A towel is never just a towel.
Its yarn, construction, fiber blend, weight and finish can influence how it feels, how quickly it dries, how long it lasts and ultimately how much it costs to process.
In the latest episode of Behind the Seams, Matthew Victor sits down with Robert Horowitz, a 39-year veteran of the textile industry, to explore the details behind the products commercial laundries process every day and why understanding those details can create meaningful operational advantages.
From textile construction and poly-rich products to RFID technology and smarter packaging, the conversation highlights an important shift across the industry: textile sourcing is becoming less about simply buying linens and more about understanding how they perform throughout their entire lifecycle.
Small Textile Changes Can Create Big Operational Savings
With decades of experience across healthcare, hospitality and textile manufacturing, Robert has seen firsthand how seemingly minor changes to a product can influence its performance.
A customer experiencing excessive shrinkage, long drying times or durability challenges may not necessarily need an entirely different product. Adjusting the construction, fiber blend or finish can potentially address the issue while maintaining the qualities that matter to the end user.
One trend discussed in the episode is the move toward more poly-rich textiles. Depending on the application, increasing polyester content can help reduce drying times and shrinkage while improving dimensional stability, colorfastness and product longevity.
For commercial laundries processing thousands of pounds of linen, even small improvements can create meaningful efficiencies over the course of a year.
Looking Beyond the Purchase Price
The true cost of a textile doesn't end when it's purchased.
Labor, utilities and product replacement all contribute to the overall cost of a linen program. That's why a strategic healthcare textile supplier or commercial laundry partner should look beyond the initial price of a sheet, towel or blanket.
Can the product reduce drying time? Can its construction improve longevity? Can packaging make receiving and handling more efficient?
George Courey Inc. is even exploring packaging changes from maximizing pallet quantities to simplifying how bulk products are delivered to help customers find efficiencies beyond the textile itself.
Individually, these changes may seem small. Across a large laundry operation, their impact can add up quickly.
RFID Is Changing Linen Management
Another major topic discussed in the episode is the growing accessibility of RFID technology for commercial laundry and healthcare linens.
RFID chips incorporated into textiles can help laundries track products as they move through processing and customer facilities. This gives operators greater visibility into inventory levels, linen loss and product lifecycles.
As the technology has evolved and costs have declined, RFID is becoming practical for a broader range of textile products.
For higher-value reusable healthcare and surgical textiles, the opportunity is particularly significant. Tracking individual products through processing cycles can provide more accurate lifecycle information and greater visibility into how textile inventory is being used.
The future of institutional textiles will increasingly sit at the intersection of textiles, technology and operational data.
Expertise Still Matters
Technology is changing the commercial laundry industry, but understanding the textile itself remains just as important.
Knowing why one towel construction performs differently from another, why a particular fiber blend may dry faster, or how a small construction change could improve durability can directly affect the economics of a linen program.
That's where decades of textile and laundry experience become valuable.
The goal isn't simply to supply another towel, sheet or blanket. It's to ask:
How can we make this product work better for the customer processing it every day?
Sometimes the answer is RFID. Sometimes it's packaging. Sometimes it's a different fiber blend.
And sometimes it's a very small change in how a towel is made.
Those details may happen behind the seams, but their impact can be felt throughout an entire operation.
Watch the Full Episode of Behind the Seams
Hear the full conversation with Robert Horowitz on YouTube and Spotify as the team explores textile construction, commercial laundry efficiency, RFID linen tracking, healthcare textiles and the evolving U.S. textile market.
Follow Behind the Seams for more conversations about the future of healthcare textiles, hospitality linens, reusable textile solutions and the commercial laundry industry.
