A recent report, even though 80 to 85 per cent of the workers in the Asian garment factories are women, they are treated badly. The Clean Clothes Campaign in its report 'Foul Play' highlighted that only 2.5 per cent of the revenue from the sale of Nike or Adidas shoe is paid to women engaged in the production of these shoes. According to the report, even though the marketing budget for both companies has risen by above a fifth, it is mostly spent on marketing gimmicks such as the Dream Crazier video from Nike targeted at sportswomen.

Almost every sports brand has production lines in Asian factories including Nike, Puma, Asics, Adidas, Reebok, Under Armour and New Balance with varying levels of commitment to working conditions. The women employed in these companies mostly work in factories on the outskirts of large cities. They stay in rows of concrete bungalows, each small room filled with a double bed shared by two or more women. They even have to hide their pregnancies else they are terminated from work.

In 2015, a United Nations report found the abortion rate among garment workers in Cambodia is more than three times higher than in the general female population. The report also highlighted the 2013 incident in Bangladesh where many promises were made by clothing but very few fulfilled.

Polartec, the premium provider of innovative and sustainable textile solutions, and Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, the biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialisation of spider silk, plan to jointly introduce fabrics made from spider silk. Initially developed for specialised military applications, these first-of-their-kind materials made from recombinant spider silk will eventually service the global market for high performance textiles and apparel.

Kraig possesses the exclusive right to use patented spider silk gene sequences in silkworms, which is the first way to mass produce these fibers cost effectively and responsibly. These fully renewable, biodegradable and biocompatible ‘super fibers’ are thin, lightweight, flexible, resilient, extraordinarily strong, and display strength-to-weight ratios more comparable to aramid fibers than other current performance fibers. In apparel applications, the possibilities of recombinant spider silks are particularly exciting, realiaing unprecedented combinations of physical properties such as luxurious feel and breathable comfort with top durability.

In joint development since 2016, Polartec and Kraig are applying the performance characteristics of spider silk into yarns for military-grade textiles. This project combines two of Polartec’s most important innovation missions: providing best-in-class textiles to our Nation’s military personnel, and its investment in a fully biodegradable product line.

The Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates this year has garnered diverse reactions from the US finance experts. Many advised caution to apparel manufacturers. Darrin Beer, Western Regional Manager, Commercial Services, CIT Group points out apparel manufacturers should ensure their accounts receivable are protected as the retail landscape can be volatile. He feels it’s important for them to ensure their business has sufficient capital to support growth and handle sales fluctuations due to seasonality, order deferments or cancellations.

The Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates this year has garnered diverse reactions from the US finance experts. Many advised caution to apparel manufacturers. Darrin Beer, Western Regional Manager, Commercial Services, CIT Group points out apparel manufacturers should ensure their accounts receivable are protected as the retail landscape can be volatile. He feels it’s important for them to ensure their business has sufficient capital to support growth and handle sales fluctuations due to seasonality, order deferments or cancellations. A properly structured financing facility should provide a company with adequate borrowing flexibility to manage through any and all of these events.

Cash and inventory management

Efficient cash flow management is also something that Mark Bienstock, Managing Director, Express Trade Capital advises. As he says, watching cash flow is paramount to sustaining a profitable apparel business, both in the short and long term. The company advises clients not to buy or produce anything without underlying orders. Speculation requires significant cash-flow strains and interest costs that most companies cannot absorb.

Apparel manufacturers also need to be vigilant about their inventory management feel some experts. Managing their assets appropriately in relation to the scale of actual order activity will help manufacturers improve liquidity and reduce borrowing requirements.

New ways of cash-generation

Not just management, some experts also encourages clients to look for new ways to make money. For some, this may involve expanding with a direct-to-consumer platform where margins are more attractive, while others may target creditworthy online retailers.

According to Rob Greenspan, President and Chief Executive, Greenspan Consult, another way to increase cash flow is to focus on assets that turn into cash such as accounts receivable and inventories. Apparel manufacturers, during times of a slowing economy, need to maintain their liquidity. They need to focus on cash flow and profitability by reviewing their operating expenses and updating their sales projections and cash-flow plans.

Adopting a disciplined approach

Planning for future should always be disciplined and based on specific market-sector needs with a combination of cash reserves, needed additions to debt earmarked to support specific business-cycle (working-capital) needs and fixed-asset additions, point out experts. The ultimate goal is to negotiate extended open-supplier terms to match their trade cycle and only borrow to support growth and not for building excessive inventory levels in case they get a future order, says Ken Wengrod, Co-founder/President, FTC Commercial Corp. For this some experts recommend extending current financing agreements to take advantage of the present interest-rate environment. The combination of a supportive partner and retained capital will better prepare a company to thrive in the future.

British brand Mulberry has successfully implemented Aptos solutions for pre-season and in-season planning. For the next project phase, Mulberry will focus on product lifecycle management along with supply chain management in order to manage product development and fasten the sourcing process with greater efficiency. Aptos is supporting Mulberry by offering key functionality to integrate the entire process across functions, geographies and channels. Implementing both pre-season and in-season planning modules has provided the Mulberry team with the ideal opportunity to target best practice and evolve business process. The Aptos implementation structure and project team facilitated a quick and smooth project, which is already adding value for Mulberry.

With the market calling for greater agility and Mulberry’s business constantly expanding in terms of geographies and channels, the company not only had new planning needs but also requirements of sourcing, costing as well as increasing overall merchandising responsiveness. Mulberry chose Aptos for the retail expertise of Aptos across all processes and the ability to cover the merchandise process from end to end as well as the track record of satisfied customers. The decision enabled Mulberry to implement its agile supply chain initiative and also realize key objectives including reduction in inventory and greater visibility.

Participating for the first time Hyosung will exhibit a collection of specialty recycled fibers – Mipan regen nylon and regen polyester – along with a selection of fabrics incorporating creora elastane fibers created to enhance performance and comfort at the Performance Days exhibition from May 08-09, 2019.

Echoing the Performance Days exhibition theme “The Beauty of Function”, Hyosung will display multifunctional fabrics besides giving a fashion “plus” to design. These fabrics are practical and environmentally friendly and applicable to outdoor active sportswear, urban adventures and today’s innovative, everyday work wear. They include the Mipan regen 100% pre-consumer recycled nylon which reduces energy consumption and is GRS certified; regen-a 100 per cent GRS certified post-consumer recycled which conserves petroleum resources; creora eco-soft for low heat settable, and soft hand elastane for saving energy and creora Black dope dyed black elastane fpr saving water.

Hyosung will also present its 2020 Megatrends “Connected, beyond”, which focuses on three key themes connected with responsible thing and embracing of fashion trends, and connected between body and environment.

Regardless of what the US says, India’s tariffs are not sky high. There are many countries which have much higher tariff as compared to India. Several developed countries and regions including Japan, South Korea and the European Union maintain extremely high tariffs. In fact, US import duties are also quite high. On tobacco it is about 350 per cent and 164 per cent on peanuts.

Japan levies 736 per cent duty on certain products while Korea imposes 807 per cent duty on some goods. Product-specific high tariffs, like 150 per cent on alcoholic beverages, 100 per cent on coffee, and 60 per cent to 75 per cent on automobiles, have made India a villain in the eyes of the US. If India takes measures to protect the interests of specific sectors like agriculture, many countries in the world are not far behind. Japan, South Korea, the EU and the US maintain an extremely high tariff primarily on agriculture products.

India's average WTO bound tariff is 48.5 per cent while the average applied tariff is 13.4 per cent. There is clearly a wide gap between the two. If India applied tariffs indiscriminately, applied tariff would have been very close to the bound rates.

San Francisco-based Unspun, which touts itself as a zero-inventory store is developing a 3D weaving machine that would completely eliminate fabric waste. The company plans to deploy it in stores as early as the end of this year. The two-year-old robotics and apparel company, which counts the National Science Foundation, H&M Foundation, venture capital investor SOSV and the Mills among its early backers, aims to become a zero-waste operation. With 3D weaving, Unspun will use its cut waste to create reusable packaging for their jeans. The packaging also fits a 13-inch laptop, even though the company did not intentionally make it that way.

Unspun joins a host of luxury labels that employ 3D body scanning techniques to boost sales. The company has partnered with a body scan company called Fit3D to set up more than 1,000 infrared scanners worldwide where customers can get a 20-second body scan – allowing for customised fittings, stitching and styling. Most of these scanners have been placed in gyms, as one of their main customer groups are people who work out a lot, so they often are unable to find mass market clothing to fit their body type.

Amazon will shut its online store in China. The store allowed shoppers to buy from local sellers. The domestic marketplace will be shut but Chinese shoppers will still be able to order goods from Amazon’s global store. Amazon will also continue to operate its cloud business in China. Amazon’s profitable cloud computing division hosts huge swathes of the corporate world on its data servers.

Amazon bought Joyo, a Chinese books, music and video retailer, in 2004. It rebranded the company as Amazon in 2007. But it has struggled to compete with dominant players like JD and Alibaba. The shift away from the world’s second largest economy comes as the company pours huge investment into India. Amazon has committed to spending 5.5 billion dollars on e-commerce in India, where it competes with local rival Flipkart. Last year, it launched a Hindi version of its mobile website and smartphone app in an attempt to attract millions of new customers in the country. The plan is to think long term both in terms of top line and bottom-line. Amazon launched a host of global programs like Prime, Pantry, Subscribe and Save, Global Store, among others, which will be scaled up. The company has invested in various avenues such as infrastructure and logistics.

With record production of more than 700,000 tons the past two seasons, Mali has retaken the title of Africa's cotton champion. The region invests over 100,000 CFA francs for each harvest which generates 150,000 CFA frans in proft after the harvest. The cotton farmers’ confederation plans to raise this output to one million tonne in the next season.

However, Mali, like other African producers, only processes a tiny fraction of its production. Most of the cotton is exported. The association of African cotton growers in the region has urged leaders to boost the processing of raw cotton into textiles in order to capture more of the added value.It appreciated the role The association appreciated the role of the state in supporting the cotton industry, particularly via the state-owned Malian Textile Development Company (CMDT), which buys cotton from farmers.

The CMDT has substantial progress in recent years in getting value out of by-products of separating the cotton fibre from seeds. Also, cotton farmers in the region benefit from subsidised fertiliser, unlike farmers of other crops. They also have easier access to credit.

VF Corporation’s gross margin improved from 48.3 per cent in 2016 to 50.5 per cent in 2018. On an annual basis, VF Corp sources or produces approximately 473 million units spread across more than 30 brands. VF Corp’s products are obtained from its 21 self-operated manufacturing facilities and approximately 1000 contractor manufacturing facilities in over 50 countries. No single supplier represents more than 10 per cent of cost of goods sold. Independent contractors generally own the raw materials and ship finished, ready-for-sale products. In 2017, 23 per cent of VF Corp’s units were manufactured in own facilities (up from 22 per cent in 2016) and 77 per cent were obtained from independent contractors. Products manufactured in own facilities generally have a lower cost and shorter lead times than products procured from independent contractors.

VF Corp offers jeans wear, outdoor and action sports, image wear, sportswear and contemporary brands. The company markets its products under brands like North Face, Wrangler, Timberland, Vans, Lee and Nautica, among others. The company operates manufacturing facilities in the US, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. A significant percentage of denim bottoms and occupational apparel is manufactured in these plants as well as a smaller percentage of footwear and other products.