The textile market is being driven by an urgent need for circular sustainability and supply chain resilience as well as cutting-edge material performance. Milliken & Company, a global materials science giant, is one of the companies pioneering this new landscape by utilizing a deep portfolio of patents to solve complex everyday challenges.
Here, Allen Jacoby, executive vice president and president of Milliken’s Technical Textiles division, shares how his background as a chemical engineer shapes the company’s “systems-view” approach to innovation. From leveraging AI data center infrastructure booms to advancing end-of-life recyclability for high-performance fabrics, Jacoby pulls back the curtain on where the 160-year-old manufacturer is placing its biggest strategic bets.
SJ: Milliken is a materials science company with thousands of active patents. As a chemical engineer by trade, how are you guiding your teams to leverage molecular-level innovation to solve everyday textile challenges, like moisture management, durability and flame resistance, without sacrificing comfort?
Allen Jacoby: As a chemical engineer by trade, my background gives me a systems view of material challenges. I push our teams to break problems down into systems. Most textile solutions are systems consisting of a fiber, a fabric and a chemical finish. Each one of these inputs has a wide range of possibilities, so the goal is to design the optimal “system.”
In apparel, that shows up in how you bring moisture management, durability, flame resistance and comfort together without tradeoffs. You see that in areas like firefighter protection, where advances in material chemistry are enabling solutions that bring protection and wearability in a single system.
Those same challenges show up in our technical textile businesses. For example, through Milliken’s health care subsidiary, Ovik Health, our CoFlex cohesive bandage portfolio is engineered to deliver controlled compression without constricting while remaining lightweight, breathable and comfortable for the patient. It also adheres to itself rather than to skin or hair, improving ease of use in clinical settings.
Whether it’s firefighter gear or a clinical bandage, the principle is the same: design for how the product is actually used and build every requirement into the material from the beginning.
CoFlex cohesive bandage.
SJ: Before taking the helm of the textiles business, you served as Milliken’s chief strategy officer and head of innovation. How has that high-level strategic lens shaped your immediate operational priorities for the business? Which long-term trends did you spot then that you are actively accelerating now?
A.J.: My time running corporate strategy and global innovation fundamentally shaped how I look at our business today, particularly when it comes to portfolio management and innovation resource allocation. Within Milliken’s textiles businesses, we have hundreds of products and resources are limited, so it’s important to align those resources where the best opportunities exist.
When I took over textiles, we established our long-term strategy with an emphasis on what businesses and products would be the focus. On the innovation front, my immediate priority is ensuring we maintain a disciplined balance between incremental and transformative innovation. We have teams dedicated to solving our customers’ immediate, day-to-day needs, but we are also very intentional about investing in larger, more transformative projects that can take years to develop.
To be successful long-term, you have to be good at both.
As for the long-term trends, my philosophy is to be where the tailwinds are. One we are riding right now is the infrastructure investment tied to AI and data centers. We are actively accelerating opportunities there through products that support fiber optic networks and fire-resistant data center materials.
We are also leaning into the growing demand for supply chain resilience, as customers increasingly value reliable domestic manufacturing partners who can help keep their operations running during periods of global disruption.
SJ: The textile industry faces intense pressure to move toward a circular economy. Milliken has made significant strides in recyclable products and sustainable manufacturing. How is your division balancing the demand for high-performance, long-lasting technical fabrics with the global push for recyclable materials?
A.J.: In the technical textiles business, our primary focus is engineering materials that are incredibly durable and reliable, which we view as an inherently sustainable practice. For example, we engineered a textile reinforcement for high-wind asphalt shingles. By helping ensure those shingles do not blow off during extreme weather, we can prevent catastrophic failures and keep tons of building materials out of landfills. When products last longer and perform better, they are inherently more sustainable.
We are also committed to advancing the circular economy. Milliken is using our material science expertise to develop advanced chemistries and additives that enable these materials to be recycled effectively at the end of their life.
We have also invested in several new recycling technologies through our new ventures group, including PureCycle, which recycles polypropylene and is now operational, and Circ, which has a novel process to recycle polyester/cotton textiles. We deliver the extreme performance our industrial customers need while also engineering solutions for true end-of-life recyclability.
SJ: Following Milliken’s recent acquisition of the Highland Industries facility, it’s clear that domestic production and technical textile capabilities are a major focus. How does expanding your technical footprint benefit the broader sector, and where do you see the crossover between industrial-grade textiles and consumer apparel?
A.J.: Our Highland acquisition was about strengthening our U.S. manufacturing base and expanding our technical textiles capabilities. It adds more weaving and knitting capacity and gives us greater flexibility to serve customers across industrial and infrastructure markers. At a broader level, investments like this help reinforce the domestic textile sector. They ensure we have the capabilities and manufacturing capacity needed to produce high-performance materials reliably in the U.S., which is critical for a lot of the industries we serve.
While Highland is focused on technical textiles, there is some crossover at a high level. Both industrial and consumer applications often use similar yarns, fabric constructions and finishing technologies, so there’s real synergy in how those products are made and developed. In practical terms, you can have very different end uses coming out of similar manufacturing environments.
Allen Jacoby
For example, a fabric used to reinforce a commercial roofing system could be produced using many of the same processes as something like a graduation gown. That shared development and manufacturing foundation is where the connection really shows up, even if the end applications are completely different.
SJ: Supply chain volatility has rewritten the playbook for global manufacturing. Milliken remains deeply grounded in U.S. textile manufacturing. What strategic advantages does a robust domestic infrastructure give Milliken when partnering with global brands that require speed-to-market and stringent quality control?
A.J.: We seem to live more and more in the unknown, but in reality, there has always been a level of uncertainty in business. Between global conflicts and the lasting impact of the COVID‑19 supply chain crisis, there are important lessons to be learned. Many manufacturers learned the hard way that chasing the lowest offshore price means little if your operations are shut down because materials are stuck across the globe.
By maintaining a strong domestic manufacturing base, with a concentration of plants in the Southeast, we help mitigate that long-term risk for our U.S. customers. It ensures that when global supply chains are disrupted, we are a resilient partner who can keep production lines running.
For global brands, that domestic infrastructure translates directly into speed to market and strong quality control. Because we are vertically integrated and manage the process from yarn to finished fabric, we can maintain consistency and performance without compromise. After more than 160 years of refining our manufacturing capabilities, we deliver a level of quality our partners trust.
At the same time, our U.S. foundation combined with a global footprint allows us to stay agile and respond quickly to market shifts. Ultimately, global brands partner with us because they value suppliers who can deliver both speed and reliability when it matters most.
SJ: Looking out over the next few years, what do you believe will be the next major “game-changer” in textile innovation? Whether it is smart textiles that respond to environmental changes or advanced protective workwear, where is Milliken placing its biggest bets?
A.J.: The next “game-changer” won’t be a single technology, but the convergence of several: intelligent performance textiles, material systems created with sustainability in mind, and advanced protection engineered at the fiber level. We’re particularly focused on materials that respond dynamically to heat, moisture and environmental stress while maintaining comfort and durability. Equally important is the shift toward circularity, where chemistry, design and manufacturing are aligned to reduce waste and extend product life without compromising performance.
The intersection of protection, comfort and sustainability is where we see the most meaningful long-term innovation and where we believe the greatest impact on the textile industry will come from.
