Case studies: Materials development manager: Rebecca

Since graduating, Rebecca has gained experience in a number of different roles focused around sports and performance textiles. She began at Berghaus, developing fabrics for their apparel ranges from Gore Tex to base layer knits. She then moved to a UK factory producing light weight materials for mountaineering equipment and parachutes. Her next role was with Black and Millets, developing fabrics for their newly created ranges and she finally joined Speedo 18 months ago.

I now look after the long-term fabric developments for the Speedo range. I have to develop fabrics that are new, innovative and high performance that meet our consumers’ and elite athletes’ requirements. I also have to make sure that the fabrics meet the Speedo commercial standards, and that corporate responsibility is always adhered to.

In a typical day, I generally spend the morning catching up with our Asian partners before they finish their day. The rest of the day might involve doing some testing in our small in-house test lab; going to the pool to meet with athletes to check on new products; sitting in on consumer focus groups; working with our prototype room to get wearer trial suits made in new fabrics; meeting either internally with the design teams or commercial teams or externally with fabric development partners, test houses or research institutes; reviewing test results and drawing conclusions on a fabrics performance; or deciding on the next development stages and presenting the findings to the rest of the team. Sometimes I have to travel to trade shows, factories and test houses all over the world, and this is something I really enjoy.

In all my experience of working in materials-related roles, a high level of textile knowledge has been required, but experience of developing commercial products has also been advantageous. The other skills I need for my work are excellent communication skills (particularly the ability to describe technical information to people from across the world); multi-tasking; the ability to work to and stick to deadlines and the ability to analyse test data, draw conclusions and make recommendations.

In addition to my technical experience and skills, I’ve received training in people management, project management and negotiation skills.

I love developing fabrics for a purpose, seeing something in a store that I’ve created, visiting mills around the world that are developing new and innovative products, and meeting new people’.