Apparel

With E-Textiles, Looking 'Smart' Takes on Whole New Meaning

April 21, 2016

From sweat-sending wristbands to electrode-embedded workout suits, new innovations in smart clothing are coming thick and fast.

Asian Manufacturer Cuts Costs, Increases Transaction Efficiency Through Cloud-Based Platform

April 12, 2016

Challenge: An Asia-based manufacturer of sports shoes struggled with manual handling of buyers' PO requests, invoicing, and packing lists. Vast amounts of data were stored on cumbersome Excel spreadsheets. It resulted in a heavy workload, inefficiency, and frequent errors.

RFID Gives Clothing Retailer Anti-Theft Protection, Inventory Control

April 11, 2016

RFID Journal

To improve inventory visibility and prevent loss, men's clothing retailer Gieves & Hawkes has deployed a radio frequency identification system at its store in Birmingham, England.

Red Wing Shoe Company: Big Strides Towards the Future

April 8, 2016

Mallery Dosdall, Demand Planning Manager, Red Wing Shoe Co., Inc.

American Apparel Uses RFID Tech to Enable Orders Through Postmates

April 7, 2016

RFID Journal

Consumers who use Postmates' on-demand delivery service now have the opportunity to buy core products from American Apparel. The service takes advantage of the passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags that American Apparel attaches to all of its merchandise, enabling Postmates to identify which items are available within an individual customer's geographic area.

Ocean Container Weight Verification Requirement May Greatly Boost Shipping Costs, Study Finds

March 29, 2016

Wall Street Journal

An impending international requirement that shippers verify the weight of their goods before transport will sharply raise shipping costs on major trade lanes and trigger delays in moving cargo through ports, according to a new report.

Clothing Industry Start-ups Beginning to Start Up - in the U.S.

March 28, 2016

Fast Company

A nascent trend of clothing start-ups bringing business back to American factories in under way. Over the past two decades, there was a 90 percent decline in apparel manufacturing industry in the U.S., from 940,000 jobs in 1990 to 136,000 in 2015. This has been in part due to the Trans-Pacific Partnerships, which provide incentives such as lower tariffs for companies that want to produce clothes overseas - though the merits of free trade have been hotly contested in this election cycle.

Record Spending Predicted for Easter Season

March 21, 2016

Fierce Retail

Shoppers are expected to spend roughly $17.3bn on Easter goods this year, a record amount according to the National Retail Federation's annual Easter Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics.

Putting the Brakes on Fast Fashion

March 17, 2016

SupplyChainBrain

Zady's supply chain is markedly different from those of most apparel companies today. Here's how the company is working to slow the pace of a business that has become obsessed with speed, often at the expense of factory workers and the environment.

The Inventory Implications of Apparel Omnichannel

February 25, 2016

SupplyChainBrain

Analyst Insight: For online customers, the buy button is easy; everything behind that is complex. Eighty percent of omnichannel strategy is about inventory strategy. It comes down to making intelligent inventory allocation decisions across the network and building an infrastructure flexible enough to quickly realign inventory to meet customers where they want. The key to omnichannel success is offering the customer multiple options and incentivizing the profitable flows. - Jason Denmon, Apparel Industry Leader, Fortna Inc.

Apparel

The latest supply-chain news, analysis, trends and tools for executives in the apparel industry — which consists of companies that manufacture clothing, accessories and footwear. Learn how apparel companies and their suppliers around the world are managing the flow of products across all channels of the enterprise. Experts sound off on forecasting and demand planning, supply-chain visibility, logistics outsourcing, inventory optimization, transportation management, warehouse management, supply-chain security, corporate social responsibility and more.