Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) is a non-profit, public-private partnership chartered with igniting a US manufacturing revolution in the textiles industry. Michelle Farrington, CTO of AFFOA will provide an overview introductory of the organization and its capabilities of supporting product maturity in advanced functional fibers and fabrics. A technical deep dive of E-textile base layer product development will be shared during the seminar. It reviews the development of an e-textile base layer (ETBL) garment inspired by the Army Combat Shirt as a testbed for MRL assessment for new electronics integration strategies into textiles.  Within this demonstration platform, differentiators in manufacturing methods, including knitting, weaving, and embroidery, are shown as a means for power and data bussing within the garment.  Further, methods for crossing these buses over panel seams are examined.  These power and data bus structures link two and four terminal devices, demonstrated through light-emitting diode (LED) devices as well as a six-button soft touch controller.  MRL assessment through strategic design of experiment trials have shown critical gaps in methods for future materials, sensor devices, and their related manufacturing processes.  As a testbed, the ETBL garment enables a normalized evaluation of the relation between textile and electronics components manufacturing integration methodologies to their functionality (durability and electrical). This functionality is benefited from a first-of-its-kind e-textile testing laboratory developed at AFFOA headquarters in Cambridge, MA.  The ETBL testbed is a unique capability that aims to support the domestic textile industry base for supporting evolving dual-use DoD and commercial product development.