Key advances in the last five years have led to early commercial products, with the e-textiles market having grown at double digit rate to reach around $100 million in annual wholesale revenue. With global giants from both apparel and electronics assessing the sector and building their strategies, analysts predict further growth in the coming years. The final target for e-textiles market is expected to be in the region of $5 billion by 2027.
From clothing to bandages, bed linen to industrial fabrics, new products integrating e-textiles are being created. The market has been slow to start due to many challenges, but with large companies investing heavily and releasing early products, this industry is poised to change very quickly as soon as the right conditions are achieved. In their purest form according to the definition, e-textiles based on the integration of inherently electrically or electronically active fibres have begun to see integration into early products.
The E-Textiles 2017-2027: Technologies, Markets, Players report published by Research and Markets describes the full value chain, looking from the material and component options, to the manufacturing challenges, through to the applications, markets and key end users. Trends by market sector are crucial, as the addressable markets are both large and diverse. The report characterises key market sectors including Sports & Fitness, Medical & Healthcare, Wellness, Home & Lifestyle, Industrial, commercial, military, Fashion, and Others (including automotive).
The report, which covers the entire e-textiles value chain, also presents a roadmap for the future, detailing over 30 different academic and early prototype products in areas such as new conductive fibres, stretchable electronics, energy harvesting, energy storage, logic and memory.