Latest / Exploring Fashion Futures With Dr.HB / Production and sourcing. How do fashion companies make a large quantity of clothing to scale up?
Transcript
- Jung: Today in this episode, I'll talk about sourcing or production and what does it mean and what kind of jobs and career opportunities are out there. you might have heard about sourcing or I mean, you definitely heard about manufacturing, so everybody knows what manufacturing is. sourcing, production, what does it mean in the fashion industry? Believe it or not, there's so much jobs in that area. Have you heard or watched TV commercial, it's for Untuck It. It's a menswear shirt company. The one of the narrative in the advertisement is says, why all men's shirts are so long and looks ugly, but what if a little shorter so they can just wear it? Untuck that shirt over their pants. I think the finance investment guy or somebody who came up with that idea and they wanted to make basically simple men's shirts shorter. The quotes in that advertisement, it says it's a really simple idea, but it's very difficult to execute, or something to that effect. When I heard that commercial, I'm like, exactly. People have no idea what it takes to make clothing of men's shirts and pants or swimmer or whatever it is. People really have no idea what it takes and how much of work is required and how many people are behind this industry to make that one shirt happen. Let's think about it. Suppose you had come up with a really cool, you know, fashion design idea. You go to fabric store, whether it's in New York City or local fabric store, you go, you buy a two yards or so fabric, and then you buy a zipper, you buy buttons, you buy, you know, laces or whatever, and then you make a one garment as a sample. This is cool. People like it. So I wanna make more style and more garments. So now I have 12 different styles as all my collection in this season. And I have a great sample. So now I'm gonna use the sample. I'm gonna register as a a clothing designer or business. And then I'm gonna go to trade show. What that means is like Magic Trace Show is of one of the biggest fashion trade shows. All the brands or designers have new collection, new lines. They have this like this upcoming season fall collection. Okay, you have these samples, you have everybody brings their sample, they display their boots, and then the buyers come in. So buyer means in this case, whoever wants to sell those products, whether it's a big store, retailers, boutique store owner, whoever that is, they come, look at your samples, and then they place order with you. So making a garment, a dress shirt or a you know p pair of pants that's simple you go and buy fabrics wherever you want to go buy fabric and you you you make them at home and you brought to the the show what if you got a 500 units of order what if you got five thousand units of order what if you got fifty thousand units of order suddenly how are you going to make 50 000 units 5000 units 500 units This is where a lot of launching of the new brand or new design idea kind of collapse because you don't have that supply chain. So I have this sample, but how do I scale them in a way that the I can no no buyer's gonna buy a piece and not only that, it's just the one size you made it, but each garment that you design, you're gonna have a size from, you know, size two to size twelve and small to extra large. Now you need a whole different sizes. What if what if your buyer wants extra colors? And you only made white color sample with the white fabric, but what if they want a gray? What if they want pink? So making a garment in your class or at home, that's that's kind of achievable. But scaling in a matter where it could be a large quantity so that you can supply them to the all kinds of retailers. That's where the bottleneck is. In the field, we call it global source. I mean, it doesn't have to be global sourcing or you know, production. By the way, industrial revolution really started with textile company. The gin that the gin machine that separates the cotton seeds from cotton fibers. And then those fibers become yarns and then yarns become fabrics or whether it's by weaving or knitting. Okay. Whether it's a knitting machine or weaving machine. Yeah. Back in old days, you know, women stayed at home and twisted the fibers to make yarn. And then, you know, we knitted or we embroidered or wove yarns into fabrics. So then you have fabrics, then you gotta cut them and then you gotta sew them. And then you have 50,000 units of it. You can't do it, right? So years ago in the United States, we made them here, meaning we had a cotton gin machine, we have a singer sewing machine was invented, farmers harvested cotton, and then the gin machine will separate fibers from the seeds. So then yarn factories set up. Like yarn factory will buy those fibers from farmers and then twist them in a way that some yarns are thicker, some yarns are thinner, some yarns are stronger, some yarns are weaker for whatever reason, right? So then you have all kinds of yarn companies set up, whether it's natural fibers like cotton or synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon. Polyester and nylon, those are synthetic fibers, make a chemical, you know, dope. And then you extrude them into it's like a shower head looking, you know, extrude those chemical substances through a very thin hole and then that becomes a filament which is yarns. Whether it's natural or a synthetic, bottom line is those yarns needs to be twisted to make it thicker, thinner, however you want it. And then once you have yarns, those yarns get twisted together or or woven or knitted together and become fabric. So then you have to have fabrics. Once you have fabrics done, somebody has to cut them, somebody has to sew them, somebody has to pack them. So all of that used to be done in in the case of United States, it was done in the United States. It's all like, you know. all down the road, like North Carolina was a big hub of manufacturing, you know, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Southern New Jersey. And then, you know, gradually it went out to like St. Louis. So because I'm in Missouri. Like St. Louis used to be a hub of children's wear, shoe industry. And then Kansas City used to have like big hub factory for women dresses when the old domestic manufacturing capabilities were here in the in the country. Whether it's fibers and yarns and fabrics, then sewing factory were also here. But as the the country gets richer, like for us, and then some other country also like, hey, you know, we we have a bunch of people and here, we can also do some of the sewing for you, we can also make fabric for you. And then, you know, other countries also started making their fabrics and building sewing factories and whatnot. So when that was happening, if I were a designer of brand in New York City or anywhere else in the United States would be that I can buy fabric from North Carolina, but I can also buy silk from Fran or Japanese silk. I like it. But I also can buy cotton sheeting fabric from, you know, China, for example. And then I'm gonna put them all together and find a sewing factory that could be done in Vietnam, for example. You could do that because there's a many different reasons as to why we source globally, but we can also source domestically. So once once somebody designed silhouette and the garment and what fabric, what button, and once the garment is like designed or like sketched, like if somebody actually, for example, sketched a design, the fashion illustration that you typically know of, then we professionally we call it product developer. The fashion product developer can mean different things. But in this case, one example of product development is what is this line means? How can a fabric create this type of fluid silhouette? So that means for this much of a long, that means we need to come up with this type of fabric that has this type of draping properties so that it can create this type of flowy silhouette. Or if it's a very stiff, then what fabric will keep that shape? So They have to go out and find the fabrics or engineer the fabric. Sometimes you have to develop a brand new fabric just to achieve that look that the designer made. Okay. And then, you know, how do we close this trest? Is this invisible zipper? Is this open wide zipper? Is this, you know, who can I? Whatever that how do I close the the two pieces to make it into a 3D shape? Product developers engineer those sketches into a manufacturable, producible component of process. So, you know, this line means this fabric for this weight, for this type of tension, for this type of strength. This closure means this is this type of zipper or this type of buttons, but it's gotta be this size, it's gotta be this color, it's gotta be this type of property. So those are the product developer. And those product developers then work with the production team, assuming your company's big, right? So if you're small, one person's company, you got to do it all, obviously. But if you're in a big company, then typically designer sketches. Product developer engineers those sketches into what what does it mean in terms of production. And then those sketch that once the product developer develops it, then the production person or sourcing person. will go out and start looking for those factories who can make that fabric, who can make those buttons, who can make those zippers, who can also sew that that whatever seams that you might have. That could be done all domestically, you know, if you do have fabric producer here and zipper producers here and sewing factories are here, you can do it here. But if you don't, you might have to go outside of the country to find somebody who can do that for you. For the price you need. So this is where the sourcing team or production team exists in almost every fashion company. When you go to the mall, when you start seeing clothing, whether it's, you know, men's dress suits, women's dress, wedding dress, whatever it is, there's somebody who designed, somebody who who develop product developed. And then somebody who actually produced. So now I don't sit in the factory and produce, but I ask somebody else to do it for me and I'll pay. So the production person, the sourcing person in the United States working for a fashion company, that means they're working with manufacturers overseas or even domestic, whatever components that you need to make this garment. Where do I go find the raw materials? Who can produce? the for the quantity that I need. What if I need, you know, hundred thousand yards in pink, you know, fifty thousand yards of blue, two hundred thousand yards of black. So you gotta calculate all of that because that's really based on your total order quantity, right? If you got a 50 units, that's one thing, but if you got a 50,000 units for one style, you need to calculate that back as to how many pink I need, how many you know Like I neh depending on what is required for each garment, and then times fifty times you gotta do it. So that means I gotta buy two hundred thousand units of buttons or whatever that was. So that that scaling is becoming really difficult and the production people make that scaling possible. About a hundred years ago in New York City, there was manufacturing sewing factories in Brooklyn. They had fabric was made in North Carolina factories and then, you know, laces in Philadelphia. Now I've been sewing this garment in Brooklyn. And then we we had a showroom in Seventh Avenue, New York City, and then buyers came and bought it. Like that was the story. Today the reality is when you go and look at your garment, the back of the garment, and if you look at the country of origin, majority of them are made overseas. But Don't forget though, made does not mean everything was done. Like when you see a made in China label or a made in Bangladesh label, like, I got this shirt from whatever store and it says made in Bangladesh, made in Vietnam, that does not mean that every single thing that you're seeing and touching were all made in Vietnam or Bangladesh. What that means is maybe the fabric might have came from China. The button might have came from Canada, the zipper might have come from Japan, the sewing thread might have come from Taiwan, the laces might have come from like I don't know, Indonesia. So all these product components were there overseas and then but all combined it together in one, let's say, for example, in Vietnam, and Vietnamese just sew them. Like country of origin in this sense is where the final sewing operation is done. It could also be that Vietnam made everything, you just never know. But the company who the production company knows, yes, that fabric from Italy, that button from Canada, but the sewing was done in Vietnam. You could, you know, they know that. But we don't really know that. So there are some movement, especially in research, say maybe we should declare more than just country of origin as a manufacturing destination, but it could also be like country of design, country of origin for fabric, because it this in this product fabrics are so important, for example, for whatever reason, or design is important, then we can declare country of design or but the final assembly, final sewing was done in, let's say whatever country, Vietnam or China or something like that. In fact, go back and look at your iPhone or Apple computer. They will say designed in California, assembled in China or Manufactured in China, because Apple's strategy was we're gonna design in California in United States, but the all the manufacturing, the assembly of it will be done in China. And they had an exclusive agreement as to, you know, how to share the information and whatnot. Whether it's a domestic or global or international sourcing, what would be the goal of sourcing? Why are we doing this, right? So the the primary reason is actually cost reduction because it is cheaper to sew them in Vietnam than sewing clothing in United States. It's just you know, our minimum wage is so much more expensive than they are. Taking advantage of cheaper labor is Definitely one of the motivation, but I've been a sourcing manager for almost 10 years. That's not the only reason. Cost is important, the labor cost is important. But at the end of the day, if it takes longer time, like what if it's a shipping cost is higher? What if there are higher tax in that country? What if bringing all these components from other country so the other service cost is higher? What if their energy cost is so high that you know factory shuts down all the time because they lose electricity all the time? so the production time is longer. It's not about all about cheap labor. Actually, no, you can't even do that nowadays. There are so many compliances and the auditing is going on, you can't even go with the cheap or unethical labor, but there are other factors that affecting the cost, like energy cost, shipping costs, taxes, the compliances, and all of that. I used to do some production in Asia, but I and then I moved a lot of production out of Asia and moved to Central America, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, because the labor was so much higher in Central America than Asia. But shipping was cheaper, the communication was easy, you know, me traveling was easy, everything was easier to do business with. Profit maximization is another more important goal. So it's not all about the cheap labor. But sometimes I have to source regardless of the cost and profit. Because I just can't make for example, it's a capability. Like I can't make this particular type of fabric. Like this fabric is so good. It's a wind resistant, water resistant, super light. It has like you know, sunlight, UV reflective, like f all this functionality that has, no one else can make it but this company. Then you have to buy Like you know, there's no other way to get that. So that's a capability criteria. Who has the capability to produce the product they I want? So it's not me, so I'm gonna buy it. So that's sourcing. Another reason why companies also source is to reduce risk. Certain products are just not we just can't do it. For example, we back when I was in industry, we were making some of the medical scrub uniform. We thought, you know, we know how to make clothing. We could source how to you know, clothing all the time. So what's a big deal? It's just a simple sewing, it's it's a woven fabric, it's not a big deal. We thought we could do it, but the reality was that because it's a medical product, it needs to be sanitized, it does, it has to be soul resistant, it has to be antimicrobial, it has to be all that kind of stuff. And then we got to take the test every time that this fabric meets that standards. Sometimes it's just It's just too much risk for us to get into this new business not knowing if we can meet that standards again. So might as well just buy them. Or sometimes I have a super secret like way of making certain things. You got your own patent or special like secret way to make certain things or design, and you don't want anybody else to know. in that case, you might also source. with the strategic partner who really understand your business goals and then have that sourcing or joint partnership decision. Finally, but one of the other reasons why companies also source is sustainability. Again, like if I, you know, I one company cannot know everything. Like I cannot know everything, right? Like I can't do everything that's sustainable from the beginning to the end. So sometimes I just re need to rely on another company who's Who are specialized in making sustainable fabrics or zippers or metals or even sewing operation, right? So this production person or sourcers for fashion company, they just travel, whether it's domestic, Central America, Asia, all over the world, find the right kind of supplier, the business partner, whether they are fabric partners, whether they are metal. partners, whether they're button partners, or whether they are sewing factory partners. They, you know, we got to be on the same page. We want this type of sustainability trade. We want this kind of functional characteristics, but we also want this in these kind of colors and these kind of sizes for this price by these dates. And that's what I did for nine, 10 years. I loved my life, my job, travel all over the world, working with so many different people. And learned a lot about products and how things are being made. If you like one of those TV shows, like how things are made kind of shows, you will love it because every clothing that you see in your closet and the store, people say like there are 10,000 steps to make that garment. No matter how simple that garment looks like, there's a whole industry behind it. So I think I said a lot today. But with this, next week I sit down with Hilary Oliviera. She's been in this product development and production sector of the industry for almost over like 20 years. And we're going to learn so much from her. She's in the intimate wear area that you know you wear that probably you might be wearing what she made. So that would be really cool to listen and hear from her and learn from her. So I can't wait to come back and talk about our conversation with Hilary next week. Okay, until then, thank you so much, and I will see you next week.