Denimsandjeans spoke to Sunder Belani – Managing Director of Ramsons Garment Finishing Equipments Pvt Ltd and tried to understand their efforts towards sustainability and their latest machines and their experience during Covid times.
Please share a brief background of Ramsons
Ramsons is a 60 years old company started around the fifties. We are a proud made in India company with an international presence. We have three European joint venture collaborations and we manufacture 190 different products in four state of the art production units in and around the south of India. We also have over 15 sales and service offices of our own and agents in about 40 countries.
We are the biggest manufacturers in Asia for sustainable laundry equipment, washer extractors, vertostar, garment dyeing machines, nano nebulizing machine, ozone machines, foam machines, steam ironing systems, storage systems, and a lot of other co-related products for the apparel trade.
What does sustainability mean to you as a company?
We at ramsons believe that the starting point of any product is not in the design but in its sustainability. We also believe in the five r’s of sustainability reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, and refuse. We also believe at ramsons that meaningful sustainability is the road to meaningful prosperity.
What are the main products of your company which enable sustainable garment production?
Sustainable products that we have been focusing on in the last decade have been ozone technology. The ramsons ozone equipment is internationally accredited by SGS as the safest and the most productive pure ozone technology available on the planet.
We also have nebulizing fog and foam machines that enable lower water requirements, lower chemical, lower energy requirements, and hardly any load on the effluent system. We’ve also got a conveyorized drying system as the dryer is the biggest consumer of energy in a laundry. And we have a system that uses air or natural drying to reduce about 80% of the drying power load. We also have an XDRUM technology where we realized that the only way to reduce stone powder or use of stone on jeans is by substituting it with another polymer that can be reused.
We tied up with Xeros in the UK and have developed the technology that reuses polymer but still creates the effect of no stone with lower water, lower chemical, and no load on the etp. These are some of the new products that we’ve come up with. We also have a lot more in garment finishing like the trouser topper made in collaboration with our German partner Veit.
Health is becoming so important. Have you come out with some health and wellness technological products?
Ramsons is proud to announce its foray into disinfection, sterilization, and medical devices and equipment. From cleanroom hygienic barrier washers technology to UV/ozone sterilization disinfection systems. From ethylene dioxide sterilization systems to oxygen generators. From steam sterilization to infrared systems. From nano anti-microbial to foam technology.
How has covid19 enabled you to reinvent your company
To give a company an entirely new angle of thinking along with sustainability we realized that sterilization and hygiene have become so important. Most of the equipment now also focuses on products necessary for covid-19 and also on hygiene and sterilization.
What are the main technologies you think will be used in the garment processing in coming years.
Technologies that can be used in the coming years are definitely those that will we use very little water hardly any chemistry, energy-efficient, little more robotic because the human labour is going to be hard to find and human labour transfer during covid is limited.
Any sustainability targets for your company ?
As a company, we want to give back to the earth what we have taken from the earth. This has been a sustainability target in all our products.
Meet Ramsons Team and 30 other exhibitors at our SUSTAINABLE INTERPLAY event on Nov 23 from 11am Central Europe Time. Register at virtual.denimsandjeans.com/virtual and get your unique code to PRE SCHEDULE your FACE2FACE meetings with the exhibitors.
A denim designer, Rui Lima from Portugal, worked with Salsa Jeans for over 18 years, shared his views on the denim developments in Portugal. At the 2nd edition of Denimsandjeans Virtual Show, Sandeep Agarwal spoke to Rui Lima to understand the dynamics of denim design in Portugal.
How was your experience with Salsa Jeans?
I joined Salsa in 2001 as a young designer I’ve been there for 18 years and it was a great great experience to learn and experience different ways of designing Men and Women Jeans and working with a great persons and great creatives until now.
It was a company that grew up thinking being the best of the world in the fitting . So as you can imagine that company grew up and specialized in the fitting and we did a lot of tests in the materials, took a lot of fit tests, especially in pattern-making.
For an example, normally to approve one fit normally, we did 80 pair of jeans and many trials and because we did a same fit for the different fabrics to see how it fits and how it works in the laundry and the company has close by their own laundry which is a plus for a dynamic designer . In a few hours or one or two days , we have a final product and test try new ideas in washing. So it was amazing to work there because we had all the tools that we need to have great products.
In the market there weren’t so many companies doing the specialization in the fitting and especially for women. So it was a great experience until now.
Is Fabric the most important part when you look for fitting?
Yes, I think the fabric is the most important thing besides the pattern making because the fabric is going to giving life to the Jeans . If the fabric has good characteristics Jeans will live longer, I mean the final customer will be happy with the characteristics of their jeans that he bought and we’ll use it for a long period and can say they will buy more Jeans from that brand, and that is why the fabric is very very important.
Changes In Denim In Past Few Years
90% of the fabric that I used was like 100% cotton or 99% cotton and then after a few years we started to see some stretch fabrics and then comes clean a boom of the elasticity.
For me it’s the best fabric in the world because it changed a lot, it has a lot of possibilities of doing .
Denim is dead, is it so?
I think denim will stay . Of course, people want to wear more comfortable clothes at home because a lot of people stay at home but I think people will not leave jeans aside. Nowadays we have a lot of different kinds of Jeans with different kinds of characteristics which is possible for everyone to wear a pair of jeans if you want a rigid, comfort, super stretch, bi-stretch fabric, medical effects in the Jeans, we have in jeans.
Portuguese Brands During COVID Times
Actually the brands in Portugal they are suffering because they are a lot of people working in the layoff, the salary is not 100% paid . So they are receiving less , their family has less money, they buy less , they go less into the stores to buy . So the companies are rethinking new way to develop collections and how they will communicate their products online and in the stores.
The companies suffer a lot, the sales went down , so I know that companies are developing for the next season they will reduce the number of the developments and they will continue with some of products from the last season. They still have a lot of products in the warehouse .
They are rethinking a new way of putting that kind of products in the market again, it’s not an easy situation but as I told you creativity and optimistic mind can help a lot and what is helping a lot these brands are the online store because people feel safer if they buy online.
It’s a quite great solution for them to have online stores to survive in this pandemic situation. The problem here for the brands is to bring new customers to know the brand and that’s the most difficult part.
A new customer can’t buy a pair of jeans without testing, it’s difficult, that’s why I think the digital situation now is more important than ever and it’s a great support in all ways.
At the 2nd edition of Denimsandjeans Virtual Show, Sandeep Agarwal spoke to Sevgin Sicim from C&A Brussels to understand the upcoming changes in denim world. We share her views on various points discussed during the talk below. You can see full talk here .
Do you think there is a revival in the market that can be seen in the last one or two months?
Actually, we have been experiencing globally something we never had before, everything has changed, the life cycle has changed, everything is changed so also in entire retail business there are lots of changing and before COVID there was a business created based on the volume and large all orders and very low cost with shorter life cycle and to buy more and pay less.
When I compare it for last 10-15 years, there is a huge pressure in the market for margins and more than ever so we also have been trying all together to evaluate how customers behave in post covid situation considering all these things what we were facing before COVID and so it was a very hot topic also Denimsandjeans Virtual’s July event.
Are consumers preferring higher quality products post-Covid?
Buyers will buy less generally and look for a better quality by longer users and I think implementing circularity will be a norm after post COVID situations.
I think what they see is kind of short reaction of customers. They look for a more relaxing style and they would like to keep their clothing at home as well as also move around and the same clothing, so relaxing and feeling comfort in your jeans is kind of a short reaction of that but I do believe it’s coming further in the months ,because it’s quite still situations not yet improve. We still face lots of things, yourself in india we are all in Europe, globally nothing really changed.
You must have also noticed that there’s been changed in the denim styling and because of work from home .Do you think these changes will remain permanent?
I think as I said people want more comfort and relaxed styles and when I look at C&A, our majority for the Men Denim part is Jog denim which gives the customer a lot of comfort and jeans look. High stretch is also in demand for the women denim market which is quite important but I think generally what customer wants- We want to keep authenticity, We want to keep that look and with high stretch and comfort so as valuable recovery so we want everything. (laughs …:) )
Thanks to current innovation of fiber suppliers, new technologies so we can do power stretch with very good recovery but what we are all considering at the end of the day in order to reach all these levels, we depend on more petroleum-based fibers so there is a conflict in there.
Do you think SEASONS are going to be important in denim fashion?
I think it’s important in a sense that denim is considered for long periods of time and not for fast fashion . It’s a perfect product to remake and reuse and also recycle it and which makes it kind of timeless but I think the two seasons consideration will remain in the market which also make us follow up what’s going on in the market, what is the new innovation so how we can do it with approach, I think it will continue again but I think it will be more focused on the simplicity and consider entire year instead of six months.
Your views on Sustainability in the Post-Pandemic Era
The pandemic has created a lot of awareness from the people, all of us all over the world we spent more time in our houses and we also appreciated nature a lot so we had time to feel the nature during that time and I think this will create more demand to more sustainable from the customer side so . And also the customer has purchasing power, so I think we need to really reap that in a sense that we as a brand we are also responsible to educate customers by sharing all with the simple and clear ways what we are offering them . So in terms of sustainability this will also kind of guide the customers purchasing power in the right direction.
How do you see the popularity of HEMP Fibre in denim fashion?
I wouldn’t say its very popular right now , it’s more kind of solution . Maybe because for C2C we use organic cotton which is great , so as a brand we are responsible to source our cottons from ethical sources . Cotton is a great fiber, it’s denim fiber . So, all over the denim and it’s impossible to avoid .
All this and we say most of the water during production but we cannot avoid cotton needs. Though it uses a lots of water to grow and by also thinking millions people are suffering because they cannot have the clean water. But cotton is very valuable in the people’s life but to replace the cotton -this is maybe future . I think hemp will be quite important but also our solution for that is that we try to use recycle but couldn’t as much mix with hemp also. So you see whatever we touch there is some influx to also consider and try to find a solution that’s why HEMP is a good solution .
How do you see 2021?
We have to keep our hope and people really kind of following what we are doing altogether in the industry. I’m quite optimistic about that because we are facing something together , so it also gives us a kind of sense of how important is to protect our environment and also look at the future in a way that we have something to protect for our future – for our kids as well . So, in order to speak in those things in the industry make me really optimistic because we haven’t really spoken that for all senses.
2021 is very challenging for all of us not only in the denim industry but also for all retail or textile industry, it’s all over globally but we should keep our hope, we’ll be going post-pandemic next year, we should see a great revival in the industry . In fact not only in denim industry but in fact we can look at a revival in the most of the industries. See full video at this page .
Candiani Denim , Italy have always been pioneers in the industry bringing out various innovative products and solutions over the years. Recently they have launched Coreva stretch technology which seems to address a very key concern of denim industry – circularity of stretch denim.
At the 2nd edition of Denimsandjeans Virtual Show, Sandeep Agarwal spoke to Alberto Canidani to understand how this technology is going to help in improving biodegradability and other sustainability factors. We share his views on various points discussed during the talk .
Background Of COREVA
It all started back in 2015 when I was just looking for a bio-based solution to elasticize our fabrics and was researching latex but then I landed on natural rubber and obviously, I had to study a little bit about it because it is a whole different animal compared to the synthetic elastomers we normally work with and of course I had to know more about vulcanization and what type of process.
It is a long story and very technical as well as very interesting. Though we were looking for a solution to make our stretch yarns bio-based and biodegradable and that was the way to go and we found a couple of partners with whom we shared the research in Italy and Southeast Asia and we came up with this rubber – a natural rubber yarn which fits our cotton and our spinning technology, so we core spun with it and the great thing about it as I said is that this natural rubber despite all the other synthetic elastomers, it doesn’t interfere with the capability of our fabrics to biodegrade .
Technical parameters in terms of stretchability recovery and everything is equal to or better than the spandex?
I would say it’s comparable, it depends how elastic you want to go with it. At the beginning for instance it was very very complicated to keep it comfortable because this natural rubber has a lot a lot of traction and very good recovery actually but the problem was to keep it at at low elasticities.
We found a way to do that too and I would say in terms of physicals and performance it could be compared to pretty good elastomers out there, consider also that in terms of durability and strength it is very very solid product.
It’s kind of funny when people ask me -hold on it’s going to biodegrade so you’re going to sweat and and your bacterias are going to make the fabric melt and it’s going to fall apart . No, it’s core spun which is also very good because of the hypoallergenic aspect of it so it’s fully covered by the cotton and the elastomer itself it’s a pretty thick natural rubber yarn and that thickness guarantees very very strong recovery performance and strength. So all physicals look very good and part of the patent is the finishing process as well because it’s not easy to stabilize those fabrics because the elasticity ratio was really high and we had to come up with a pretty interesting solution to make the finishing possible and to stabilize those fabrics. The fabrics with the COREVA technology and the fine-tuning has been finalized.
Response of regress, acid ,and stone washes on the fabrics made from this yarn
I would say fabrics made with COREVA are very flexible when it comes to laundry processing. We recommend not to use bleach, obviously, but that is something I would recommend anyway, but there is no particular technology or ingredient that COREVA can’t take.
We have two design centers, two tiny laundries- one here in Milan and one here in LA and those facilities were very helpful for us to study and analyze every single thing which could actually be done on COREVA and we didn’t really find any type of limitation.
Compared to the normal regular spandex, How much expensive is this going to be
As far as the linear meter is concerned, I would say we are about 40 percent more expensive than the regular stretch denim and I would say the average price for Candiani at the moment is Euro 5.50 per meter and here we’re talking Euro 7.50.
How helpful is this technology toward post-consumer recycling of the garments
I’m glad you’re asking this question because it’s something we recently found out. It is actually very easy to remove the natural rubber yarn from the actual cotton yarns so apparently it makes it easy so and also the PCR you obtain after the dismantling of the garments and the shredding of the fibers , it’s easy to get rid of COREVA..
Scalability of this technology
Today we could probably produce roughly one million meters with COREVA and I believe we can go up to 2.5 million meters in one year and eventually five in two years.
It is true that some people have already inquired about licensing for a different type of materials outside of denim so I’ll be exploring maybe those opportunities but not for the next two or three years there’s uh there’s no room for us to go in that direction
We’re actually sharing very interesting research with some of the elastomer suppliers we have a great collaboration with Roica who’s our strongest partner when it comes to elastomers and if you look what they’ve done with the v550 for instance which is a great elastomer .
It is truly a better elastomer if you look at the sustainable features that come with it against all the other elastomers and I believe that is still more competitive and scalable than COREVA by itself so I don’t want to compete with those guys, I don’t want to compete with my partners eventually.
Caroline Bonnet – Ex Category Manager of Celio with over 15 years of rich experience in this market , shared her views on the denim outlook for 2021. Here are some important points she made during her discussion with Sandeep Agarwal
Recovery Hopes For France In 2021
The market will not be recovered completely until the 1st Quarter of 2022.
Most of the retailers got loads of old stock to sell piled up into their inventory due to global lockdown. Now they have to do a lot of promotion to clean up their warehouse in 2021.
If the COVID crisis ends by the mid of 2021, there will be a good recovery and the market will be recovered by 2022.
The Overall Fall In Clothing Sales, More Than 50% In France?
For the denim sales, the figure is quite good, the denim sales per se witnessed a fall of 30%, better than other clothing.
March and April are not peak months for shopping, one of the reasons for reasonably lesser fall than others in France. Sales are quite high in the months of September, October, November, December, and January.
Major Denim Styles to prevail in the French Market in 2021
Slim, Skinny , loose and carrot fit
Since most of the people are working from home, Loungewear and comfort wear are going to be in trends.
Any Changes in Fibre Composition in upcoming season?
Fibre which has less impact on the environment is being preferred by leading brands.
Comfort strech and Polyster recycle
Natural fibre and biodegradable fibre
Views on Near-shoring
Near-shoring will increase by 30-40%
E-commerce in France
In 2019, e-commerce contributed only 5% of total sales before Covid.
Now, it is 10% and expected to increase more.
Store rents in France is very high, so to maintain its cash flow , many retailers are expected to close some of the stores and push the sale via e-commerce.
The story telling at the store can be replaced from store to online channels.
Market Outlook 2021
The midsegment market going to suffer however, the low segment and premium segment is going to grow.
The second-hand clothing market is going to evolve.
Denim business will grow but not as we have been expecting.
Daria Martelli, Head of Menswear Design- Pepe Jeans, with more than 15 years of experience working for international brands, spoke to Sandeep Agarwal about the most visible trends during 2020 – at the 2nd edition of Denimsandjeans Virtual Show concluded on October 15. We bring some excerpts from her talk . The full talk can be seen in a video here .
PROTECTION WITH COMFORT
Post-Pandemic, consumers’ habits witnessed a paradigm shift due to various reasons including shopping priorities and disposal income constraints. The consumer now prefers to buy products that ensure Protection with comfort, also the trends that align with the trees of humanity, the planet’s crisis, also will have durability and serve multi-purpose are going to rule. Hygiene and Fiber Innovations are going to play a big role now.
Daria believes that there will be a change in styling , it’s going to be more about evolution that it goes in hand with the feeling of people as a consumer but also at the end with innovation to make a more sustainable production process. Further, she asserted that coming next months and years are gonna see more a combination of innovation and protection in trends.
While discussing what type of clothing would be considered Multi-Purpose clothing according to such trends, Daria said that it can be wearable for the time that you spend at home and also fit perfectly when you go out. Basically, it should be clothing for different occasions and should support the consumer’s feelings and priorities. This trend is going to be strong in 2021 as well.
Implementation of new developments
New developments and directions are not so easy to implement in the supply chain and specifically when we are working in a digital way with the supply chain. While discussing this, Daria said that there’s a stronger connection between design and the supply chain.
Daria Martelli – Head Design- Pepe Jeans
Before it was a linear communication between what designer had in mind and then it was kind of a like a problem of suppliers to find a way to make that design a product.
Now I think there is a strong connection between both and most of the time now the design comes from an idea and innovation that they have to supply despite the design.
Daria also believes that digitalization is taking an important role and it will be more crucial going forward. So digitalization is helping brands, designers, and the supply chain to make a new way to work on products and a new collection. Digitalization is a tool that can help us to go through this transformation. Do visit this link to get to hear her complete views in a video talk.
Do not forget to subscribe to our official youtube channel where all our talks are uploaded – https://www.youtube.com/user/denimsandjeans/videos. Please press the bell icon to receive the notifications of our latest videos.
Mark D’Sa is a reputed apparel sourcing and supply chain professional with a career of over 4 decades . He has performed senior management roles in global retailers like GAP, Levi’s , Ralph Lauren etc. For the last many years, he has been involved in helping the US and Haiti Govt. in implementing the Caracol Industrial Park – which has been really successful and has provided over 14.500 jobs to the locals and helping Haiti reach an apparel export turnover crossed $1 billion in 2019 !
Sandeep Agarwal from Denimsandjeans spoke to him to get his perspective on various aspects of apparel sourcing with a focus on denim sourcing and how it has been changing over the years and how it is expected to change in near future , specially with the critical covid situation . The full interview will be streamed on Denimsandjeans Virtual show on Oct 14-15 and we bring excerpts from the same below.
Sandeep Agarwal Do you think that there was already a change in apparel sourcing patterns happening over the last few years?
Mark D’Sa Sourcing patterns have always been cyclical and there are constant change and movement in sourcing strategies every few years. In the 80s and 90s, new manufacturing locations were constantly opened up because of the quota limitations.
When quotas in China and HK were saturated, production moved to Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, etc. Later NAFTA was enacted in the early 90s and US sourcing patterns focused on Mexico. Soon after that, the Caribbean Basin Initiative was implemented and that saw some sourcing move to the Caribbean countries.Â
Again in 2005 when quotas were eliminated, the sourcing pendulum moved in a big way from Mexico and the Caribbean to China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. From 2006 to 2010 the passage of CAFTA, ATPA, and HOPE/HELP created some traction in the Latin American region. In the last fifteen years, the growth and transformation in China as an emerging economy precipitated pricing challenges which forced retailers and buyers to migrate products to Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Pakistan, India, and so on.
The underlying driver of the shift in sourcing strategies, I mean the root cause, is always price and profitability, followed by quality, lead time, and sustainability. This overriding drive for margins and profitability found Chinese competitiveness, great service levels, product development very attractive and over time it led to a heavy dependence on China which proved to be detrimental and very damaging to the retail supply chains when the tariff wars erupted and further exacerbated when the pandemic lockdown was imposed. Today , once again , every brand, importer, and retailer is strategizing, planning, and creating roadmaps for new strategies that are diversified, dispersed, and not heavily dependent on China.
You are particularly interested in denim and jeans and you can do an overlay of the history of offshoring of denim jeans which began in the 70s and the proliferation of brands designer jeans as dry processing and complex washes evolved.
The offshoring and nearshoring of denim are very clear patterns going back 50 years. At first, it was the pioneering brands of Levi, Lee, Wrangler, Brittania, and Jordache. In 1969 Gap arrived on the scene and that was a game-changer. About the same Gloria Vanderbilt jeans were created and produced in Hong Kong. Soon a number of other labels like Pegasus, Gitano, Limited, Lane Bryant, Pepe, Point Zero, Diesel, Guess began sourcing in Mexico and Asia to feed the growing demand. By 2006 there were more than 4,000 denim labels worldwide.
Sandeep Agarwal With Covid what is the major change you see in sourcing direction?
Mark D’Sa Great question! Trust- Trade Policy – Technology – Sustainability and how do you build back better? The first major change in the post COVID era has to be rebuilding trust, redefining terms of engagement, and reciprocity.
Trust will drive the change and relationships must be rebuilt. The swift and shocking reaction of several retailers and importers to the pandemic and sweeping cancellations; with no regard for the consequences, caused a huge breach of trust. The majority of retailers and brands have vetting processes and compliance policies that are meant to protect the welfare of the workers and their livelihoods. In defense of the retailers, the COVID lockdown was unexpected, they were unprepared and it forced them to into in a self-preservation mode.
The ensuing unilateral cancellations to protect their own interests with no apparent regard for the welfare of the workers and the business owners received strong negative reactions. The dichotomy that was displayed has impacted relationships and trust must be re-established.
The combination of COVID and the US trade confrontation with China will compel US retailers to move apparel production away from China. Vietnam and Bangladesh may be the initial beneficiaries in the short term, while the supply chain will continue to be heavily dependent on Chinese textiles.
In the medium and long term as textile capacity ramps up, if prices are competitive, if quality, sustainability, traceability, compliance, and governance all meet the buyer’s standards, then more of the South and Southeast Asian countries may see growth opportunity. Sustainability will be a priority. In denim, the effluent treatment, water reduction in the laundries, management of sludge will all be points of focus.
Driven by e-Commerce there will be other opportunities too, in the post COVID environment. Customer fulfillment, changing configurations in styles and quantities, new consumer behavior, and retail purchasing patterns may create opportunities for the Latin American region because of their proximity, available capacity, duty-free preferences, etc. However, Latin America has a limited range of products to offer focused on denim jeans, workwear, knits, athleisure, tailored suits, and a very small amount of outerwear. Woven shirts, dresses, rough wear, and other woven products are challenging to produce due to the lack of raw material. The core strength of the LatAm region is knits and denim.
There have been disruptors in merchandising and retailing years before COVID. Companies like Modcloth, Stitch Fix, Bonobos, Komposite with it’s predecessor Bombsheller and several others have leveraged the D2C (Direct to Customer) model with varying degrees of success. I think there are many valuable learnings from these disruptors which will feed the new normal.
Technology will be another major driver of change. Digitized platforms and blockchain technology will allow transparency and traceability of raw materials. For example, the Cotton Trust Protocol, E3 and Myfarm, could allow retailers to successfully navigate the Xinjiang cotton boycott and comply with CBP stipulations.
Compression of product development and sample approvals could shave off weeks, or months of a merchandising calendar with 3D CAD systems from Gerber and Tukatech that several manufacturers have adopted. Labdip approvals, shade bands for jeans, separation of dye lots, could all be accelerated and expedited with digital color management systems. Technology will help retailers and manufacturers to be more resilient and agile to face future shocks.
In denim jeans, the adoption of lasers eliminates the time, effort, and pollution. Lasers allow you to do away with the old hand abrasion, sandblasting, use of Dremel tools to create distress effects, and more. Technology will be a huge enabler in the manufacturing and supply chain as we move forward.
Sandeep Agarwal How do you think the sourcing mix in terms of regions might change. Which regions or countries would be the biggest winners.
Mark D’sa
The retail calendar and seasons are changing. Right now, the COVID-19 is still causing a lot of uncertainty and upheaval. BTS was confusing and chaotic– some schools opened while others will conduct remote learning. That affected retail sales and BTS is a big season.
The largest single shopping day of the year is the day after Thanksgiving – Black Friday. Many stores have already announced they will not open for Thanksgiving this year, but Thanksgiving promotions and discounts will begin online and in-store from early October. So you see, the patterns are changing and sales are unpredictable.
Approximately 6,300 stores are scheduled to be shut in 2020 and the retailers may focus on online sales. Retail is getting complicated and expensive with curbside deliveries, sanitization of in-store merchandise, trial rooms, social distancing, contactless payments, etc. So inventory flows and demands will change.Â
The health of the US economy, customer perceptions of sustainability, consumer behavior, the handling of the pandemic, the development of a vaccine, and other factors will drive the new normal, or new normals. There may be more than one normal emerging in 2021.
Some Latin American vendors are positioning themselves to take advantage of these changes. The potential definitely exists. Honduras is one country where some very strategic investments are taking place and interesting new developments are in the pipeline. Honduran manufacturers were also quick to pivot and leverage the opportunity to produce PPEs during the height of the pandemic. Â
Those manufacturers who are resilient and agile, who offer options and flexibility to meet whatever the new normal will require are the ones who will benefit and come out on top.
Sandeep Agarwal How do you think the Haiti project of the US govt that you are involved in is going on in the current situation?
Mark D’Sa
COVID took a toll in Haiti. Out of approx. 34 companies employing 60,000 people, two Korean companies in Port Au prince closed their doors during the pandemic lockdown. In addition several of the factories saw a reduction in orders which has led to a workforce reduction of about 9,000 workers. But Haiti has very flexible rules of origin under the HELP act and investors continue to be bullish about the prospects for Haiti.
The project I was involved in, is the Caracol Industrial Park in Northern Haiti and funded by the Inter American Development Bank and USAID. The project fortunately is doing very well and diversified with apparel exporters, a paint producer and a sisal rope manufacturing facility. It employs 14,500 people and exported U$ 210 million in 2019.
None of the companies in that location were affected by COVID and their business picked up without skipping a beat after a six-week national shutdown of factories. In fact, the Sri Lankan company MAS and the Korean company Sae-A have booked additional space for expansion of approx. 5,000 jobs which are a clear sign of commitment to future growth in the Caribbean region. In a country with a volatile political climate and frequent disruption, this project has proved to be successful, robust, resilient, and agile.
Of course, at the global level, the shift from China to Latin America will be very small compared to the transfer of programs to Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan who are likely to benefit the most. The future is going hold a lot of potential as new models of retailing and merchandising are tested, developed and consolidated
The 2nd Edition of Denimsandjeans Virtual Show comes back with many new features for both buyers as well as suppliers. Do not miss to attend the show, to visit the show, please register at https://lnkd.in/ekpaVrG
Ribbontex SRL, based in Italy, is one of the well known manufactures of accessories from Europe. The company produces ribbons, tapes, and patches in various categories.
We’ve had a brief Q&A with Ms. Gloria Crivellaro from Ribbontex, where we tried to get perspective of the accessories industry in Italy and how they are trying to cater to sustainability requirements in this segment by buyers around the world.
Europe witnessed a complete lockdown due to COVID 19, how’s your experience and what did Ribbontex do during the lockdown time?
Gloria Crivellaro (Ribbontex)
I am proud to say that we took advantage of this time of “greater” calm to grow and improve. It is during the difficult times that you can show your value. So we started to produce even protective masks, we started to work on the new collection and at the same time, we moved to a new and bigger building, able to meet the needs of our customers.
All this, enhancing the concept of digitization and implementing the research for eco-sustainable materials. I always quote Darwin’s sentence.. so fitting for these hard times.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”.
And as I think that life is a dance between free will and destiny, we have to accept destiny when it is impossible to do otherwise, but without ever stopping to do and choose what we like.
I believe that this experience has had and still will have many repercussions: for sure economically, but also humanly, socially, and emotionally. To be honest, especially in the beginning, it was a very difficult time. For a person like me, used to travel a lot, the sudden and total stop was a real shock.
But, belonging to a Latin people, also the fact of not being able to shake the hands of friends, customers, acquaintances, of not being able to greet each other with a hug, the fact of looking at and talking to each other wearing a mask , was a shock.
Personally I think that those weeks of closure at home and also the change in the habits of each of us forced us to see things differently. It forced us to deal with ourselves, our personality, our deepest, and most hidden fears. It made us discover unexplored “sides” of ourselves, forcing us to search, to “dig” inside instead of outside, to find new stimuli.
Yes, each of us is a complex set of several and different facets. But I am convinced that this experience has highlighted some that we did not even know we had. And this can be seen as a positive aspect.
Just as it is really positive that we all felt empathy for the rest of the world. We really felt closer despite the distance.
What do you think makes Ribbontex SRL a different company from other accessory companies?
Surely one of the strengths of our company is the top quality of our products, thanks to the raw materials used and the knowledge and the experience of our operators.
Another one is the reactivity to customers’ requests. I think we are extremely flexible, proactive, and always willing to find a meeting point to satisfy our clients. This is because human relationships and mutual trust are and will always be extremely important values for us.
How important is sustainability for the accessories companies and how has been Ribbontex contributing its bit towards this? Any specific products would you like to mention?
I can’t think of a split between clothing and accessories. In fact, if the first is designed to be eco-friendly, the second must be the same.
Sustainability is not a nice word to use to get more support. Sustainability is a lifestyle, a broader concept that Ribbontex already embraced many years ago. We have such a huge range of sustainable items, that it is practically impossible not to find something interesting and inspiring in it.
Due to this ongoing pandemic, there have changes in consumer behavior and also in the overall buying attitude, What changes do you see in the requirements of buyers in recent times, and how you have adjusted to them?
Certainly there have been many changes in the overall buying attitude and in my opinion many more will be in the coming months.
The demands are more and more targeted and specific. I would sum up by saying that the request was simplified in terms of the number of items but undoubtedly it was articulated in terms of refinement and prestige of the same ones.
What has an extra plus survives, the superfluous has been practically canceled by the new normal. How have we adjusted to these changes? We continued to produce high-quality products and at the same time we enhanced the concept of digitization and we implemented the research for eco-friendly materials.
We want to be ready and prepared, whatever may be required in the near future. And as I think life is a dance between free will and destiny, we have accept things and adapt to them BUT never stopping to do and choose what we like.
Please tell us about your latest sustainable collection?
Ribbontex has always had an eye on ethical and sustainability aspects.
This result , just to name a few examples, in the use of energy from renewable sources, in the use of raw materials with less environmental impact, in the banning of solvent inks for printing and the replacing with water-based ones.
And obviously, in this perspective, our product and style manager, Mr. Raouik, my close friend for almost 15 years, created a truly fantastic sustainable collection. Inside there are amazing accessories produced by using biodegradable materials, hemp, organic cotton, materials recycled from plastic bottles, materials coming from vegetable oils, eco leathers, solvent-free etc…
Covid times has brought out great challenges to the global denim industry in recent months. It has forced all of us to think about how we can adapt in the new environment and adjust to the new normal . We have been speaking to some of the important companies around the world on how they adapted their work procedures and processes to ensure minimal impact.
Denim Clothing Company is a well known and reputed vertically integrated denim company from Pakistan and has been serving global clients through their fabric and garment divisions . It currently operates four factory units and employs about 8,500 people.They have been known for their fast innovations and product launches and adaptability with a focus on sustainability . We spoke to the Director, Machiyara Group – Mr. Munaf Hussain on how he adapted his company to ensure that they could continue to serve their clients well and provide best possible services to them .
Given below are excerpts from the interview we had with him.
How is Denim Clothing Company (DCC) catering to its customer base in the current situation when travel is not possible. Are you able to reach out to them effectively?
The pandemic and ensuing lockdowns have enabled DCC to utilise our digital platforms more effectively. We have managed to push toward and explore new venues for digital communication to achieve an interactive experience with our customer base. Our marketing department is constantly meeting customers via video calling software, and we have switched digital product presentations.
Additionally, we have a network of our foreign offices / showrooms globally, all of whom are invested more than ever in facilitating our clients where physical meetings are unavoidable and filling up any communication constraints. Our new collections are available at our showrooms and can be delivered to customers in a very short time span. Again, this is very feasible for both ourselves and customers – delivery times are drastically reduced since the products and samples are easily accessible.
Your steps are in the right direction. Digitalization is the new keyword for business today. What further steps have you taken to take your products digital and bring them to your customers?
We have managed to very quickly adapt and implement a digital structure for communications – our showrooms both at the factory and globally are fully equipped to carry out digital presentations, whether live or as pictorials, with the latest software and technology. There are dedicated conference rooms for both individual and team video conferencing), again employing up to date tech setup for video calling.
DCC has switched to creating E-catalogues of all our new collections, with high resolution images and detailed product sheets. In this way, customers can simply browse through the information at their convenience and then the process can be facilitated via video conferencing. For more detailed product perusal and information, samples are readily available at all our showrooms and can be dispatched when needed.
You have been putting in efforts for sustainability for a long time. What are the major steps you have taken in this direction and what have been the results?
All our present and future developments are visualized with a sustainability focus in mind. We have placed immense efforts in this arena and taken some major steps across the value processing chain.
Since the establishment of our factory, we have proceeded to install a WasteWater Treatment Plant, and we are mindful of maintaining and updating the plant according to the latest health and safety advisories. Currently, we recycle about 50% of our processed water and reutilize it, thus conserving this precious resource.
We take great importance in utilizing Recycled Content Fabrics as well as Organic Fabrics along with Sustainable Dyeing methods to ensure our commitment to a circular economy.
In terms of operations, our latest feat is securing a Leed Gold Certification for our production facility, which reaffirms our commitment to being a ‘Green Factory’.
Our garment washing treatments consistently employ the latest sustainable methods, low impact washes via a state of the art Jeanologia E-flow, EIM and Laser systems, PP Less washes, anti-microbial treatment (this has taken on new meaning and importance with the pandemic onset). Our laundry setup is a ZHDC complaint, and strictly follows guidelines with respect to chemicals which are harmful towards the environment.
In terms of tangible achievements, DCC has enabled 50% recycling of all water used within the production process. Additionally, to reaffirm the reduction of contamination and dangerous chemical usage, we have minimized our consumption of stones in the laundry process.
Our aim is to move steadily towards a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) system and doing our part in reducing the textile industries’ carbon footprint. In this respect we continuously implement and improve the EMS system to improve our working processes. Also to watch out for is our plan to introduce the capability for an Ozone Bleaching System, which is being finalized through our research and development team.
What sustainability programmes are you subscribed to?Please share some ideas on the certifications and approvals that you received towards sustainable initiatives.
For our fabric division we are currently certified with:
HIGG FEM 3.0
ISO 14001
OEKO Tex 100
Oeko-Tex STeP
Made in Green
GOTS
Global Recycled Standard
Content Claim Standard
Organic Content Standard
Recycled Claim Standard
BCI
And for the Garments Division:
HIGG FEM 3.0
OEKO Tex 100
STEP Certification
Made in Green
BEPI
ISO 14001
EIM Score
ZDHC Compliance
GOTS & OCS
GRS / RCS
How is your product development process going ? How are you able to react to requirements of your customers when it is not easily possible to do physical things like sampling / travelling etc. Are you able to meet customer needs?
Our diverse and multi-nationally located team have become our core strength in these times. We have always pushed ourselves in various directions to come up with new ideas and concepts in order to meet various customer requirements, and the present is a similar challenge for our team. Overall, our product development process is quite effective at the moment, customers are buying from the backlog which had been created during lockdown. New selections for order are being carried out through digital catalogues / images.
Speed and turnaround time are other keywords which are getting important in the context of the current situation. How have you adjusted your procedures and processes to be able to reduce the lead time for your customers?
Currently as you know, the entire buying as well as supply cycles have been disturbed. However, things are slowly beginning to improve with the easing of lockdowns and gradually the pace is increasing. However, we are conscious of not doing too much too fast – health and safety of our employees remains our top priority and we are careful in resuming production keeping in view the latest scientific guidelines.
As stated above, we have complete confidence in our local and international teams to ensure customer satisfaction, and employ technological aids to their fullest in order to reduce hassles due to travel and movement restrictions.
The panelists include : 1) Vildan Altun Seylan – Senior Designer at LC Waikiki 2) Townonda Vaughns – Ex Design Head, Espirit 3) Ikeme Audrey Eshemokhai – Denim Specialist 4) Daria Martelli – Head of Men’s Design at Pepe 5) Joann Lee – Working as Designer at a Global Premium Denim Brand. 6) Valter Filipponi – Senior Denim & Men’s Wear Designer at GUESS EMEA
All the panelists were of the view that there has to be a kind of reset of the ways that the industry has been working on specially with huge wastage and long planning for products which remain unsold. Panelists also felt that sustainability is useless unless the human element is considered . Besides all accepted the strong challenges to designing that are coming up due to Covid and all mentioned how they are individually adjusting to the situation .
Daria Martelli
Daria Martelli
Daria was emphatic that we need to change and adopt new ways . However, she did not feel life going out of designing. She felt there will be more changes on features and functions and less on aesthetics. She mentioned :
“Fashion is always how people express their feelings.. People are spending more time at home – so comfort is more important. More functional changes are expected to come in denim with health aspects becoming important.
Anti microbial and other health properties will become important. There are also talks of producing locally – but I think we should not rush from one extreme to another extreme because we have invested so much in our supply chains in Asia and we cannot take all of it out all of a sudden. “
On challenges for designing she said :
“We have to find a way to find a way to express ourselves . When we start designing , we have also to think what is going to be the end the garment. Will it be recycled ?â€
On Seasonless designing she said :
“Seasonless does mean that the calendar set by fashion industry can be avoided . However , it does not mean that everything will be plain, does not mean there will be no romance or companies will lose their DNA . We just do it in a different way with more value. “
Valter Filipponi
Valter Filipponi
Valter felt that he was missing a lot due to this crisis . He also felt a complete rethink was necessary :
“Technology , digital approach to design , anti microbial designs are all very good. For me , there is a big opportunity for the fashion system to just stop and think about what we have been doing till now and not to make the same mistakes again and again.
Its time to stop and rethink the system from the beginning. Its not just a matter of design . We have to start thinking of how to RE Think this industry. And that’s the biggest challenge. We should DO LESS AND DO BETTER. And this has to come from the top Mgt. Another important thing is to Manufacture Locally to rebuild local economy . “
He really felt that it was difficult for designer to be creative in front of a computer : “I miss completely the touch , feel and smell of the product . Also a question arises whether a designer can be creative by staying at home . I want to be back to normality and real life as soon as possible. “
On season less he felt that “In denim seasonless could be easier because you can use 12oz denim for 4 season with different washes but it would be difficult to explain to investors.”
Ikeme Audrey Eshemokhai
Ikeme Audrey Eshemokhai
Ikeme spoke about effect on product development
“Covid has accelerated lot of fabric development which were already there specially on various kinds of health and wellness finishes. In terms of manufacturing, there will be a lot of near-shoring . Another important point would be to decide what to do with all these inventories that are there. “
About seasonality , fashion speed etc she said
“Season-less clothing would definitely be more important . People were already spending less money on clothing before Covid happened. Some categories like outerwear already had problems as summers extended into winters and winters extended into summers. “
“People have been talking for years that our business model is outdated. Eg some brands are already putting Coats into the stores as early as May / June – which does not make any sense . People are talking about SLOW FASHION but I think everything will speed up . “
“Brands are going to focus on their core products which have to be in the stores all the time and there are going to be more capsule collections with kind of On demand production . Massive focus on 3D softwares which is very cost effective. Brands are looking at ways to re appropriate existing inventories . “
She also mentioned that “Value of garment should also be reflected on price. There is a huge margin pressure on the brands . Eg they are looking for much better finishes in terms of anti microbials, graphene etc but not really ready to pay extra for that. “ “It is Difficult to design remotely . Season-less collections should have been happening before Covid. Probably it has to be more layered clothing. More capsules will come which you can layer out with core products. Everything was speeded up by fast fashion retailers because they were copying so fast that the high value brands had to follow and bring more designs quicker. “
Joanne Lee
Joanne Lee
She stressed about 3D and digital technologies becoming very important
“Radical changes expected are expected in the ways we work . Digital 3D softwares will become important. Fashion schedules are going to change , priorities are going to change, company initiatives are going to change. Sampling will be done with 3D prototypes.. “
She also mentioned about how her efficiency is improving at home
“Working from home has helped me improve my work, helped me design in a different way. “
“Brands need to be more decisive about their final products and not add / remove at last moment. Designers need to adapt to digital designing. “
She also stressed that Clothing should not be defined by a season and should have much longer shelf life.
Townonda Vaughns
Townonda Vaughns
Towonda asked the industry to realize the problems that were already there
“We have to recognize problems before Covid. Covid brought everything to the surface. Massive amount of inventories and money lost due to that makes us realize that we have overdoing it . We have to go digital, 3D technologies will become important , AR etc will become very important. Collections will have too much smaller with durable fabrics and make products that last longer. Offer products which are more democratic.”
“We have to minimize fabric assortments – pick good qualities with great constructions on which we can do sustainable washes. Payment terms also becomes a very important aspect to ensure that the producer gets paid. There may also be a situation where factories may like to chose the brands they would like work with . “
She felt designers will need to adapt:
“I feel now I am learning a whole new language – specially the 3D aspects. My travel will now much more restricted . However, I will not stop going to laundries or factories . Will try to get much more done in one trip at factory level to avoid sending garments back and forth. Would look for 360 degree relations with factories. Long relation with factories will help me to trust their decisions as they know my taste .
“We should be careful about throwing the word Season-less around. I want to know more what exactly this word means. Same goes with the word ‘Sustainability’ – which was misused. “
Vildan Altun Seylan
Vildan Altun Seylan
She felt that Lounge wear and home wear products with relaxed wearing and soft touches with relaxed fits will be important with preference for sizeless garments.
“ Wellness technologies , water resistant, stain resistant , skin friendly garments will be very useful . Sustainability becomes much more important than before. Another thing which is new is natural dyed fabric on denim fabric combination . Usage of silver and gold and carbon for various kinds of finishes in denim would become important because of anti microbial and anti viral properties . “
She also spoke of SLOW FASHION and that will also address issues of sustainability .
“Seasonless main concept has to be ‘Buy less and Use more ‘ . Slow fashion is also becoming very important. “
We recently spoke to Andrea Monti from SEI laser recently regarding an important topic related to our industry- On Demand Production. With growing uncertainties in the industry in recent years, it is increasingly being felt by retailers and brands that they would like to limit their long exposure through shorter lead times between conception and delivery – essentially producing goods on demand. But this is an utterly difficult proposition given the complexities involved in creating processes to highly speed up production processes.
SANDEEP:
My guest today is Andrea Monty who is manager and consultant at Sei laser Italy. Sei laser Italy is a company born in the 80’s with laser applications in a great number of fields. May I welcome Andrea for the talks.
ANDREA:
Thank you very much Sandeep, I’m very glad to be here and join you with this beautiful audience and this very welcome friendly chat with professionals.
SANDEEP:
Thank you Andrea, most welcome and as we all know we’re going through a big crisis and we have to change our way of working and we have to adjust, we have to adapt, we have to come out with new solutions. My first question to you would be about the current situation in Italy, Please tell us about that .
ANDREA:
We all know that our country after China has been the first to be hit and it has been badly hit actually. Our company is really in the area which has been most hit by the Covid 19 and we are now facing an evolution in the situation which was very bad at the beginning but now we have a sensible reduction of new cases.
There’s much fewer deaths every day compared to previous periods and that led our government to ease the very tight lockdown which was established at the very beginning in order to face this exceptional and terrible situation.
On our side as a company as SEI laser, somehow we have been lucky because we are laser experts and we work in several different fields. It means that it’s not just textile or denim for us but we work a lot in other applications. Some of these applications deal with the world of medicines so blisters for instance , for the industry medicines or laser cutting machines for plastic gear that it is used for protection nowadays against Covid.
So we really never ended our production and now we are back to 100% of production. We follow all the protections and the SOPs from our government. The situation is really getting better and the industries have already started to recover.
SANDEEP:
So, coming to our topic of today’s discussion- On demand manufacturing, . So there have been a lot of interpretations about this- a lot of also talk about it. What is your definition because people define it differently.
ANDREA:
Oh yeah true absolutely there has been a lot of talking regarding that.
A couple of years ago, we were approached by e-commerce companies. They knew we were laser experts and they came with a very interesting question. Basically they said well :
‘Andrea, we have a problem or at least we feel we have a problem. Our usual supply chain has timings and volumes that for us are difficult to cope with ,our customers who are the consumers basically want to see something on the web, they like it, they click on it, they pay it and then within three days maximum they want to receive that home. ‘
Now with the usual supply chain we have to work a lot in advance with that and we have to walk your quantities, make it trials. We are never 100% sure what is going to be received etc. And we have to make a lot of samples and it takes a lot of time for transportation by ship from manufacturers to other locations, massive quantities and so on.
We asked them what would you like then?
Well we want our customers to receive a ready-made garment made to their taste, personalized possibly and maybe with his specific size of the garment in three days from the order.
You can imagine our first answer was okay, forget it, it’s impossible thank you bye bye. Then they came back and they said that again and for the second time we said okay it’s impossible, forget it.
Then they came a third time and the third time our team sat down and we said –
Hey! look we have to change the angle of view of this thing we have to think that this is possible simply we have to face, we have to understand what do we need to make it actually possible, every single step. And in a way we were lucky because of our history. This company is a company of engineers of laser experts who has been working with lasers for over 30 years, I mean in every possible application or field: name a material and we produce the machines to cut it or to engrave it, etc (stone, paper, glass, metal, textile) and we realized that from a hardware point of view, we already had the solution in our hands coming from a completely different field which had nothing to do with textiles but it was a very massive solid reliable hardware.’
So our technicians, our engineers they said -hey look we need to adapt, we need to improve, we need to enhance the capacities of these machines and adapt them according to the customer needs and then we’d started hearing– talking to customers, to brands to garment makers and asking them what do you exactly need and a lot of questions came out.
A lot of interesting things and finally we made this innovative product that would be on the market now. Actually it’s a system that starts working from the fabric and basically you get at the end all the pieces of blue jeans. In this case, made through laser engraving, cutting at the same time and with a robot solution that will pile all the pieces up so that they can reach the stitching lines.
The interesting thing is that we can basically skipped most, if not 100% of the usual laundry operations so there is very little water consumption: is only at the end for a normal wash and basically no chemicals so a dramatic way, a dramatic improvement towards eco-sustainability and to shorten up the supply chain.
Now, the interesting thing is the concept of these systems, we heard what customers were asking, is that it can be placed anywhere, it doesn’t need you know air conditioning or special rooms or whatever.
You can put it in the desert, you could put it in in the middle of a city and in fact our first installations are going into Los Angeles, there will be fully operational I believe by the end of the year and thanks to an agreement with one of our customers which actually is a south Asian company which has opened these branches in the United States. For these on-demand, fast quick manufacturing of blue jeans. So what was impossible at the beginning has become possible ultimately.
SANDEEP:
So what is the total lead time, let’s say from the time the order is placed by a customer and the fabric, the time and everything put together, how much time it should take to complete the garment?
ANDREA:
We are entering a phase where we have to ease the relationship between the designers, the brands and their specific needs and the garment makers. So we have embedded a 3D software that we have developed ourselves because originally this company was a company of software at the very beginning and the interesting thing is that this software is capable of working in 2D and 3D, so it means that a designer can descend to the company that has the machine its own layout 2D or 3D the machine will absorb it, will transfer all the design on a 3D model. You can work actually on that 3D model on the machine, no need to go to Photoshop or other software or whatsoever, you do it there in real time at the moment and once you’re satisfied with the garment you ask your customer “do you like itâ€, if they say yes, you push the button and then the machine will automatically transform that again into a 3D layer but optimizing immediately every possible size that you have put inside and it will do automatically the sizes for the cutting because this particular laser solution does the marking, the design and the cutting at the same time.
So let’s say that a complicated garment will take a minute and a half two minutes- approx. to be done by the machine. Then picked up and sent to stitching lines: that allows, depending on the design of course, to have from some hundred to a thousand garments per day and so basically you can achieve the result of sending them to the final consumer within the famous two or three days or whatsoever, by using a local DHL or UPS or whatever delivery is available because it’s just the time of stitching, a home wash and then you send it.
So it’s a little miracle that comes through and the fun part of this is very nice.
SANDEEP:
But the fabric has to be there because if the fabric has to be available that is a pre requisite.
ANDREA:
Of course you can work on with standard fabrics, you can also work with special fabrics. Now the interesting thing is that we we thought of textile with all the respect for denim, that we love.
We’re denim lovers and denim is a part of textiles so with this system you can work also other fabrics- you can work 100 percent cotton fabrics, you can work artificial fabrics, you can work even on TPU and you can even make shoes if you want or accessories depending on your final market. From that point of view, there is no limit outside. I mean it’s interesting, it’s a disrupting technology and we think that you know I would really speak of close to the customer manufacturing.
SANDEEP:
So do you see this, let’s say if this model is successful and there’s a lot of productions. Let’s say in the U.S people want to do it close to their cities, they want to make the production in their country itself in different places. So how does you balance the production which is going on
in other countries in Asia, Turkey & other places?
ANDREA:
This is an important question, Sandeep. I think there’s a misuse of the word called the re-shoring. I would say instead of re-shoring, proximity manufacturing, because there is something lying below it that makes you assume that this technology is against the traditional technology or not at all. I mean this technology is for services, for giving solutions to customers. In fact, here in SEI Laser we say we don’t sell machines, we sell laser solutions because we need to understand what customers really want.
In this case, this technology goes hand in hand together with the traditional production, because mass production will always be there. Mass production will increase even in the future, obviously it will have to be more eco-sustainable, it will have to be rethink sometimes with more attention to certain areas but this new high tech is not a revolution: is an evolution.
It’s something that is positive, it will lead most probably exactly the same players who are doing the blue jeans nowadays to make them not only in the country where they have their mother company, but in other countries as well, in order to give the local quick support to that fast fashion or fast production that is needed.
Now I’m not saying that there will be no new incomer but this is also good news. Obviously, there will be some new brands, some small companies that cannot afford big productions. They will seek solutions like that in order to be close to their customers and give them the service that they want.
We’re all in the industry and industry needs to make profit at the end. So this is something that will lead to profit for special things and it will be calling the traditional production because any company everywhere around the world that is capable of giving the good answers to their customers specific needs is a winner.
SANDEEP:
Absolutely, it’s all about solutions and innovative solutions that we can give to the customers. So do you feel that these are two complementary things they don’t need to compete with each other basically they are supplementing each other ?
ANDREA:
Yes, absolutely, you know this near-shoring or proximity manufacturing has also some other positive very positive points, because this will also create new jobs. This will finally give back profit to many companies. If we have to say what are the main problems that many traditional companies are facing nowadays is that most probably the actual supply chain is too slow.
It takes too much time and time is essential nowadays and there is also a lot of waste. I mean just think of the amount of garments which are wasted every year. You know either brands that dig a hole in the ground and then they burn them which is absolutely absurd. The main point is changing the business model or adapting to changes, which in any case are forced or will be partially forced by this situation and that will lead to evolution. The first word that all of us should bear in mind is ‘No more waste’ means saving money, saving time, giving new opportunities, new jobs.
Just think for instance the impact of technology and the impact of digital technology: we are fully into that. Some say this is the future… no it’s not, it’s already happening! With the advent of these 3D software for instance and as I said we have put our own 3D software on a machine that works 2D and 3D etc.
In the real time with a real laser just think of the fact that usually when the designers make new collections only 15% of that is accepted by the final customer, by the brand. All the rest is the 85%, is rejected. Now when you adopt 3D modeling, you are able to communicate immediately with the counterpart on the other side of the world and you can send it to them immediately, directly online. You can show them how the garment will be and you can send to them in two days the physical final garment exactly as they have seen it on the screen.
The rejections will drop because you are already doing something which is exactly close to what the customer was looking for. We all know that a new sample cost is between $1,500-2,000.
So just imagine how much money already you save at that very first step and then you know, the usual procedure to make new samples usually takes ages – 20, 25, 30 days. Now this is a matter of hours, you can have it in real time. It’s just the time zone difference, you play with that and it happens something which makes an incredible difference. Obviously this opens the path to new jobs, for sure there will be a lack of specific technically prepared designers but we are not talking about rocket science. This is something that even normal people can learn because it has to be simple and if it is simple it works.
SANDEEP:
Absolutely I think this is very important coming from the consumer perspective, you mentioned of course time is very important. They are looking for faster speeds, the retailers are all looking for speed, personalization, timely deliveries and apart from this what other changes in consumer preferences do you see coming up?
ANDREA:
Well yeah that’s a question that is spanning all around you know, because everybody is trying to have a sort of principle to answer to that. Having said that, apart from probably the first step of revenge buying, at the very beginning where people will be so happy that finally they can get out into shops and buy something and show it etc.
But I think that there will be other motivations in the next future that came with this period and most probably they’re here to stay. We have all been talking regarding sustainability during these years. Nowadays, it becomes even more important than before.
So consumers they will be back to shops but at the same time e-commerce and home delivery have become normality standard you know, and even the necessity of smart working and e-learning has suddenly improved. You know, the workers, the people’s perception towards the integration of digital and the real world so we really now understand it’s visible, it works and it gives advantages, I think there will be an evolution that will add to the usual models of creation, manufacturing and delivery. You know, one of the things that I think consumers will like in the next future, and companies like us, but even brands, everybody: is that we should seek for interaction with the final customer.
What is the real meaning of customization? It means to play together with customers, engage them. Just think that there are areas which were not even explored till yesterday in marketing and in garment making. I’ll just make an example of something that I’ve seen during these days which is pretty interesting- virtual garments, what is that?
I don’t know how you or our audience is familiar with the video games but there’s already some in the most common popular video games. There is already interaction between brands, between marketing, garment making and the games themselves.
Making examples, in the video game The Sims, for the season there is a famous brand collection that you can buy and actually it’s a copy of the real garments that you can buy in shops. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the video game called Fortnite, my kids play with Fortnite now on.
In Fortnite recently there has been a concert, a virtual concert, because obviously normal concerts are not allowed nowadays, but there has been this virtual concert by a famous rapper, can’t remember the name because this is for kids, but it’s a famous rapper and obviously it was his Avatar running the show, with his voice running the show inside the game. And inside the game, the avatar of this famous guy was wearing shoes which were sponsored by a famous brand and these shoes are available for real.
Now, do you know what was the audience of that? 12 million people. 12 million people watching and loving online advertising and what you see there it’s something that you can manufacture for real and that you can do for real and that you can personalize for real, by putting your name, by changing the colors and whatever.
So it really opens a new world also for consumers, it means that consumers will always buy depending on their spending capability.
Of course, depending on their age, depending on their geography, on their taste everything that we know but they will be keeping both levels- this new level and the traditional level.
On top of that, I would like to remember all of us in an optimistic way of thinking that the world population is still growing and it will grow, I mean in the last 100 years it has been growing much more than for millenniums.
I mean, at the beginning of the last century there were one billion people in the world and nowadays we are almost 8 billion so it will grow up and all these people will need clothes and they will need blue jeans. Now I’m not saying that it will be all luxury, there will be every possible level of buying, but it will increase in any case in terms of numbers and by using new modern means all these population of consumers will want things fast, beautiful, at reasonable price and so on.
One last point, that is a thing you know is a personal reflection, I would like to spend few words regarding compassion, understanding, solidarity; why there has been a lot of talking during these days, because when the Covid spread around the world some brands panicked and they cancelled orders suddenly, creating problems to the whole supply chain. Somehow this was expected, but problems are there.
On the other side, there are others who didn’t cancel the orders but they tried to reduce the costs or prices of the garments and then there are others who kept their commitments and uh I think that somehow in the next future, the consumers hopefully they will reward them, you know all those brands and manufacturers who have been showing, as I have said, fairness, commitment, understanding, solidarity, compassion. I think this is another important thing that we will all have to aim to.
SANDEEP:
Yeah, that’s a wonderful point and also your example of virtual presentation of garments in a show that is a very real life example of how we can reach out to a very large base of customers and get their reactions on those products and quickly respond to that.
I would say and of course compassion is so important today as livelihoods of millions of people are at stake .
I’m really very not very sure how much consumers will remember after one year what the brands have done. But if they do remember it’s very good because we need to reward people who are fair, who are with their customers, who support their supply chain, who support their employees so I mean there has to be reward for fairness.
ANDREA:
Yes I think so and I would like you to also send it to you and to your audience a positive message because okay, we are all facing a very difficult tough situation as we in Italy we have been experiencing and we’re still experiencing it, you know in a very hard way somehow. But you know, when things get difficult, usually they put challenges and the human brain, mankind, finds solutions for that – is pushed to find solutions.
So I would like to mention some words about this current situation of positive resilience. Thank god we are all into a very resilient industry which is the denim industry, that exists since 150 years and it has been proven to be resilient and it will be resilient, it will resist and it will live expansion because you know the market is still expanding because of that growth of population that I mentioned before.
I would say: inception of new technology and the solutions opening of new markets, new opportunities, new jobs, increasing the number of pieces manufactured in garments it will not happen immediately but it will happen through this value chain that will give better and better opportunities, because this is becoming a moment of opportunities: is the dawn of a high tech digital evolution in the garment industry that will create new opportunities for new jobs.
And finally I would say sharing and sharing honestly. I have to public thank you for the excellent work that you’re doing Sandeep, because with sharing all these communications, all these know-how, this point of view in our industry, you are doing an extremely precious work for the community, for all of us. We are doing a tremendous great job I would really like to thank you from the deep of my heart and saying that, I would just add you know all these words I told you: resiliency, expansion, inception, opening and so on they are positive words.
Let’s look with confidence to the future even if it’s tough. We are in the tunnel but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I’m pretty sure that soon, hopefully soon, bright new days will be back again.
ANDREA:
Thank you Andrea this is a wonderfully positive closing note here given. We don’t need to be demotivated by this situation currently, what we have and the key words that you’re given are very crucial. We need to be positive about the future. We will recover our business our lives in a couple of months or maybe let’s say in a year or something it should be back to normal and we’ll probably come out much better as a human race probably we might come out much better do much better. Take care of our mother earth and our people in a much better way.
ANDREA:
Yes, we all hope that and we are all aiming for that. Thank you very much.
SANDEEP: Thank you Andrea it was a pleasure talking to you, thank you for sharing your talks and coming here.
SEI Laser is now at the digital sourcing platform – De Brands. Buyers can register at https://lnkd.in/gNdAj3v
Webinar – How the Brazilian denim industry has adjusted to the covid situation and is coming back on its feet
Recently Denimsandjeans held a webinar with representatives of some reputed important denim industry professionals from Brazil and discussed “How the Brazilian denim industry has adjusted to the covid situation and is coming back on its feet.”
The talk was co-moderated by Sandeep Agarwal from Denimsandjeans.com and supported in organization and moderation by Vivian David .
Here are the key takeaways from the WEBINAR. Watch the full video here .
ANDRE DURATE
Working in Riacheulo – a large retailer in Brazil, Andre mentioned about how digital buying was getting more and more important where people were not used to it before.
“Facing new challenges especially in our company. New kind of behaviour as the customer changed his way to buy – they are now using cell phones and computers to buy. Everything is a new challenge but we are facing these with a good opportunity to preserve our customers and what actually changed is the way we are dealing with the same problems.”
He also mentioned about how fast they improved their E-Commerce
” We felt that this virus will grow before it really did and in two weeks we had to improve our e-commerce and we did”
On products ordered by customers he mentioned
“Some different products coming to all our orders as everybody is buying more pajamas for example. We are trying to promote more products looking for comfort things as everybody’s in home. So this is the thing that how our company is working on. We are doing what is necessary to make our customers isolation experience more comfortable”.
Andre also stressed that they are working on a very important solution to sanitize the garments after production and also at their shops. He said they are very close to finding the solution. “More clever consumer is coming up . This is not the era of changing – its a change of Era. Its not a new chapter, its a new book ! We are going to be more human . Sustainability issue is changing – its going to either you are sustainable or you are out of biz. “
He also stressed on how technology
“We could say this few years ago but nowadays we can make a pair of jeans using only a litre of water it is totally possible and we have technology but it’s not fashioned and it needs to be fashioned, it needs to be cool. This is one of our main goal- how to make it greener ,how to make it better, how to make a very sustainable product with fashion. Because first of all I have to change your sight, you have to look it and fall in love.”
Andre was positive that the impact on younger generation will be big and in a positive way. He was also positive about how sustainability will become more important.
MARIA JOSE ORIONE
Maria stressed on the continental dimensions of the Brazilian market and does not have the best income distribution.
“We have several types of consumer profiles so those with lower incomes raised purchase products for basic necessities such as food .This type of consumer was the one which had the biggest loss of income in this moment. So I think this kind of consumers is out of the buying nowadays but the medium and high levels of consumers of income, they are still adapting to this new type of digital consumption.”
She also felt that the consumption will reduce and there will be more adaption in the coming times. She also mentioned about supply chain consolidation possibilities in Brazil.
“Supply Chain Consolidation: Brazil had a very big consolidation about 10 years ago. But it didnt work well. Organized market in Brazil is not huge and there is a split market . The way retailers run in the country will not change.”
She also felt that Brazil was the only country in southern hemisphere with supply chain from Cotton to Retail and felt it would not be much time before it bounces back.
SUELI PERIARA
She spoke about the status of fashion in Brazil,
“I think a fashion is being strongly impacted because fashion is not essential items for consumer . There has been a 96 percent drop in classical consumption decision. So also I think you had the problem that the digital change channel area is too very little exploited here, making things worse so you have to learn fast and adapt to this situation but I think it will change a lot for us. “
“Big challenge for us to review business model to seek new solutions . Everybody is working hard to find the solution but on the other hand I assure you we will come out of this stronger with many solutions in many sectors .”
She also spoke about increased demand for health products
“Customers are looking for health products. Challenge is how to make it possible in an industry where the garments have to be washed. Need to give more value to the products. “
Also she hoped that a new wall is not created between economies. She also mentioned that since Santista has two segments – Denim and Workwear , the latter received an increase in demand. Though denim has been slow, it is returning back a little.
She also spoke about sustainable initiatives in Santista
” We have the upcycle in process, a project aquasafe that reduce more than 78% water in the process of industry. We also have replant system in our mills and we use this kind of plantations in our factory to not use any kind of chemicals to do these. “
VIVIAN DAVID
Working in Guija Jeanswear magazine and closely connected to all segments of industry , she mentioned about how companies are trying to survive with most employees working from home.
She was positive about Brazil and the industry bouncing back :”
“Customers will celebrate and look for stylish clothings and not just essentials once this crisis is over as Brazilians know how to put aside the problems and move ahead. More affordable clothing will be important. “
She also spoke about how many companies are shifting to mask production to cater to its demand and keep on going their productions.
Advertisement
Over 40 companies have joined the DE-Brands platform for sharing their digital collections which are being viewed by hundreds of verified professionals from the denim buying community. Register to check out more details https://www.de-brands.com/buyer-registration/
Check out the latest AW21 collection on De Brands Now.
