Supima: Marrying family farms and advanced technology to guarantee its future

November 07, 2024

Category: FIBRES

Country: United States

Region: America

By Godfrey Deeny
27th October, 2024
Reading time: 6 minutes

Supima, the cashmere of fine cotton, is produced by just 300 family farms in the American southwest. But, this being California, its future is going to be guaranteed by technology.

Growing Supima in just four states — Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and, principally in the San Joaquin Valley in California, amid the intense heat of the region — is never simple; one reason it still elicits such passion from local farmers.

“We look at this as a lifestyle. It’s in our blood and we pour our heart and soul into that land, and we want to be the best stewards possible,” insisted Shannon Skov, chairman of Supima and a grower from El Paso, Texas.

Though the perennity of this rare and unique material was radically boosted these past years thanks to advanced science - specifically forensic mapping and blockchain, as was apparent in a two-day conference this week, which began in Los Angeles and ended with a tour of a cotton gin and a Supima farm at harvest time.

Using forensic chemistry and data science, Supima spent six years working with New Zealand-based Oritain to develop the ability to detect illicit blending of Supima with other yarns in the supply chain. Via eight isotopes and 44 rare elements - create a geochemical fingerprint for Supima. Since plants absorb natural chemical elements from the soil giving Supima a unique, origin-based identity. All this guarantees to fabric manufacturers and consumers that they are truly getting 100% Supima made garments.

Supima is an inherently better cotton, used by Brooks Brothers to create their best polo shirts; high-end bedding maker Boll & Branch to make $700 sheets or Forever 21 to produce the smoothest of golf shirts.

“Five years ago, we started making our polos in regular cotton and our clients noticed instantly. We had scores of complaints and changed right back to Supima, it just feels that smoother on the skin," stressed Brooks Brothers product development and global production officer, Lakia Richardson.

Cotton cultivation in America dates back to Christopher Columbus, when it was known as tree wool, since it looked like little sheep on a tree. The best-known cotton is called Sea Islands, named after the coast of Virginia. Supima’s name comes from the Pima Indians in Arizona, after the US Department of Agriculture developed the sturdy hybrid and grew the first Pima cotton crop in 1911 in that state. Supima cotton has a longer and stronger fiber making it silkier, smoother and also sturdier. So much so that when Charles Lindbergh made the first flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of Saint Louis, his plane was wrapped in Supima.

Today, one is more likely to find it in the best department stores or on the red carpet. In the latest Costume Institute Ball, designer Prabal Gurung caused a sensation by wrapping Maria Sharapova in a white Boll & Branch Supima sheet.

A Supima cotton farm in California - Godfrey Deeny

In order to prevent fraudulent manufacturers faking Supima in clothes, Supima also hired Textile Genesis, which has created a blockchain ledger covering all the bales of Supima for the past three years – giving each a unique serial number. Textile Genesis also provides access to brands and fabric makers to its ledger so they can literally verify every single bale.

“We believe we really can authenticate Supima, and provide credibility for the product via blockchain,” underlined Jack Wyse of Textile Genesis, one of dozens of experts, farmers and brand executives who attended the Thursday conference in 1 Hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard. Wyse noted that in 2020, 20,000 tons of fraudulent cotton was exported from India alone.

Unfortunately, these major techy advances are being tempered by this year’s harvest.

“The availability of water is very limited in California, and production is really down. The last time major construction on water retention was done in California was in the 70s, and population has grown from 17 to 40 million today. While the Sigma act – a recent water management act – means we cannot reach mountain water,” lamented Jake Cauzza, whose family have been farmers since 1937.

“Last year we had a mini-Hurricane in August and this year a heatwave in July. It’s never easy to grow. And yields and prices are low."

Costs are high too. A giant cotton-picker costs $1.2 million, and environmentally friendly California insists growers are spray water on roads to keep dust down during harvest.

Like most farmers, Cauzza has diversified – growing 12 crops and many vegetables. San Joaquin by some estimates is the largest fertile valley in the world. Its annual agricultural revenues are larger than the majority of countries’ GDPs. Though a visit there makes one wonder how plants survive the intense heat. Fresno, its largest city, suffered 113 days last year of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

No wonder ex Supima chairman Kirk Gilkey calls farmers “the greatest gamblers alive today,” as he gives visitors a tour of his cotton gin. Giant modules of raw cotton buds are feed through threshers which strip out seeds, leaves and twigs in a deafening crescendo before finishing with 500-pound bales. Cotton gins are very environmentally correct – with practically no waste. Even the seed is made into oil or cattle feed.

Gilkey notes that it cost $800 to grow an acre of Supima in the 1970s. Today, it is over $2,500. While cotton is currently priced at $1.80 a pound today, when farmers only make good money at $2.70 a pound.

“At one time we had a million acres of Supima and today one third that,” cautions Gilkey, displaying the time-honored pessimism of many farmers.

Curiously, the price of cotton has not changed much in 30 years, but costs have tripled, underlines Jesse Daystar, Cotton Incorporated – chief sustainability officer.

Jake Gilkey at a cotton gin - Godfrey Deeny

Though farmers are divided on whether recent droughts are the result of global warming. Skov – chairman of Supima - who farms 5,000 acres in El Paso, Texas argues that the good and bad years iron each other out.

Cannon Michael, a sixth-generation grower, disagrees: “Droughts are regular in California. But if you look at data, we see wetter wets, and drier dries – that’s what’s happening.”

A committed regenerative farmer, he supports flood irrigation and NGOs introducing wetlands near farms, aiding birds and farm animals. Numerous white herons dot the landscape in the valley, while energy firms are building 15,000 acres of contiguous solar panels near Visalia, a key Supima town.

Cotton is the world’s largest fiber textile resource – more than wool, silk or flax. Cotton is 23% of world fiber production – the rest is primarily synthetic – with 25 million tons. Some 23 million farmers worldwide annually grow $40 billion just in raw fiber. The 300 Supima farmers will grow around $500 million this year at current prices. So, the lure to produce Supima remains strong.

“We like to use the term 'Terroir' – as we associate ourselves with the origin of where the cotton comes from,” insists Supima CEO, Marc Lewkovitz.

Some Pima cotton is made in Peru and Israel with a little Suvin cotton grown in India. But Supima is an essentially American material, doubling the need to be protected. The yarn can be made into shirting, jersey, twill, velveteen or denim, the latter often in Japan, and that country’s huge group Fast Retailing is the Supima’s single biggest client.

First developed in 1900s the cotton was dubbed 'Superior Pima', and then Supima. Its first use was as an industrial product, employed in tire interiors for Goodyear in Arizona. It’s extremely long fiber granting it extra strength encouraged more farmers to produce it and led to the creation of the association of growers in 1954.

A Supima t-shirt collection at Uniqlo - Uniqlo

Despite a currently complicated market, Supima’s future seems bright, buoyed by some very savvy marketing tactics. Back in the 50s, Supima did campaigns with American star designers James Galanos and Claire McCardell. Today, it tag teams with major brands like Uniqlo, which uses Supima messaging, and Brooks Brothers which featured Supima on open top red buses; murals in Soho; taxi tops and bus stations. Land’s End has also created a Supima collection, trumpeting clothing that lasts more than one season, made in “the only luxury fabric grown in United States.”

While its 17-year-old Supima Design Competition stars graduates of leading fashion schools in the U.S., in an annual award during New York Fashion Week in September. Led by its communications director Buxton Midyette, the cashmere of cotton even boasts a creative student show in Europe’s most important young designer competition, Hyères, and has partnered with the CFDA in events inside the US Embassy in Paris. All seeding Supima in designer consciousness internationally.

Though in an age, where luxury brands are obsessed with maintaining the integrity of their products, Supima’s marriage with technology looks like it has stolen a giant march.