on that new style for the season, it’s already been through many steps and decisions. The fashion business engages product designers, merchandisers, managers, and sourcing experts to bring you a style that is affordable, flattering, and fashionable. The Fashion Development and Product Management program focuses on design and development of fashion products, integrating trend analysis, coloration, silhouette selection, pattern making, fabric selection, consumer research, costing, sourcing, and quality assessment. The result is the understanding of how to be creative in developing styles that will appeal to consumers and satisfy their purchase criteria.

Textile Brand Management and Marketing

What images come to mind when you hear the names: Nike, FUBU, JCPenney, Gucci? Those images were not by chance! Companies spend millions of dollars in market research, advertising, and promotional campaigns to create, cultivate, and protect their graphics, text and images that consumers learn to associate with a particular company. Branding is an important business strategy for developing textile products and establishing a position in the global marketplace. The Textile Brand Management and Marketing program focuses on branding of diverse textile products, including the retail and fashion industries. The program includes study in branding strategies, consumer trends, product trends, licensed products, and the global marketplace dynamics.

Textile Supply Chain Management

The Textile Supply Chain Management program focuses on efficiently satisfying demand. It includes studying approaches to solve problems in manufacturing, sourcing, transportation logistics, and retail operations. For a textile firm to be competitive in today's global market, providing the customer a product of the desired quality and price at the right time is essential. The supply chain consists of all the operations necessary to produce and distribute a product, starting with the procurement of the raw material used in making the goods, the management of modern technologies, and ending with the delivery of the finished product.

Global Scholars Program

Today’s Textiles and Apparel Complex is truly global in every aspect of its business. About 20 % of the entire world trade is in textiles and apparel. There are no more "domestic" markets or industries. Managers and marketers for this industry must be able to deal in a global environment. They have to be capable of managing and coordinating resources for textile products worldwide, as well as marketing their products in overseas markets.

The Global Textile Scholars Program (formerly the Eli Whitney Scholars program) addresses this need for graduates with global vision, managerial and technological knowledge, and language and communication skills. Students majoring in Textile and Apparel Management can apply for the Global Textile Scholars Program.

An essential part of the Global Textile Scholars curriculum is the international experience in the region of the language concentration. This internship allows the student to apply the acquired skills in an industrial setting abroad. The theoretical concepts of international management and culture studies are thus filled with real life experiences.

College of Textiles
P.O. Box 8301
Raleigh, NC 27695-8301
Telephone: (919) 515-6646
FAX: (919) 515-3733
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Last Site Revision:
September 15, 2005