As per an Indian Express report, the retail sector is yet to recover from the sales slump due to the pandemic. But as footfalls continue to remain low at shopping malls and complexes even after easing of restrictions, big fashion brands, including Levi’s Strauss, Pepe Jeans, Max Fashion, Forever New and Bata, are sending retail trucks and pop-up stores in residential colonies, in a bid to reach out to customers and boost sales.

After practically no sales for about three months, Pepe Jeans recovered around 30 per cent of its last year’s sales numbers in June. It went up 50 per cent in July. But people are hesitant to go out and shop, said Manish Kapoor, CEO, Pepe Jeans London. Although there has been an increase in online sales, it cannot deliver that “brand experience” to the consumer. The denim and casual wear brand has now started sending fashion trucks to residential colonies in Mumbai and Delhi-NCR this month.

Footwear brand Bata has set up mobile stores in over 40 cities and are witnessing a steady increase in sales. They have segmented consumers in three categories — digital natives, digital adopters and digital novices. For its digital novices, like the elderly, children and homemakers, who have not been stepping out of the house as much, it has launched Bata Store on Wheels, as it wanted to enable them to make hyperlocal purchases from the safety of their condominiums and apartments, said Sandeep Kataria, CEO, Bata India.

Asics has launched latest campaign ‘Her Heritage’ - the first female-focused release from ASICS SportStyle.

The models within this collection, deliberately sport dual-tones, powerful hues of White and Gold, representing the strength and beauty of a winner, overlaid with transparent and breathable mesh.

The motorsport inspired GEL-1090™ model returns for Autumn/Winter, alongside the GEL-NANDI™ shoe, another silhouette brought from the early 2000s and re-envisioned for a new audience.

The GEL-TARThe final sneaker within the capsule is the JAPAN S™ PF, a classic court silhouette with a thick platform for solid sole support.

The wide variety of styles within the new womenswear offering allows for the wearer to choose a silhouette that reflects and complements them in their endeavours to experiment with the world around them.

THER™ 180 is a unique new model that has been created by merging the upper of the original TARTHER™ 98 model with GEL-QUANTUM 180™ tooling which makes for a multi-faceted, memorable silhouette.

The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), representing the full spectrum of U.S. textiles, from fiber through finished sewn products, welcomes the Trump administration’s recent announcement of the launch of a Section 301 investigation into the currency valuation practices of Vietnam.

In 2019, the US trade deficit with Vietnam stood at $55.8 billion, including a $14.6 billion deficit in textiles and apparel specifically. Vietnam has demonstrated tremendous growth in the US textile and apparel market and is the second largest supplier after China, holding a 15.8% import market share for January-July 2020.

Scrutinizing unfair practices such as currency undervaluation by Vietnam is one more action the administration can take to eliminate predatory trade practices by countries that continuously undermine domestic production and that of our free trade partners.

With so much discussion about onshoring production, including personal protective equipment (PPE), NCTO believeS this investigation is necessary, and looks forward to further opportunities to provide input as part of the formal investigation process.

As per the General Statistics Office, Vietnam's total textile and garment export value in the first nine months of this year declined 10.3 per cent year on year to around $22.1 billion. Its largest export markets during this period included China, Japan, South Korea, the European Union and the United States. In September alone, Vietnam's textile and garment exports declined by 1.3 percent year on year to $2.8 billion.

As per a report in the local Bao Dau Tu newspaper, the garment and textile sector in Vietnam is among the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, along with tourism and aviation. Usually, during this period, textile and garment business in the country receive orders for the remaining year. However, this year, due to a decrease in demand, they have received orders only on monthly or weekly basis. So far, there have been no orders for high-value products like high-end shirts and suits for the fourth quarter.

One of the world's biggest garment and textile exporters and producers, Vietnam recorded a 6.9 per cent increase in export turnover to roughly $32.6 billion in 2019, reveals the statistics office.

Levi’s has launched Levi’s SecondHand, its first buy-back program that allows customers to purchase secondhand jeans and jackets on Levi.com and gives them an opportunity to turn in their worn jeans and jackets in Levi’s stores for a gift card towards a future purchase.

Sellers who bring their unwanted Levi’s denim to Levi’s stores will receive a $15-$25 credit for denim that can be resold and $30-$35 in credit for vintage denim. For Levi’s jeans that are too worn-out to be resold, the brand will offer the seller a $5 credit towards a future purchase and will proceed to recycle the garment. All secondhand items will then be available on the Levi’s SecondHand marketplace microsite at affordable prices ranging from approximately $30-$100.

Levi’s is teaming with Trove to handle the backend operations of its SecondHand resale platform including cleaning, inventory processing, and fulfillment. The re-commerce technology and logistics startup company provides similar support for Eileen Fisher, Patagonia, REI, etc.

The buy-back program is one of a series of initiatives Levi’s has recently launched to address the circularity of its products—old and new—and their impact on their environment.

In July, Levi’s launched its most sustainable jeans yet developed in partnership with Swedish recycling textile technology startup Re:newcell. The jean is made with 60 percent organic cotton and Circulose, Re:newcell’s breakthrough material that includes 20 percent recycled denim and 20 percent sustainably sourced viscose.

The ITMA ASIA +CITME 2020 show has received applications from over 1,600 leading textile machinery manufacturers from across the world. The show is being organized by Cematex and Chinese partners, the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT (CCPIT-Tex), China Textile Machinery Association (CTMA) and China Exhibition Centre Group Corporation (CIEC). It will be held at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (NECC), Shanghai from June 12-16, 2021.

Gunnar Hemmer, Sales and Marketing Director, Dilo Systems Gmbh believes the combined show will offer manufacturers an excellent platform to help us reconnect with Asian buyers as the global economy is expected to improve. To unify the branding of its ITMA exhibition portfolio, CEMATEX has refreshed the design of its ITMA ASIA logo. The new image will be featured in the combined exhibition logo.

ITMA ASIA + CITME 2020 is being organized by Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition Co and co-organized by ITMA Services. Japan Textile Machinery Association is a special partner of the show.

The last ITMA ASIA + CITME combined show in 2018 welcomed the participation of 1,733 exhibitors from 28 countries and economies and registered a visitorship of over 100,000 from 116 countries and regions.

General Administration of Customs of China (GACC), reports that the country has experienced a 8.70 per cent Y-o-Y surge in its garment imports in January-August ’20 period, valuing $5.44 billion. This surge indicates the fearlessness amongst Chinese consumers o spend on clothing and the sales of clothing are improving on monthly basis. In August’20, the country imported 4.45 per cent more garments than a month earlier

While China’s apparel import has been registering growth, textile importis facing stiff challenges due to piled up inventories. Its imports of textile yarns and fabric imports plunged by 13.70 per cent in the first 8-month period of 2020 to $ 9.15 billion.

Out of total textile yarn imports, cotton yarns contributed majorly by $2.71 billion in January-August ’20 period but with a fall of 6 per cent on yearly basis. The imports of synthetic yarns tumbled by 17.70 per cent to $738.23 million.

As far as August ’20 is concerned, textile imports tumbled by 5.79 per cent to $488.65 million.

Luxury brand Mulberry released its released preliminary results for the year ended March 28, with the figures containing only a tiny coronavirus impact. As per a Fashion Network report, the luxury leather goods specialist also included a current trading update and said that trading since the start of the current financial year (which included the full impact of the pandemic) is ahead of its early expectations.

The company is now operating in a new phase with creative chief Johnny Coca having left just after the financial year-end and the firm now focusing on its core leather goods as it exits ready-to-wear after the AW20 season. The company boosted its digital sales during lockdown by establishing an off-price website to replace lost sales from its outlet stores and this website has been successful. On an underlying basis, its revenue fell to £149.3 million from £166.3 million in the previous year. Gross profit declined to £91.1 million from £102.3 million. The company was loss-making with a reported loss of £47.9 million, although on an underlying basis this was reduced to a loss of £14.2 million.

International retail sales increased by 4 per cent to £32.4 million, representing 26 per cent of retail revenue, compared to 23 per cent in the previous year. Asia Pacific retail sales increased by 30 per cent, driven by ongoing investment in the region, although this was offset by a 14 per cent decrease in rest-of-world retail sales, which included some store closures.

During the year, direct-to-customer sales represented 91 per cent of group revenue and were £135.4 million, compared to £146 million a year ago. Digital sales as a proportion of group revenue were 24 per cent up from 22 per cent.

The company has been reshaping its store portfolio has introduced new store concept in 28 locations including eight partner shops. This new concept features design elements to represent its British heritage and enables it to better display and promote its collections, as well as having lots of tech and more space. Those new concept stores are outperforming more traditional outlets.

Bangladesh aims to increase export earnings in FY 2020-21 to $41 billion including $33.79 billion from export of ready-made garment products. As per data released by the Export Promotion Board, Bangladesh's export earnings in the first quarter of the 2020-21 fiscal year grew by 2.58 percent year on year to nearly $10 billion. The country earned a total of $9,896.84 million from exports in July-September, compared to $9,647.99 million in the same period a year earlier.

Of its total earnings, the country's income from ready-made garment items, including knitwear and woven, stood at $8.13 billion during the July-September period of the current fiscal year. In the first quarter of the current 2020-21-year, export of knitwear garments increased by 7.04 percent to $4.46 billion while those of woven garments fell by 5.78 percent to $3.66 billion dollars, comparing with the same period of last fiscal year.

The country's export sector is limping back to normalcy after suffering serious blows in the last fiscal year owing to COVID-19 impacts. Its export earnings in the past financial year 2019-20 sank about 17 percent to $33.67 billion, the lowest since the 2014-15 fiscal year.

According to a new research by McKinsey Global Institute, supply chain disruptions can result in fashion companies losing a year’s profit over the course of a decade. Around 93 per cent of these companies plan to make their supply chains more resilient through a combination of strategies such as the construction of a comprehensive database of thousands of suppliers and the hundreds of thousands of parts to quickly shift components across sites when needed.

Digital tools build structural resiliency in suppliers

Digital tools can help fashion brands build agile and structural resiliency measures into their operational models These tools can increase their efficiency by reducing input costs and increasing productivity besides giving them new, options to maintain workforce productivity in the event of closures from a severe weather event, or a pandemic.

Digital tools can also help brands monitor, connect, and collaborate across supply chain as critical weakness may be entrenched deep inside the suppliers’ and of suppliers’ suppliers’ operations. For example, RFiD tagging helps Nike track its goods from end to end as the brand outsources its manufacturing to over 500 factories across 40 countries.

Supply chain mapping for identifying lower-tier suppliers

In recent years, shortage of paint additives, plastics, and specialty chemicals have led to scarcity of components across multiple industries. Many times, the original equipment manufacturer is unaware of the materials required for their products.

To change this, a chemical manufacturer increased its suite of digital tools and dashboards by 30 percent. It provided its employees with real-time visibility into material shortages through a digital order-tracking system that also allowed it to spot problems and rapidly identify the root causes of non-delivery. These tools enabled the company to increase production during the pandemic.

To minimize material shortage risks, companies can use supply-chain mapping tools to identify lower-tier suppliers from publicly available information, asking them to share information on their own critical suppliers and encourage suppliers to conduct their own resilience stress tests. One company supplier used its digital infrastructure to manage supply and production risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company succeeded in combining resilience with efficiency and minimal cost. It now only enhanced its digital capabilities but also made its supply chain more resilient.