You could call it the ultimate Chinese take-out order: American companies are in the process of an unprecedented migration out of China, seeking new places to make products that U.S. consumers have become used to. For much of the past four decades China has been the go-to resource for just about any and everything sold to American consumers. From the most sophisticated Apple iPhones, electronics and apparel to home merchandise and the most rudimentary novelty item – can you say Fidget? – chances are it all came from China. When Richard Nixon …
Operations
How Web3, NFTs & the Metaverse Fit in With Fashion
The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) recently announced it will be celebrating its upcoming 60th anniversary by “looking to the future” with a metaverse, Web3, and NFT exhibition in December. While the subjects of the event may be unfamiliar to many, organizers hope to use it to show fashion players the opportunities that are becoming available in the digital world. “Our vision at 5Crypto and with this partnership is to empower and educate Web2 brands on the limitless opportunities Web3 presents, and create special moments that …
This is How Fashion Can Help America Recycle
The slogan “reduce, reuse, recycle” has been around for decades. But it’s only more recently that the fashion industry has begun examining how such actions could improve their sustainability efforts while giving their clothing a second life. America Recycles Day is taking place today, November 15 with the aim of raising awareness about how to recycle, repurpose materials, and reduce landfill waste. So, whether it’s reselling preowned fashion, using deadstock rather than new textiles or recycling existing fibers, there are plenty of options …
Miss Martha Is Still in the Thick of It All
In the song “Martha, My Dear,” the Beatles sing “When you find yourself in the thick of it, help yourself to a bit of what is all around you.” Written by Paul McCartney about his Old English Sheepdog, the lyrics seem apt. The Martha in question here is of course Martha Stewart, once deemed the Doyenne of Domesticity but more recently someone who is on a first name basis in...well, just about everything it seems. From her beginnings as a wedding caterer in the Waspy hallows of Connecticut, Stewart has built a career virtually unparalleled in …
What Is Shein’s Physical Store Strategy?
For those millennial and Gen Z readers who comprise the group of frenzied addicts of the hottest of hot Shein fast-fashion brand, there’s good news that stores are opening. For Shein there is a strategic lesson to be learned about how their store location strategy could benefit from copying Talbot’s specialty retail chain’s expansion strategy some 50 years ago. Eminent Domain While most of those next-gen Shien lovers were not yet born during Talbot’s halcyon years, they might be interested to learn about how the brand grew its store fleet …
Furniture Tricks & Treats in High Point
Halloween came early this year for the furniture industry which wrapped up its twice-yearly market in North Carolina earlier in October. The tricks were plentiful but the treats somewhat limited and just about everybody would tell you it looks pretty scary out there going forward. The furniture industry is normally pretty steady with demand for household furnishings remaining somewhat static from year to year, largely tied in with the housing market and family formation statistics. However, it’s been anything but steady for much of the past …
Your New Towel May Have Once Been a Water Bottle
Even as the fashion apparel business comes to grip with the big questions of sustainability and environmental correctness, its sister industry – home furnishings – is facing many of the same issues...and addressing them with similar levels of success, failure, and outright confusion over doing the right thing. But for those who get it right, the payoff can be worth the effort. This is particularly true in the soft home product sector where products like sheets, towels, rugs, upholstery for seating and decorative fabrics are often coming from …
Toys Are Battling It Out This Holiday
After two years of record breaking, pandemic fueled toy sales, the market has chilled from red-hot to cool-blue. According to NPD, for the first six-months of 2022, the market grew by just 2 percent to $11.4 billion between January and June. NPD concluded that customers are making fewer trips to the stores for toys and buying less because of price increases. No doubt retailers are bracing for a less than stellar holiday season. There are, however, category outliers that are performing very well. Those of us whose kids were possessed by the …