Cluster Story of Apparel Sector;
Cluster story of Turkish apparel dates back to 2005 when IHKIB started the Fashion and Textile Cluster Project with the € 17million IPA fund (Instrument for Pre-Accession) of European Union. Sectoral interface mechanisms were institutionalized with this Project and Istanbul Moda Academy, Textile R&D Center and Cluster Coordination Center were founded. This Project contributed to the improving the linkages between SMEs in terms of developing mutual projects and implementation of these projects.

Sub-sectoral Clusters;
Sub-sectoral cluster projects have been carried out by IHKIB since 2013 to improve the collaboration among members with the National Cluster Support of Ministry of Trade 


For more details; IHKIB Clustering Projects Presentation

Key Performance Indicators of Cluster Projects
Trend Forecast & Design Capability
- 5 cluster companies transformed into Design Centres with innovations on their collection development processes (Istanbul Apparel Exporters Cluster / 2018) This Project was announced as a Best Implementation Practice by the Ministry of Trade
- About 70 designers trained as 3D and 2D socks designer (Istanbul Socks Cluster – I / 2018)
- 30 socks and 10 packaging designs were developed by the design offices and sampling processes were supported (Istanbul Socks Cluster – 2018)
- 11 trend seminars organized at cluster projects (Athlesiure, denim washing technics, design trends in target markets) 
- 30  nightwear and 20 lingerie sets were designed focusing on European market trends by the senior and junior designers per cluster companies (Istanbul Lingerie Cluster - I / 2016) 
- Consultancy on design, presentation and evaluation of collections specifically for target markets/buyers (all clusters) 

Productivity & Digital Transformation 
- 70% increase in pre-production processes and 30% improvements on operators performance (Istanbul Apparel Exporters Cluster / 2018)
- 15% improvement on lead time and 23% increase on line productivity (Istanbul Apparel Exporters Cluster / 2018)
- 3-4 % fabric savings and 15% productivity increase with fabric optimization consultancy (Istanbul Denim Cluster / 2018) 
- 31% productivity increase per socks machinery, 38% decrease in productivity loss and 40% energy saving  (Istanbul Socks Cluster -I / 2017) This Project was announced as a Best Implementation Practice by the Ministry of Trade 
- 72 cluster companies analysed for their digital assets (Istanbul Shirt, Lingerie and Denim Clusters / 2018) 

HR and Social Compliance Management: 
- 20% (Istanbul Apparel Exporters Cluster – 2018) and 16% (Istanbul Socks Cluster -I / 2017) improvement on social compliance parameters (announced as a Best Implementation Practice by the US Ethical Trade Forum) 
- 51 staff trained as Social Compliance Lead-Auditor (Istanbul Apparel and Socks Clusters / 2017-2020) 
- Improvement on staff overtime by 39% and absentee by 34% (Istanbul Socks Cluster – I /2017)  
- 73% of companies were certified as the first time by means of global social compliance standards (Istanbul Shirt Cluster / 2019) 
- 45 companies re-organized based on social compliance criterias (all clusters)  
- 6 tier-I supplier were supported for social compliance management in supply chain and audited 24 tier-II suppliers (Istanbul Apparel Exporters Cluster / 2019)  

Sales and Marketing:
- 11% increase on cluster’s total export value (Istanbul Socks Cluster – I / 2015-2018) 
- 66% increase in export and 9,1 Million USD orders after the B2B meetings by the first year (Istanbul Apparel Exporters Cluster – Sweden Trade Mission / 2018)
- 67% of companies started to export as first time to Russia. And the total export rate of the Cluster was increased 1,63 times more than the Turkey’s average export to Russia (Lingerie Brands Cluster – II – Russian Trade Missions / 2018 & 2019) 

Visionary Missions;
- Site visit to pilot production districts in Italy (Istanbul Lingerie Cluster – II / 2019) 
- R&D visits in Denim Industry (Istanbul Denim Cluster Project / 2017)
- R&D visits to socks machine manufacturers and  design districts (Istanbul Socks Cluster -I / 2017) 
- * The statistics are based on the average numbers of clusters.  

To reach out the performance evaluation reports of completed Cluster Projects: 
Istanbul Lingerie Cluster – I / 22 companies (2015-2017)
Istanbul Socks Cluster – I / 18 companies (2015-2018)
Istanbul Lingerie Cluster – II / 32 companies (2018-2020)
Istanbul Apparel Exporters Cluster – Interim Project Evaluation Report / 21 companies (2016 – ongoing)

For more details please mail to [email protected]