When one visits Lubbock for the first time, it can be a tad startling — especially if you’re from a big city like Houston or Dallas. As one looks out the window (depending on what season you visit) there’s either a plethora of red dirt or a crazy amount of cotton. At this point you can’t help but wonder, is this the only plant living in the area?
Technically, according to Mary Jane Buerkle, director of Communications and Public Affairs for Plains Cotton Growers, Inc., that’s not entirely a false accusation. According to the PCG the High Plains region produced 61.76 per cent of Texas’s three-year average cotton production (2010-2012). Buerkle said that over the past five years the High Plains of Texas has averaged 66 per cent of Texas production, 25 per cent of the U.S. production, and 4 per cent of the world’s production.
One thing that Plains Cotton Cooperative Association is known for is tagging jeans. John Johnson, director of public and legislative affairs for PCCA, said they call the process traceability.
“We can trace every yard of fabric we make,” Johnson said. “Every pair of jeans we make from that fabric in Guatemala, back to all of the farms who grew the cotton. We are the only people who can do that.”
Johnson said when every bale of cotton is ginned (at the local gin) the cotton is put in a 500-pound package and it is assigned an identification number on a bar code. He said it is required for all cotton in the United States. Johnson said from the bar code, anyone can scan the code on a tab that attached to the jeans and learn what farm the material was grown on, where it was ginned, and what warehouse it was stored in. Johnson said when the code is scanned, farmers profiles are shown as well.
“We wrote up the profiles and talked about how long the farms had been in the family, how many members are involved, 98 to 99 per cent of American farmers are family farmers; a corporation does not do it,” he said. “We wanted to stress that to correct a lot of misconceptions about how farmers abuse pesticides and tell something heart-warming.”
Johnson said he is excited the traceability tags are going to be coming out again soon, and he cannot wait to announce who the collaboration will be with.
‘I don’t know if I can tell you who, but we are currently working on another traceability tag with one of our customers,” he said. “It’s a major brand and it’s in conjunction with an anniversary.”
That’s not the only thing cotton has helped with in the area. FiberTect was invented at Texas Tech to be high tech decontamination wipe for military and first responder use. Also, the Plains Cotton Corporative Association has close ties to Tech’s apparel design and manufacturing department. Since 2010, the PCCA has hosted the Cotton & Denim Runway Design Contest. John Johnson, director of public and legislative affairs for PCCA, said the Denim Runway Contest has been a great opportunity for PCCA and the ADM’s program.
Johnson said the PCCA was established in 1953 and only continued to grow and progress. In 1973, PCCA helped organize the American Cotton Growers. Johnson said construction of the Littlefield ACG Denim Textile Plant began in May 1975. He said the Littlefield Denim Manufacturing Plant was a major step in the development of a more efficient farm-to-manufacturing value-added system. Johnson said in preparation for the Denim Runway competition, ADM students have the opportunity to tour the plant in Littlefield and pick denim from the plant to make their pieces for the contest.
Originally, Johnson said the winners of the Denim Runway Competition have the opportunity to visit the PCCA’s sister plant in Guatemala called Denimatrix, but now the winners visit Cotton Incorporated headquarters instead.
“What we decided to do with the winners of men’s and women’s jeans categories was to pay for their expenses to go to our facility in Guatemala to see our denim that is cut and sewn into jeans for customers,” he said. “We did that for three years as the prize, but third world countries are a little scary. Even thought we go out great lengths to make sure the employees and visitors are safe, there’s just some risks involved.”
Buerkle said she thinks it’s an amazing experience to have cotton from the High Plains to not only be recognized on a national scale, but on a global scale as well.
Johnson said the plant in Guatemala was started in 2009. He said originally it was a cut-and-sew facility that the PCCA sold a lot of fabric to. Johnson said their main customer for the denim was Abercrombie and Fitch. He said the family who owned the plant back then was diversified in other businesses and the next generation did not want to continue running the plant in Guatemala. Johnson said when the plant was contemplating shutting down, Abercrombie came to PCCA and asked them to continue the plant so they could still do business with them.
“The mill in Littlefield, the last time I checked, was supplying about 90 per cent of all of the cotton for that plant,” he said. “It’s a big customer for our fabric. We can certainly show you how we turn raw cotton into denim fabric.”
Johnson said the mill in Littlefield is unique because the cotton is ring spun or spun on open-ended machines; they even make their own stretch yarn. The ADM students who toured the plant last week seemed really interested in the mill and are even more excited that they get to used denim made by PCCA.
Caitlin Moore, a senior apparel design and manufacturing major, said she won the men’s denim jeans category last year and got to tour the Cotton Incorporated mill in North Carolina. She said it was a neat tour, but without PCCA she wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity.
“I really enjoy making things that other people like,” she said. “It’s nice to be recognized for the things I’ve designed and put so much work into.”
To see what the Littlfield mill is all about and to learn more about ADM’s denim runway be sure to check out the video above.
Apparel design and manufacturing students anticipating the tour.
Inside of the Littlefield mill.
About Lauren Estlinbaum
