Long John Group commissioned KARL MAYER's new RDJ 7/3 Jacquard Double Needle Bar Raschel Machine at its Indonesian plant on August 20, becoming the first customer worldwide to invest in the machine since its trade-press launch. The Taiwanese footwear fabric supplier confirmed the move at an official event attended by representatives of global athletic footwear brands and KARL MAYER management, including Karl Josef Mayer, grandson of the company's founder, who met Long John Chairman Kevin Wen and founder Jeff Wen on site.

The installation extends a sourcing relationship that dates to 2012, when Long John bought its first KARL MAYER RDPJ-series double needle bar raschel machine with Jacquard. Since then, the company has repeatedly served as the industrial debut customer for newly developed models, including the RDJ 7/3.

What does the new machine change for footwear textiles?

The RDJ 7/3 carries three wireless Jacquard bars. According to KARL MAYER, this configuration lets developers build complex patterns, functional zones, structures and design effects with greater flexibility and efficiency than previous generations. For fabric developers, the claimed capabilities include:

• Hole designs with near-perfect, significantly larger rounds
• Precisely integrated patterns and functional zones
• Custom Jacquard patterns with two-tone effects and varied color combinations
• Three-dimensional surfaces and embossed effects produced directly in the fabric

These claims come from the machinery supplier; no output or efficiency benchmarks from Long John's Indonesian line have been published yet. Buyers evaluating upper and spacer fabrics made on the RDJ 7/3 will need to verify real-world performance through sampling.

How big is Long John's capacity?

The numbers are substantial for a single fabric category. Long John has produced fabrics for more than 313 million pairs of shoes on Jacquard Double Needle Bar Raschel machines. Founded by Jeff Wen in 1983, the group now operates facilities in Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Indonesia, plus a US sales office.

Production is fully integrated — spinning, weaving, knitting, warp knitting, dyeing and finishing — which shortens lead times and keeps quality control internal. The warp knitting division produces open-structured stretch tricot fabrics for uppers and linings, alongside high-performance spacer fabrics with plain or Jacquard-patterned mesh surfaces used across modern athletic footwear.

Why does the first-mover position matter?

For sourcing teams at athletic brands, Long John's early adoption signals that RDJ 7/3-based fabrics will reach commercial development faster through an established, multi-country supplier rather than a single-site mill. The Indonesian site gives brands a China-plus-one production option within the same vendor group.

The machine will be shown publicly at the KARL MAYER (CHINA) Product Show in Changzhou on November 19, 20, 21 and 23, 2026, alongside ITMA ASIA — giving sourcing executives a chance to assess the technology directly before committing programs to it.