The fashion industry is one of the most delocalized and fragmented: a garment can easily undergo more than 30 different processes before reaching its point of sale. Designing a resilient supply chain through transparency is essential to avoid environmental problems in the future.
The supply chain of the textile industry, one of the most delocalized and fragmented today, involves large cultural distances. And the consequences of this are clear: high social and environmental safety risks, lack of knowledge, lack of control of the chain itself, and inefficient management. In addition, current collateral problems such as rising transport prices, container imbalances, or rising energy and raw material prices are some of the causes of the crisis that the textile supply chain is currently experiencing.
It’s true that brands can’t and shouldn’t assume the consequences of the global crisis of raw materials and energy. However, they should understand the situation as an opportunity for improvement and resilience. Enough hypocrisy: let's dot the i's and cross the t's, clearly explain the complexity and current supply chain issues and design a resilient and adapted supply chain through collaboration and transparency.
The delocalization of the chain, the lack of visibility of the chain, the large number of associated processes, and the multiple actors distributed throughout its production chain are the main reasons why the fashion value chain remains, to this day, an unknown quantity for a large percentage of the population. Transparency is considered a necessary step, not only to hold brands accountable for more sustainable and ethical practices but also to explain and hold the end consumer accountable for their actions.
How Time and Costs Come into Play
Fashion is a time-and-cost industry in which quantity prevails over quality; an approach fostered by an irresponsible demand from people who in turn have been stimulated by the fashion industry itself. The consequences of this fundamentally flawed approach are serious: a loop of accelerated production cycles, uncontrolled subcontracting, impossible delivery times, unbearable cost pressures, and unsustainable margins.
In this sense, if we want to move towards a more equitable and sustainable economy, producing and selling at ever lower costs without taking into account the social and environmental implications is no longer an option. If price, timing, and margins continue to rule, sustainability will never work and brands will never be profitable.
On the other hand, the impact of the pandemic, first, and the disruption of the value chain, later, have revolutionized the textile sourcing map. The rise in energy and raw material prices, the bad publicity of production in Asian countries, and the current situation of world transport added to the fragmentation of the chain itself, have accelerated and forced the process of reorganization of the sourcing structure.
One of the main changes in the corporate culture of sourcing has been to stop thinking of it only as the final stage of manufacturing and to look at the value chain in a panoramic way. Understand the problem from a 360-degree perspective and approach it with all variables in mind.
Why Attend the Sustainable Apparel and Textiles Conference?
At Innovation Forum's Sustainable Apparel and Textiles Conference, companies will learn about best practices from industry leaders and receive detailed guidance on how to effectively implement actions, in addition to meeting and networking with an influential audience of key stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations, businesses, governments, and supply chain actors. Also, companies will be able to compare their performance with others and find out where to best focus their efforts.
The conference will take place in Hotel Casa Amsterdam on the 25th and 26th of April, and representatives from companies such as adidas, Patagonia, Hugo Boss, Gant, Kering, and more will be in attendance.
Register here.