Latest / Exploring Fashion Futures With Dr.HB / Fashion beyond runway shows! Explore the global fashion and textile ecosystems!
Transcript
- Jung: Welcome to my new podcast, Exploring Fashion Futures with Dr. HB. My name is Dr. Chung Habrokeshire. Yes, it's a long last name, so most of my students call me Dr. HB. I am a professor and the department chair of textile and apparel management at University of Missouri. University of Missouri, we call ourselves Mizou and M-I-Z and C O U. And textile and apparel management, we call ourselves TAM. So I'm a TAM professor at Mizoo. I've been at Mizou for about nineteen years, teaching fashion and textiles and global supply chain and global sourcing for about twenty years. But the at the same time before that, I was a sourcing manager and production manager for children's wear company and a sleepwear company for two different companies in New York City for about eight, nine years. And as a production manager, I traveled all over the world, whether it's Asia, to Central America, like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, in Asia, like Taiwan, Korea, China, Philippines and whatnot, Hong Kong and all kinds of places, to buy fabrics, to buy accessories like zippers and buttons and whatever it is that you need on your garment. And then I work with fabric males who will make certain fabrics for me. finish the fabric in a way that we wanted. And then I put ⁓ all together in a one sewing factory. And then we make garments like, you know, sometimes four thousand dozens and set ten thousand dozens. That's a lot of quantity. So the factories are huge. The the companies I work with, they had some companies had like thirty thousand employees. It's just massive factory. ⁓ people are working behind the scene, whether it's a textile meals or dying mill or sewing factory. So I enjoyed it. I loved it. Traveled a lot and it was an amazing learning opportunity as well as a professional opportunities. But then I also realized that a lot of team members that we hired or we had in our teams, even though they had a amazing college education, somehow they lacked that the knowledge of the global, like systematically, the way this industry is organized in a global scale. So it was very, very it's difficult to connect those dots between the decisions that we make in the company in New York City and the the fabric mills that might be in Korea. With the sewing factory that might be in Vietnam. So coordinating all of that, I realized that was very challenging to new employees in my department. So I started mentoring them, how processes are working, and you know, how do you work with the vendors overseas? Then how do we communicate their challenges to our merchandisers? So in my company, we have our own designers and merchandisers and planners and sales. So then we work with them and say, you know, the the effect that you wanted, design effect that you wanted on this garment. It may or may not work because of this type of production challenges and whatnot. So we worked together. So I became sort of a middle person between the producers overseas and decision makers in New York City office. So I kind of kept a lot of training manuals for my team members. And then that got me to think and I said, ⁓ yeah, every time I we have a new team member, I get to use these resources to teach him and training them. But why don't I become a professor and just teach more people, you know, be more people than at the same time than just one or two person at a time in my company. So once I've got my MBA degree in New York and I Decided to pursue a PhD to become a professor. So I moved down to North Carolina and Greensboro. I got my PhD, and then Mizou was my first place, first job as a professor I landed in. And the person who hired me at the ⁓ Mizoo at that time inspired me and saying, You can write this textbook about global sourcing so that not just the students in my class classroom, but other students in all over the country or world for that matter to use this textbook to learn about Global textile apparel ecosystems. So that inspired me. And I'm like, why not? What you know, I can do that. So I used a lot of manual and the resources that I had in the industry, and I that converted into a textbook. And you're gonna see the back of my background here, there is a a global sourcing in the textile and apparel industry. The third edition has been just published by the Bloomsbury Publisher, and now it is being used by. so many professors and so in so many programs in the country to learn about this industry's organization. So having said that, why did I create this podcast? First of all, this fashion and textile industry, believe it or not, is the second largest employer of all industry. Can you guess which one is the first? It's the agriculture textile and fashion industry is the second largest employer, which means Second largest number of people are working in this industry, whether they are fiber industry, like for example, if you're a natural fiber producer, like cotton farmers or wool farmers, you are part of the textile supply chain and there. And then if you're a petroleum-based nylon fiber producer or polyester fiber producer, even though they are in the chemical, like a petroleum industry, they're still fiber producer. So it's a part of that. And so once the fibers are there, then you have a yarn makers, yarn meals. Like there's a whole bunch of factories all over the world that makes cotton fiber into yarns, makes nylon fiber into yarns. Okay, so then you have fiber yarn producer, and those yarns become fabric whether by being knitted or woven. Those textile producers are all over the world. From Chibin to El Salvador to, I mean America, everywhere. And then you also have zipper makers, button makers, you know, embroidery yarn makers, and the people who do the screen printing, people who do the embroidery, people who do, you know, all that. That's also all part of the fashion and textiles. And then also obviously sewing factory. They're they're the ones who combine all the materials together and sew them into and make them into a three-dimensional wearable garments. So that's all of that. So that's from high fashion women's fashion to military uniform to nor face is the world to the hiking industry clothing, from shoes to boots to ski wear, like every possible textiles and fashion industry. That's huge. So many people are working in this sector. production side of it, but on the other hand, you also have a designer, the brand manager, the merchandiser, the buyer, the product developer, the s retailers, the sales associates, stores managers, right? So there's a so many options. Like in the United States, when you think about the fashion, you think about okay, the stores in the mall, and then only job that I know of is people working in the store. I don't want to be in that industry. But that is Very, very small component. It's a very important component because this is where a product meets the ultimate consumers. It's very important, but yet it's a very small part of the entire global fashion and textile ecosystems. And most people don't know what's behind it. So this was my motivation. I wanted to uncover. I wanted to expose a hidden job that most people don't know. And people think about fashion, they only think about the runway, the devil's way of the product. That is very tip of the iceberg. There's a very, very small segment of the fashion industry. I wanted to expose that. And the second reason is that over the last twenty years of mentoring, undergraduate students and also graduate students. So by the way, I do teach capstone class for apparel retailing and digital merchandising emphasis area in my department. All of students who are majoring that area, they come through my capstone class. Now that you learn all of that, how are you going to build your career? How are you going to get your first job? How are you going to get your second job? What's your career goal in 10 years, 20 years, or 30 years? ⁓ you know, believe it or not, you're going to be 22, 23 when you graduate. And then you may not retire until 70. And you have 45, 50 years to work in a To to learn about this industry. I started teaching like how to build a career in this field and how to talk about your skill sets in a translatable way so that the your employer will take advantage of your skill set and they want to work with you. So I've been doing that. I've seen what kind of students do better at navigating their career trajectory better. What kind of students make mistakes and redo it and try to do it better? And things like that. I've seen enough of that to realize that you have to have both creative and scientific mindset, creative or analytic mindset. Like somebody is just so creative, but there's no business acumen or no analytical way to approach the problem. It's hard to make it to the next level. You might be a great assistant designer, but can you really be the manager or merchandiser for your department? So you have to have that business analytic or scientific mindset behind it. And some people who are really, really analytical is really good at numbers and Excel, but if they don't have a creative inkling whatsoever, they get to hit the wall. Meaning at the end of the day, this is a creative product. You have to have a gut to know whether, you know what, even though my sales data shows that this may not work or this is not taking off, but I have gut feeling because of this, let's go for it. A little bit of risk taking and creative intuitiveness. And those students tend to do well. If you think I like going to mall, I like seeing anything new trend, whether it's a mall or online or whatever it is, like why consumers, why people like certain things, why is this going viral? What do they like about? What are they talking about? And because of that, if I were a buyer for this store, Or if I were a designer for this brand, I would have done this, I would have done that. Or you know, I could have displayed product in this way, do the visual merchandising in this way instead of that way. So if you start seeing yourself having that kind of analytic analysis of what's going on in the trend, this might be a great industry for you. The things that you learn, the logic that you learn and the theory that you learn in the fashion merchandising, fashion design and product development curriculum. majors are not just for fashion it could be applied for many other similar creative industry for example like a gift industry people buy gifts people make a decision when they buy gift their decision making process is totally different than buying same clothing for myself but the science behind it the logic behind it the theory behind it is the same the gift industry branded licensed product promotional items what else Hospitality, interior design, any sort of a consumer product industry, you can apply for those. So it's not just for fashion, it's not about runway and project runway. Okay, so I wanted to showcase these things by interviewing people who are currently in the industry who studied A and now they are doing B, or vice versa. So I wanted to share that with you all. The third reason is so. ⁓ Not everybody at the age of twenty two, you graduated college and I know exactly what I want to do. So I'm I have this all this planned out. Majority of you, you might still be in an industry where, you know, you might f feel like you hit the wall, you're bored, it doesn't challenge you, and meantime, I really like this. Creative industry and things like that. This also might be a great opportunity for you to twitch your career, transition into maybe fashion and consumer product category so that your creative mindset, but you also analytic mindset or your passion can also be applied to this industry. So I wanted to uncover all this jobs and career opportunity behind and share how people navigated their career. Trajectory. The final reason is, you know, sometimes when we just only live our life every day. It's like, you know, I wake up in the morning, I go to school, or I go to job ⁓ work, and then I, you know, weekend I go to shopping mall and I buy this and I consume and then I go back and all over again, you forget the people behind the scene completely, right? So, like how things are being made. And yes, your interest is sustainable, but if you don't even know how things are being made, how do you know this product is sustainable? That may the the only way to know is by looking at the label on the packaging that is sustainable, then you don't even know if that's true or not. Like you know, so many product recalls and whatnot because the companies didn't say it right or they said they're sustainable, it turned out to be not sustainable and all of that. So I've also realized that a lot of consumers are being sometimes deceived because so much information is out there and I wanna do the right thing, but I don't know how or what because I really don't know anything behind the scene and I don't know how things are being made. So by having this podcast and interviewing and talking with the people who are dedicated to make your clothing that you wear every day, this will also inform you, help you become a better consumer of the fashion products. So having said that, then who should listen to this podcast? My main target audience is that you're my students. You're in my class, you're learning, you're interested in a fashion, you want to start, develop your career, but I don't know. Like I'm interested in everything, but I also don't know what I don't know. So I don't know like what other options out there. So please show me more ideas, show me, give me more examples so I can start imagining what my future's gonna be like. So college students, whether you're fashion majors, that's number one, but also. The secondly, even if you're not a fashion major, even if you are business students, journalism students, and traffic art students or agriculture students, whatever major you are, because at the end of the day, fashion companies still need an accountant. They also need engineer. They also need fiber product testing people. They also need marketing. They also need HR human resources. So what I'm saying is fashion company also need all of you. So whether you're fashion majors or not, by better understanding how this industry works, even though you're not a fashion major, you can still consider this industry as a part of your sector. So you can start exploring your career opportunity. I'm also thinking about high school and middle school students. I've met a lot of prospective students. They are high school, freshman or junior. They're interested in going to college. I'm not sure what major is going to be In general, I like business and you know or design. I've been making these type of things. I learned how to knit or sew or I like making things. You're exploring measures. So I meet them a lot in my role. And every time I talk to them and their parents, they had no idea, wow, we had no idea this type of opportunities exist. So like, yeah, we do. So follow our social media. See what our students are doing. There's almost all students around in my department go out and do some internship in every summer. Some students graduate with two, three internship opportunities. Obviously, there are companies, right? But the high school, middle school students don't know it. So if you're high school, middle school students, or if you're parents of high school, middle school students who have both creative and analytic who's interested in consumer insights, the trend and things like that, this might be a good Practice for you to listen and then kind of start exploring together. The third is it's going back to my fourth reason as to why I created this podcast. If you are in general interested in how things are being made, just like you know, I love watching like how it's made, TV shows, like things like that. I love it because it's so fascinating. So if you're interested in in general, how your clothing is being made, how your intimate wears are being made, how your shoes are made. This might be a great episode to listen to you, listen to, to learn from people who make certain decisions, you know, whether it's a design decision and pattern decision or buying decision or visual merchandising decision. So that's that. Because after all, we all use wear clothing, shoes, hats all the time, every day, all us. So They're right here, but we really don't know enough about. So this might be a great podcast for you. So what if this podcast would look like going forward? After today, I see this as like like a module of three episodes. So what I'm saying is each like a story content, I'm gonna have a three episode. So episode one is sort of an express. Explaining how this industry is organized so that when I actually interview a person who's in that role, you will have a better understanding of what we're talking about. And then the second episode will be the actual interview, and the third and episode will be a shorter recap. And then I'm gonna bring it down to what does it mean for you today? Like, what do you have to do today for you to be ready to be in that role? So so the reason why I created three episode module this way is that whenever I took students to New York City as a part of field trip. So I take students every year in May when the semester's over, take them to New York City. We go to each different companies and brands. And talk with the many, many different professionals who have different roles in the industry. So I've been doing that for 20 years. Some students, this is the best trip ever, and that's how they open up their future. And some students, it's just still not sure. Because the reason is that I think when you go there when you are a little too young, or when you don't have enough background knowledge, like whatever people are saying, you don't get it all. Meaning you hear it, but you don't hear it. Like you don't feel it. You heard it, but you don't truly feel what that means. So that learning impact is not as deep as those who really understood the concept in the school. And then you go and actually see it, then everything, all the lives become alive, knowledge become alive. So because of that, I decided I'm gonna explain who my next guest is and their roles are within the entire global ecosystem. So you have a basic understanding. And then I'm when I do the interview with them, then you kind of know their jargon and what we're talking about. And we do that. And then the final episode will be a recap. Like what the guest said last week means this. I'm gonna sometimes interpret that. We're gonna recap. Now that you know what you know, then what skills do you have to have? Like, for example, like four skills you should have if you want to become something. What can I do today now? Like everybody will say communication skill is important. Like nobody I mean, everybody knows that's important, but what do I need to do today now to enhance this particular communication skill? So I'm gonna break it down to to like a solidify what it takes and what you can do today. Because I do do that even in New York City with the students, the next very day I recap them. Like Yesterday so and so said this and so and so were doing this. What does it mean to you? And when you go back to school, what would you do that? And what would you do that so that you will start enhancing that skill? So I do that recap anyway, because those are really, really important for a learning outcome. So that's how I am going to do that. So it's gonna be sort of about 20, 25 minutes of intro, and then the actual interview, it could last up to about an you know, 45 to 50 minutes. And then another 20-25 minutes of recap. So that becomes a one module. And then I will rotate that as industry ⁓ segment gets deeper and more fragmented, or I'm gonna meet more people, and that's how I'm gonna do that. All right. So so what will you get from this weekly episode from this podcast? I thought about it. I think at the first, you will learn how many career options are and business opportunities are out there. Number two. You will also learn how people get their first job and then how they get promoted or not promoted or they made a mistake, they failed, and then they went back up, got back up. So you will learn about their journey. Number three, you will learn how this global fashion and textile industry is organized. So you will see beyond your clothing, beyond just what you see at the mall every day. And number four, and then you'll definitely learn about what skills and knowledge you need to start developing so you could potentially consider a fashion as your career option. Okay. So I wish this is helpful for you. And I would look forward to seeing you back next week. And please subscribe and follow my podcast and please join the global fashion and textile community. I look forward to seeing you back next week. Bye bye.