The Sourcing Journal Fall Summit attracts diverse people from all walks of life every year. Find out more.
One of the most renowned apparel supply chain events. The Sourcing Journal Fall Summit drew executives, directors and managers from brands, retailers, factories, agents, compliance agencies and service providers.
The last edition happened on October 18th, at the Cipriani 42nd St. Our Founder, Jordana Guimarães, attended the event in New York. She shared the takeaways she found most valuable and we’ll discuss them in this piece.
But, before that, let’s get an overview of the event.
Sourcing Journal Fall Summit
The Sourcing Journal Fall Summit is an event where industry leaders gather to get the insights needed to improve the supply chain and fashion production in general. The event offers the audience a variety of speakers and panelists, from managers to retailers.
This year’s theme was “Strategic Solutions for Complex Challenges.” According to the event’s organization, “As the supply chain has attracted greater attention and even more investment, the landscape has never been more difficult to navigate. Nevertheless, opportunities abound”. With these in mind, speakers joined the stage bringing their insights to the audience. They brought to the table important issues addressed in the past and touched on the next steps that the industry must take to be more sustainable and surface the crise.
Keep reading to learn a few of the insights shared at the event!
Getting Insights From Leaders
From Jon Devine, Senior Economist at Cotton Incorporated to Andy Dunn, Author & Founder of Bonobos. One of the event’s biggest highlights is the well-curated lineup of speakers. These names that we shared and eighteen others joined the Sourcing Journal Fall Summit’s stage to talk about what should be done next to improve the industry’s issues.
Jordana shared with us a few of the insights she found most interesting and we decided to also share it with our community. After all, good information must be spread. Shall we?
“Inflation Meets Inventory Intelligence”
Jessica Binns, Technology Editor at Sourcing Journal, interviewed the CEO of First Insight, Greg Petro, on an interesting fireside chat. During the conversation, Greg highlighted that the industry is tired of so much change. However, besides the fatigue factor, “if you don’t take risks, it (the fashion industry) is not an industry for you.”
He also talked about the importance of using data to make decisions. Numbers, charts and all this sort of information should be important players for every agent in the fashion industry.
“Unchartered Waters: Inflation and Today’s Consumer”
“Why is this industry unable to innovate and stop this cycle that keeps repeating: demand outstrips supply and supply outstrips demand”. It is impossible to have contact with this phrase and not reflect on the reality of the fashion industry. In fact, for years and years this has the industry’s operating style. Factories produce more than people buy and suck up as much of the available raw material as possible.
That was just one of the insights that Daren Hull, President at Vera Bradley, shared with the audience on October 18th. In a conversation with Edward Hertzman, President & Founder of Sourcing Journal, he also mentioned the complicated situation brought by the pandemic and inflation.
Mr. Hull also mentioned a McKinsey Report released in August this year. It shows that consumers are not only buying less, but 37% of them are switching retail for lower costs. And, furthermore, consumers are focused on spending more on essentials and less on discretionary goods.
- This report is super interesting and we suggest that everybody should read it. Click here to get the insights and data you need to better understand the current US scenario.
The speaker also expressed his concern about the “buy now pay letter” method and supply chain management. “During the pandemic, everyone went into digital transformation which didn’t necessarily help the supply chain,” he affirmed.
“These are times when we need awareness, partnership, collaboration on a global scale. It’s not just you investing in tech but encouraging colleagues to also use them”. Daren Hull affirmed right before leaving an encouraging message: “I do believe in the industry and we’ll come out stronger at the end”.
Sourcing I: Brands Navigate an Uncertain Landscape
Three speakers joined this panel at the Sourcing Journal Fall Summit. Barbara Fevelo-Hoad, Chief Sourcing Officer & EVP at Sparc Group; Bryan Riviere, Senior VP Sourcing, Product Development & Production at Macy’s and Michael Bland, Senior Partnership Director at QIMA.
At this panel, they did an overview of the current geopolitical landscape, sharing their opinions and how they’ve been making decisions in such a complicated scenario. With so many doubts in the future, it is difficult to know if the best option is to diversify the products’ portfolio and production chain suppliers or to take a different decision from those that were being taken previously.
They also talked about the importance that the industry can play on people’s lives. Being it for bad and, hopefully, also for good. Whether supporting single mothers or providing opportunities for people with disabilities, the fashion industry has a commitment to society and leaders need to take that seriously. “That is one way to elevate the world from mediocre to greatness and I’m proud to be in an industry that can make that change”, Mr. Bryan Riviere affirmed.
Sourcing II: Manufacturing Solutions
If there is a problem, everyone needs to work together, connected, to solve it. Juliette Barré, Director, Enterprise Sales at Sourcemap; Devender Gupta, Co-founder of Asmara International Limited and Jason Kra, President at Li & Fung got together in this panel.
The problem of the fashion industry does not only permeate sustainability issues. But also human rights. There are constant scandals of work analogous to slavery in fast fashion brands. However, because of the long chain and lack of transparency, it ends up being difficult to sniff out and act on the root of the problem. But, as Juliette Barré said, “if you don’t get to know your supplier, you won’t be able to get very far to address the potential issue of forced labor.”
