Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 4884 |
| Work Detail | One of the worrisome dilemmas for the Korean economy is that that the growth engines of the past are dwindling. K.C. Go, CEO of Ventex, however, suggests that there is a working model for what many consider a sunset industry. Here in Ventex’s case, it is in the functional textile industry. Founded in 1999, Ventex focuses on using textile nanotechnology in manufacturing a wide range of functional fabrics used in sportswear, down jackets and others. Ventex’s core products are made mainly with innovative technology, such as moisture control technology which relies on a special nanochemical to soak up moisture in a second, or solarball filler, a chemically treated filler that raises garment temperature using solar rays or body temperature to be warmer than down-filled products. “They all say textile is a ‘red ocean’ industry, but my idea was to let flowers bloom on a withering tree. For example, we applied the moisture control technology to cotton, which makes dry cotton. Another example is with our heating technology. If heating technology based on solar energy is put in down sacs, duck down jacket producers could use only about 100 grams rather than 300 grams of duck feathers,” Go said in an interview with The Korea Times. In case of the solarball down jackets, they are about 10 degrees warmer or more, and cheaper than existing products made with down feathers. More specifically, garments made with the solarball filler use near-infrared rays to heat up and allow far-infrared rays to reach the wearer’s skin. Some 17 years after founding his firm, Ko simply focuses on his core technology to keep Ventex sustainable. With upwards of 70 patents, Ko is now looking at tens of billions of won in annual sales and continued growth. He’s come a long way since he began selling socks, Chinese cabbage, laver, fans and the like to earn enough money to graduate from university. When he was a sophomore and he began his military service, his family’s business, a noodle factory on Jeju Island, went bankrupt. His sales experience and interest in textile nanotechnology led him to join Kolon in 1986, where he worked for about a decade before founding his own firm. He takes pride in Ventex’s lean operations. Ventex employs about 60 people, 20 percent of whom are in R&D. The firm’s 70-plus textile technology-related patents have enabled it to go this far. Casually dressed in a white shirt and jeans, Go spoke in a low-pitched, humble voice. It is only the speed of his speech that indicates his passion for the business. He defines the clothes we wear as “hardware” and Ventex’s textile nanotechnologies as “software.” “I think we can serve as a business model for the small-and medium-sized firms in Korea. Rather than invest in the hardware, which can require massive capital, focus on creating innovative but practical post-manufacturing technologies,” Go said. He modifies and applies his more than 70 patents broadly in order to create a larger market and enable larger applicability. This year, Ventex began supplying its anti-solar, moisturizing and whitening facial mask and special dry self-heating winter wear to the Korean military. While he was developing the technology for the Dry Zone product, he ran like a “madman,” to test the technology himself. “I ran about 30 kilometers every night along the Han River,” he said, to see how his sweat on the fabric would dry up. He said he had an epiphany one night, when he was running in the downpour and he witnessed all that rain going down the drain. He still gets a lot of ideas while working out or daydreaming. To date, his efforts have led to supplying Invista in 2015 and partnering with Nike and Adidas. With his technologies, he has also created a facial mask that can be used while working out or while serving in the military. “A firm, especially a small or medium-sized company that owns an unprecedented technology, can go far modifying and applying the technology,” he said. He has experienced failure, like in 2003, when his supposed big break also planted the seeds of failure. “When we developed the moisture control technology, I showed it to domestic outdoor brand buyers, thinking they would grab it up,” he said. But the domestic buyers did not, fearing that it might not sell and they might be held accountable. Thus, Ko went to Japan and after a last-minute demonstration of his “one-second” drying technology, received a 1 billion won investment from Mitsubishi so that he could supply the sports line of lingerie maker Wacoal. Then, a call came from Japan saying water was leaking through the garments made with his fabrics and that 500 million won worth of products had to be recalled. Mitsubishi offered to shoulder half the burden, but Ko declined and took full accountability. “I told them you do not bargain with technology,” he said. He persuaded his colleagues that the 500 million won loss would only be a small part of the 5 billion won in sales that they would make some day. The lesson would be to never forget the failure. “We can look at failure as either a cancer or a cold. You withstand a cold, and you can grow stronger. I tend to regard failures as colds,” he said. He is looking to expand Ventex to produce more varieties of biomedical fabrics to treat pain or body fat. |
| Country | Korea South , Eastern Asia |
| Industry | Textile |
| Entry Date | 03 Sep 2016 |
| Source | http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=213159 |
