In 1986, West Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Italy were the four largest textile machinery exporting countries in the world. In 1986, Western Europe was the principle market for textile machinery manufactured in Europe. At that time, the Asian market was a major market only for Japanese textile machinery manufacturers. Today, the Asian market is the principle growth market for European and Japanese textile machinery manufacturers. Japanese analysts characterized ITMA 1987 as not offering any significant radical innovations in textile machinery. They believed, instead, that the emphasis at the show was on improved electronics applications for existing machinery, European manufactured mixing, blowing, and carding machines at ITMA 1987 were more advanced than machines form other regions of the world. Machines from Europe used autolevelers to control fiber irregularity, and that automatic doffing was provided by every roving machine manufacturer present at the show. Descriptions of machinery for ring spinning, weaving, synthetic fiber production, knitting, dyeing, and finishing at ITMA 1987 are discussed.