#Knitting & Hosiery

2020-12-10

KARL MAYER integrates North American Stoll office

The acquisition of STOLL by the KARL MAYER Group earlier in 2020, will lead to an integration of STOLL’s and KARL MAYER’s North American subsidiaries. STOLL America’s operation in New York City will close and resources and activities will be integrated into KARL MAYER’s Greensboro, North Carolina location. This process started in October 2020 and will be completed at the end of the year.

The STOLL core team in its new location will include business and technical management, textile design and product development, STOLL machine programming, and customer service. Some team members will relocate from New York and others will be new.

The team’s focus will be twofold. Of course, serving the needs of the STOLL machine market with innovative machines, spare parts and technical service. And equally important, innovation support services to customers, brands, incubators, startups and educational institutions. These support services include textile product design and development, sample, prototype and small collection production and training.

The building of KARL MAYER North America © 2020 KARL MAYER

For these new activities, KARL MAYER is making a major investment in the Greensboro building, adding a state-of-the-art textile development and visitor center. This center will have customer collaboration and training areas with end-product samples, STOLL machines for demonstration, training and production purposes, and a prototype finishing and assembly operation. The new center will offer similar collaboration opportunities for industry partners working with other KARL MAYER technologies. It is planned to be completed in March 2021.

Tony Hooimeijer, President of KARL MAYER North America, is looking forward to the joint innovation projects with many partners and for a wide variety of textile applications. "With the new development and visitor center and the synergies that come with combining our capabilities, we offer textile producers and all industries that can imagine the use of textiles an extremely strong resource in North America" says the manager.

Footwear innovation enabled by warp knitting technology– insights from New Balance

The future of the athletic shoe is increasingly being shaped on warp knitting machines. For KARL MAYER, the footwear industry is one of the most important growth markets – and one of the sectors where innovative textiles can realize their full potential. In his keynote address at the opening of KARL MAYER’s TEXTILE INNOVATION CENTER in Obertshausen in April, Vishnu Prakash Muthusamy, Senior Textile and Materials Engineer at New Balance, explained the opportunities that warp knitting technology opens up for performance, sustainability, and faster development processes, and why textile manufacturers are transitioning from suppliers to development partners.

STOLL: Agreement signed for the divestiture of selected assets

In early 2025, KARL MAYER announced its strategic decision to focus on its core business areas of WARP KNITTING, WARP PREPARATION, and TECHNICAL TEXTILES. As part of this move, the flat knitting machine business under the STOLL brand was discontinued and the production site in Reutlingen was closed in October 2025.

KARL MAYER presents a textile TEXTRONIC® innovation at ITM 2026

With highly efficient machines and continuous textile innovations, KARL MAYER underscores its role as a reliable partner for discerning top-tier customers. Just in time for ITM 2026 in Istanbul, the industry leader is introducing a true innovation: an eyelash lace with its characteristic fringed look – combined with a previously unattainable 4-way stretch. While the established fabric could until now only be produced as rigid version or with one-dimensional stretch, the new elasticity in both dimensions expands the possibilities for cross-band panel fabrics.

ITM 2026: Mayer & Cie. Global presents itself successfully at international industry trade fair

Mayer & Cie. Global has used ITM 2026 in Istanbul for its first major international appearance since the restart. Together with the Turkish representative Mayer Mümessillik, the company presented its premium circular knitting machines "Made in Germany", explained its future positioning within the group of companies and held talks with customers and representatives from numerous markets. The response to the restart was positive. The clear orientation of the company, the reliable worldwide network of representatives and the resumption of service and spare parts supply were welcomed by customers.

TM WEFT, 270" – More width, more design freedom for the fashion world

KARL MAYER is expanding its successful TM WEFT series with an innovative model that opens up new possibilities, particularly in the fashion & apparel sectors. With a working width of 270", this new machine with weft-insertion not only offers significantly higher output than its narrower counterparts but is also specifically tailored to the demands of dynamic clothing market – particularly in China and Türkiye. A well-thought-out upgrade also ensures even greater design versatility.

“We need to move away from the price trap and return to a value-driven mindset.”

With its new Textile Innovation Center, KARL MAYER is sending a strong signal for innovation, collaboration, and the future of textile applications. In this interview, Karl Josef Mayer discusses new opportunities in warp knitting, the processing of staple fibres, recycling, the changing role of machinery manufacturers, and why the textile industry must once again focus more strongly on the value of textiles. by Oliver Schmidt

JEC Forum Southeast Asia 2026 highlights Taiwan as a strategic hub for the global composites industry

The third edition of JEC Forum organized in Southeast Asia brought together 350+ participants from 22 countries for three active days of high-level Business Meetings, conferences, and networking, emphasizing Southeast Asia’s growing role in the global composites market. Held for the first time in Taipei from 23 to 24 June 2026, following the successful first editions in Bangkok, JEC Forum Southeast Asia 2026 confirmed its position as the region’s leading business platform dedicated to the composites industry.

Textile machinery: Italian technology charts the course for revival

Operating in a scenario characterized by geopolitical instability, slowing industrial investments, and new protectionist pressures. This is the main challenge for the Italian textile machinery industry that emerged during the General Assembly of ACIMIT (Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers), held today in Milan at the Shareholders’ Hall of Palazzo Edison.

New skills for a circular textile economy

Based on the results of a comprehensive analysis, the Erasmus+ project Skills4Circularity is developing three practical training modules covering recycling technologies, eco-design for the circular economy and sustainable manufacturing. The content of the first module, Recycling Technologies, has now been developed and validated together with industry representatives. The module provides participants with knowledge of regulatory requirements, material sorting and the preparation of textile waste for recycling.