Inside ITS Symposium 2026: A Two-Day Look Back at the Future of Textiles

The Institute of Textile Science (ITS) Symposium 2026 took place March 3–4, 2026, bringing the textile research community together across three host cities — Montréal, Edmonton, and Raleigh — with remote attendees joining in over Zoom. It was one of the most accessible symposium editions yet, and it lived up to the hype.

If you couldn't make it, here's a recap of what went down.

A Cross-Border Affair

ITS pulled off something ambitious this year: running the event live across three campuses at once. The University of Montreal School of Public Health (ESPUM ), Canada, the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and the Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, USA, all hosted sessions in parallel, juggling two time zones along the way. Poster sessions and lunch breaks were staggered between locations so no single city got left out. The symposium also doubled as the 69th Annual General Meeting of ITS — a good reminder of just how long this organization has been a fixture in textile research.

Day One: Comfort, Protection, and Inclusive Design

Tuesday kicked off with welcomes and land acknowledgments from all three cities, followed by an opening talk on regulatory changes facing the textile industry from Rajath Kumar of Intertek.

From there, the morning settled into comfort and protective textiles—research on thermal resistance in nonwoven sleeping bag fabrics, plus a talk on sustainable nanofiber membranes built to get protective gear away from PFAS, a problem more and more of the industry is trying to solve.

The afternoon turned to a session that's quickly become a symposium favorite: Inclusive & Accessible Fashion. Speakers discussed collaboration and care in fashion education. Designer Chloë Angus shared her work on adaptive and universal design—a good reminder of how much the industry still has to learn about who actually wears the clothing it designs.

Day one also gave students the floor in a dedicated Student Research Corner, covering topics such as microplastic shedding in hand-washed polyester, sensors for medical gowns, infrared fabric testing, and parametric design for garment customization. A solid snapshot of where the next wave of textile research is headed. The day wrapped up with the Annual General Meeting, followed by an evening reception at each location.

Day Two: Sustainability, Manufacturing, and Smart Textiles

Wednesday opened on a sustainability note, with Dr. Patricia Dolez of the University of Alberta presenting on made-in-Canada lyocell fiber made from hemp and recycled fabrics—a neat example of circular thinking applied right at the fiber level. Elevate Textiles' chief sustainability officer followed with an update on progress toward the company's 2030 goals.

Another Student Research Corner followed, this one leaning heavily into wearable tech: optical sensors for heart monitoring, flexible connectors for e-textiles, smart wearables aimed at chronic pain, and textile-based breathing sensors tested against clinical equipment.

The afternoon moved into textile manufacturing, including work to improve recycled yarn through better spinning control, as well as a talk from MIT's Dr. Svetlana Boriskina, who argued that sustainable fiber innovation and good manufacturing aren't mutually exclusive.

The day closed out with an E-Textiles session covering soft robotics and AFFOA's work scaling up e-textile manufacturing, followed by one last round of student talks on hemp-derived pulps, air filtration, and flame-resistant fabrics for wildland firefighters.

ITS President Sogol Asghari gave the closing remarks, and attendees in Edmonton received a bonus lab tour at the PCERF facility to wrap things up.

Sustainability

Sustainability showed up everywhere this year, and not just as a buzzword. Presenters dug into eco-friendlier materials, circular economy thinking, recycling methods, and ways to shrink the environmental footprint of textile production. A theme that kept coming up: sustainability can't just be bolted on at the end. It needs to be considered from the raw-material stage through to the point where a product is finally discarded.

E-Textiles

Smart textiles and wearables keep moving fast, and this session made that clear. Talks covered flexible electronics, sensors woven right into fabric, health-monitoring garments, and clothing that can actually respond to the wearer and their surroundings. It's becoming harder to draw a line between "textiles" and "electronics"—the two fields are increasingly one and the same.

Textile Manufacturing

On the manufacturing side, researchers shared new production methods, automation approaches, and process tweaks to squeeze greater efficiency and quality from textile supply chains — all while keeping sustainability in the mix rather than treating it as a separate concern.

The Poster Sessions Deserve a Mention Too

Beyond the talks, each city ran its own poster track, and the range was wide—graphene-based sensors, recycled cotton analysis, adaptive clothing design, bio-based dyeing methods, you name it. It's a good reminder that textile science isn't just about fabric anymore; it touches on medicine, environmental work, robotics, and manufacturing.

Comfort and Protection

Protective and performance fabrics are still essential across firefighting, healthcare, the military, and sports, and this session reflected that. The conversation centered on a familiar balancing act: how do you improve thermal comfort and durability without compromising the safety the fabric is actually there to provide?

Accessible Fashion

This session put a spotlight on inclusive design, and it was one of the more eye-opening parts of the symposium. Researchers and designers shared work on adaptive clothing and apparel designed for a wider range of bodies and needs — a good reminder that "fashion for everyone" still has real gaps to close.

One of the highlights of the whole event was the Student Research Corner, where graduate and undergraduate students presented their own projects. It was a great chance for newer researchers to get feedback, make connections, and trade ideas with people further along in their careers.

Where to Learn More

The symposium was run in partnership with FIBRE, HEGSA, and HESA. If you want to dig deeper, the full printed program and the complete book of abstracts are still up on the ITS Symposium 2026 program page.

All in all, a packed two days for anyone working in fibers, fabrics, or functional materials — and a good sign of where the field is heading next.

Taken together, ITS Symposium 2026 was a good snapshot of where textile science is right now—sitting at the crossroads of materials science, engineering, sustainability, healthcare, and digital tech. The range of presentations made it clear the field isn't just chasing efficiency; it's trying to solve real problems and improve people's lives along the way.

As textiles continue to evolve, symposia like this matter more than ever. They give researchers and practitioners a place to connect, swap ideas, and turn lab discoveries into things that actually make it out into the world. Whatever came out of these two days will likely shape where textile innovation goes next.