Machinery companies are increasingly turning demo centers into collaborative development hubs as brands and manufacturers push for faster prototyping and more integrated product support.
Karl Mayer’s new Textile Innovation Center in Obertshausen, Germany, is designed around that idea, combining textile development, testing and training under one roof.
The 5,000-square-meter facility, which debuted in April alongside Techtextil Frankfurt, embodies the company’s expanded effort to connect warp knitting technology more directly with product development and commercialization.
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“This is a milestone,” chief executive officer Lutz Wolf said during the opening event. “This Textile Innovation Center is designed as a place where ideas come to life, a place for collaboration, for creativity and for market-relevant solutions.”
Karl Mayer is careful not to describe the TIC as just a showroom. In company materials, the center is positioned as a space for development work, production trials and customer collaboration aimed at turning textile concepts into commercially viable products.
The facility supports customers throughout the innovation cycle, from early-stage ideation to near-series prototyping, with capabilities spanning warp knitting, warp preparation and technical textiles. Fourteen production and development systems are available on-site for customer trials and experimental textile construction work under near-industrial conditions.
Inside the TIC showroom, textile concepts and materials are grouped by end-use applications, including fashion and apparel, sports textiles, footwear, home textiles and technical textiles.
Karl Mayer said the setup is intended to encourage “out-of-the-box thinking” while helping customers connect textile development with commercial opportunities.
Karl Mayer has increasingly tied that application-focused approach to future growth areas, particularly in performance textiles and technical materials.
During Techtextil 2026, for example, the company highlighted warp-knit applications for sports footwear, composite materials and technical textiles, while also showcasing innovations for workwear and protective apparel. According to Karl Mayer, visitors expressed particular interest in sports shoe solutions and technical textile applications tied to new market opportunities.
“Some of our customers are very actively driving the topic of innovation forward,” Hagen Lotzmann, president of Karl Mayer’s technical textiles business unit, said during the event. “With our new Textile Innovation Center, we can support such projects efficiently.”
The TIC also highlights Karl Mayer’s push beyond traditional apparel applications. In recent months, the company has emphasized developments tied to composites, mobility-related materials and technical textile infrastructure.
At JEC World 2026, Karl Mayer highlighted work tied to composite materials for automotive, drone and lightweight construction applications. The company also used recent trade events to showcase warp-knit developments in sports textiles, UV-protective fabrics and technical netting.
One example is the company’s recently introduced RS 2 Net machine, now integrated into the TIC development environment. Karl Mayer said the system can reach speeds of up to 1,200 stitches per minute, depending on material and pattern configuration, with output reaching roughly 165 meters per hour under standard operating conditions. The machine is designed for shade nets but can also produce insect-protection, wind-protection and fencing applications.
Rather than presenting those machines in isolation, Karl Mayer has tied recent launches back to the TIC and its collaborative development model.
That emphasis on collaboration extends beyond access to equipment. Karl Mayer has incorporated its long-running academy training program into the TIC, offering machine training, workshops and hands-on development support aimed at technicians, brand employees, service specialists and textile students. According to the company, the integration is intended to combine technical education with direct production experience and application-focused learning.
The center also includes what Karl Mayer calls its “Inspiration Hub,” a design and textile archive built from nearly 90 years of textile development work. The company describes the archive as a creative resource intended to connect historical textile expertise with new product development opportunities.
“We believe in the value of textiles,” Karl Josef Mayer, member of the supervisory board and representative of the Mayer family, said during the TIC opening week. He added that the investment was intended to signal the company’s willingness “to invest into the future of your business, the future of our industry and especially into all our love for textiles.”
Karl Mayer is also positioning the TIC as part of a broader international development network rather than a stand-alone facility. Alongside the Obertshausen center, the company operates additional innovation sites in China and Japan, with teams focused on materials, machine technology, textile processes and application development. According to Karl Mayer, roughly 15 specialists work across those efforts globally.
The international structure reflects where the company sees momentum in warp knitting demand. In recent market updates, Karl Mayer highlighted India as an increasingly important growth market while continuing to emphasize its long-established presence in China and its relationships with manufacturers in Turkey and Egypt. Much of that activity has centered on performance textiles, technical applications and faster product development cycles as regional production priorities continue shifting.
Across those regions, Karl Mayer has emphasized flexibility and faster product development. The TIC gives the company a centralized space for testing, prototyping and customer collaboration.
Machinery remains central to the business, but Karl Mayer now also focuses on application development, collaborative testing and commercialization support.
The TIC supports textile development work across multiple stages, including prototyping, testing, training and customer collaboration.
