Learn How Covid-19 Will Reshape the Fashion Industry and Brands' Supply Chains

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Learn How Covid-19 Will Reshape the Fashion Industry and Brands' Supply Chains

The pains and challenges of the fashion industry during COVID-19 were clear. But these pains and challenges did not start now. This industry is built on a complicated and long supply chain. In this webinar we will look at the trends that are leading in the Fashion industry, how fashion brands are to manufacturers and suppliers and what were the Brands plans before COVID-19. Marte Hentschel, Karsten Newbury, Merav Zimerman and Sharon Donovich discuss how COVID-19 will reshape the fashion industry and brands supply chain.

So hello everybody my name is Sharon don't know which and I'm product marketing
manager at connect and I'm happy to have
you here with us in webinar hosted by WTI n today we are going to touch base
the pains and challenges of the fashion industry during Kovach 19 that were
clear but these pains and challenges did not start it now this industry is built
on a very complicated and long supply chain and in this webinar we would like to look into the trends that are leading
the fashion industry and how fashion brands are manifest and manufacturers
are in supply chains are going to change their plans after Cobie 19 I'm having
here with me today three distinguished panelists and I will
let them introduce we'll start with you Martha Martha I have a one
my pleasure to be here to spend the next hour with you my name is Martha Henshaw I'm the CEO and sketch which is a b2b
sourcing platform that connects friends to manufacturers and suppliers to
redesign supply chains and in order to create more local manufacturing
opportunities and transparency I'm also a lecturer for as years are in
management and in a university in Philly and we are based in Berlin and and hi
everyone and thank you very much for joining us today and hi Martha and Kirsten Sharon thank you so much for
this opportunity and my name is Milan Zimmerman and I am the business development director for new digital
being with the company for six years now our you know our main goal is facilitate
the transition of the market to an online and model we are producers the
furs and producers of textile printing systems and we have our own developed
ink all of our products are 100% sustainable and we actually are looking
exciting to see the the shift in the transition of the market into the online
kind of model that we'll talk about later today I Carson Emery here I'm the
chief strategy officer for technology been with the company for about six
years before that 20 years with Siemens and different roles high tech different
industries involved in a lot of business transformations and they're excited to beyond today gerber technology as many
of you might know is provider of automation solutions for the flexible
materials industry so anything that's not art goods and we've been in the industry for 50 years and certainly very
involved in a lot of the you know manufacturing and development
transitions here that are going on as part of covin 19 last couple of months I've been in charge of our probably
nineteen response task force for Pb production and engaged in a lot of
discussions with brands manufacturers and industry organizations around the world so looking forward to the
discussion so I think I couldn't find a better panel to ask for insights into
the heart of the fashion industry it looks very simple when you're going into
the store and buy some product but actually it is a very complicated
industry so I would like you guys to give each one of you is or herb
perspective into this market and Martin maybe we'll start with you giving your
insights from your continent of you being so many in this industry yeah so I am now 1999 I started working
the freelancer in this industry so it's roughly 20 years now and I think it has
never been a more interesting a moment to really work in this industry because
the industry is yet to be disrupted and I know we talk about disruption it's
also not a very positive term probably but it's a ubiquitous industry
it's a globalized industry but it's also very okay it's partly offline is pretty
outdated I mean up for discussion correct me or give feedback but it's we
sometimes call it the last analogue market of global scale and it's so
interesting it has so many potentials and I'm pretty sure in the next couple of years there will be some some new
players popping out and we we have no idea who will run us over potentially if
we're not very aware of the multiple changes and the challenges that we have
in front of us well of I know that you also looked very deep into this industry
and have a lot of insights can you share yeah first of all I have two very smart
well I think we are at an inflection point where the industry must change there is a lot of talk about the change
that's coming there is I think the consumers that are actually driving this change you know the old Silk Roads of
the thing the ancient textile industry they need to change they need to get
shorter they need to get closer to the consumer we have to look at what
consumers are asking for they're asking for more sustainable products they're asking us for faster reaction they need
to get immediate gratification they're seeing something online they want it now and maybe tomorrow they're not gonna
like it anymore so you know the old traditional ways they're not they're just not good enough for the consumers
of today and the the fact that they did entire you know development project of
of new collections garments a they cannot take months
anymore with this atmosphere that's going on a you have to look into direct
the consumer models rather than you know the old-fashioned way of textile
production we have to look at you know smack smart factories that will have
technologies that are producing items just in time that they are driven by
data that's coming from a what consumer are talking about online that they have
to be efficient and flexible they have to be offering customization so all of
these names they need to happen and they are happening them we're talking to brands they're all saying this they're
all one to but I agree McMartin this has to happen and I think haben 19 will drive this
change and we actually in corny we already see and we see the first hints
of this change that's coming and I think where we're actually at a very
interesting point in time but but Carsten do you have like insights of
like the old mothers of okay we are seeing this shift but it it didn't
happen until now in a large scale right it was very was going very very slowly I
think I mean if you if you look at we can all you know agree or disagree about
whether everything that was done in the fashion industry was was right or wrong but if you look at some of the
developments they have been quite massive yes the supply chains been ripped apart you know you've had a lot
of the low-cost offshore manufacturing but you know as much as we want to talk
and we'll talk about today about how things can get better and to digitize and change if you look at what that's
fuel its fueled tremendous wealth and availability of product for consumers
and really you know with the event of e-commerce it's enabled this whole
notion of consumers being able to get a product they want and right away now how that's done is where
I think we need to talk about because that's where Kovac 19 has exposed all the flaws of the model I think the what
now we made tremendous you know advances in terms of the consumer experience and
what's available it can still get a lot better but I think how we do it sustainably efficiently not only looking
at the lowest possible unit cost but how to really optimize supply chain that's I
think what color 19 is accelerating a lot of the things that are happening is
more often Martha mentioned I really have have been starting out but probably
slowly and and will accelerate so the consumer centricity you know digitization domestic versus global
sourcing this notion of on-demand digitization we'll talk more about that actually yep so merabh actually can
share some like numbers of this massive industry well I think most of our
audience is probably coming from our industry and our familiar with this you know numbers and they're quite scary if
you think about it textile industries the second highest polluter in the world in terms of water
pollution and carbon emission I mean this is really not not something new we
all know about that but I just recently found out that last year we actually the
industry produced 114 billion pieces of clothing that means about 15 new
garments for every person on the planet and we are over consuming that's that's
for sure and we are seeing new companies that built their entire business model
on the fact that we just cannot help but shop and keep shopping okay so you know
we're seeing companies that are that are shipping every month new items to their
consumers whether they ask us for them or not and you know obviously you can
return what you got but the overconsumption of this entire industry is troubling a
we also see a major shift from the you
know brick-and-mortar kind of a consumption habits retail meltdown is
shifting to online a before Kobe nineteen about 15 percent of shocking
wasn't mine for most brands but I think now and what I'm seeing companies
reporting a we see an increase from fifteen to thirty percent a shift from
brick-and-mortar do online obviously because stores that are closed and people just want to continue shopping so
those who have adopted fast to this trend will succeed and we overcome this
crisis and those who haven't will have a very hard time getting out of this
crisis if we look you know it a great example i think sarah would be a great
example of a company that reacted very fast and just you know you know i think
it was everywhere they immediately launched a website and started shifting
products from their store using using volunteers employees to deliver goods to
their end consumer and basically do that they were able to stop you know control
the damage of common but i think a lot of a lot of companies a lot of fashion
brands in this industry but not will not survive this crisis and we'll talk about that so maybe on top of that can you I know
that for that you also created or did a very in-depth analysis of who are the
main players because it's again it looks like okay we have Zara we have these main players but how does this market is
actually fragmented okay so I so I guess you know in the mind of a normal normal
person when you talk about fashion brands so you know these names will talk
to you again you know Nike Adidas all right companies have shaped the textile
world and and they come to you they come to our mind very easily it's the first name that we will
drop but I think it's more interesting to look at the new types of brands that
we sometimes tend to to neglect to not consider such as the licenses you know
of sports brands music brands these type
of brands are very very interesting because their rights can be you to be
influenced by time and is ends and these
brands can emerge overnight like if the
Eilish releases a song all of a sudden her her brand is the strongest one is
the one that everybody talks about if you go into Instagram you'll get it you're full of B I wish and then the
next day maybe we will forget about her and talk about Rihanna or ariana grande so I think we have to consider also the
you know music brands export brands and that we tend to forget that they are
huge with certain audiences another type of brand that we should we have to look
at are the DM TVs which are the digital digitally native vertical brands which
are companies that exist on online only then have no brick-and-mortar that they normally aren't they exist only on
online and they control their entire supply chain the very edge I they're
very interesting they react very fast to consumer demand I think we have to very
carefully look at those brands are the type of customers that they attract and the kind of needs that they need that
they have and also all the specialized friends and again this is the type of brand that we tend to overlook these are
company that are emerging from different needs of different segments of the of the you know people that are growing up
from I don't know I've witnessed a random of elephant lovers in Highland it
can be you know hundreds of thousands of women or people that are interested in elephants and
they have their own brand and they're all familiar with it but you and I will not so there's a lot of interesting new
models of brands that sometimes have a very short lifespan and and sometimes a
longer one let's not fall into the ancient mistake of looking also only at
Zara and H&M fashion brand that's a so fun so Murad it's clear that it's very
fragmented so I wanted to to actually ask Marta about the the the fashion
personas because in each sort of brands that you are talking about you will find
also roles and responsibilities that we are need to be familiar with because it's the inside brand itself it's also
very fragmented right Martin exactly and exactly and also the organizational models are changing very
fast according to what mama just said so
as discussed is industry is very complex and globalized and and segmented if you
if you take the potentially easiest product possible a t-shirt they travel
like one and a half times around the globe with more than a thirty stakeholders involved if you have a lean
system you know it can be way way more and if you take one naughty stakeholders
the brand which is only a tiny little part of this entire chain we you know if
we talk about the factories the cotton farmers and so on it gets bigger and
bigger but if we take a look at the brand you have various departments and
various teams developing the product which is design and technical department
to the merchandisers the buyers to supply at the sourcing managers
slide chain managers the quality manager the logistics and of course finance and
HR and this is only a tiny little part and they are or stay represent and
oversee multiple operations in a company so it's very very obvious that if you
don't have smart systems to manage these processes and keep in mind that it's
getting more complex because we have sustainability issues so you have to monitor that you even have to disclose
supply chain data because nobody knows who is the supplier of your supplier I
mean we all talk about transparency but actually it's pretty hard I mean I mean
asking the the ones that represent friends amongst our participants today
who does know who supplies the raw materials for our buttons I mean it's
crazy we just don't know ibly so this will become more complex so we need not only
new systems and smart systems to amendment data before hand we have to
disclose and standardize but also that means we have to collaborate on a whole
new level in in an organization I mean we all talk about lean and age'
companies and new work I mean I come from the startup industry so where these
are kind of sarees my friends bingo terms but the reality is totally
different the reality is I'm still asked for the number of my fax machine you
know we have a whole industry that is running on paper we have a whole
industry that is managed by elderly people that hate spending time in front
of the computer we have we're in an industry that is organized in strict
hierarchies where information is talk button yeah so I want I wanted actually
to ask Kirsten for me take us through this journey of the fashion apparel
product and person if you'll start already this probably
should I move already to the next slide yeah sure why don't you show a little bit of the process I think it's a good
overview so I mean what we've seen in in the past and the fashion industry and I by the way I saw a number of you know
good questions and comments on on the chat so I think the audience is well
aware of some of the challenges some really good discussion there love to address that in a minute here but you
know if you look at the traditional process it's been planning driven you know we have an idea I'm a brand a great
idea you have great creative designers maybe but we come up with with a wonderful product and we try to make as
much of it as we can or as much as we think we need to make as cheap as
possible and then you know in short term we hope to sell it I'd in that process
you know you see it here you know goes through has been going through mostly
linear steps right you've got some iteration but mostly it's been linear the design words the idea is creating
the patterns may be doing some virtual prototyping now is it's beginning the
grading getting and moved to manufacturing with the tech pack you know getting all that approved going
back and far and forth a million times between the manufacturer and the
designers on what should be made and how and then and because we've got a supply
chain that's far away Asia and a lot of the demand side is far
away - you have a lot of back and forth and it takes time so long story short it's been a very linear process I think
the chart outlines are quite well I think the timelines here frankly are already for the more advanced companies
if we go around and you know we have tens of thousands of customers if we ask
around how long does it really take you from idea to finished product on the
shelf now last year it was still about 42 weeks average 42 weeks so basically
it takes you a year and you're guessing what your consumers need because nobody know no matter how
sophisticated your forecasting system is nobody can predict what your customers are going to need in a year that's why
also you know research companies like McKinsey and others say that you know the now accurate forecasting is one of
the biggest challenge and you see that I know some statistics say that up to 30%
of all garments made it never gets old so some landfill or something else so I
think the big challenge and what we see now is that this traditional process is being broken into a much more no demand
driven view and we could talk about that more here in a few minutes but it really goes away from planning what you think
consumers will want to only making what they actually need and ideally have
ordered and there's some interesting economics around that you know it doesn't mean that all the production
necessarily and development is going to go you know undemanding unsure but you know a more intelligent
mix of production models development models and we'll talk about it more in a
minute but yeah this is really this process has been a challenge because it's slow it's not digitally integrated
you don't have the visibility and with that you're really your hands are tied and kovin 19 is really exposed that
because the moment the supply chain breaks to react to any kind of issues is
next to impossible it takes work all right thanks so I want to tell the
audience that we will answer questions at the end because we have a lot to cover so we'll try to rush to the
questions as well but I wanted so I think that we wanted to touch base why
these industries is so difficult to change but I think that we will mostly
answer that White's so fragmented so complicated and I wanted actually to move to the
next slide and ask the three of you I actually what and we touch base both
touch base this one but I think that there is a place to elaborate Mourad maybe start with you about the
really the impact of Corbett 19 well um you know we took we took a lot a
lot in cornea about the impact of Corbett 19 I have to say it reminds me
of a famous Churchill quote I always loved Churchill quote he once
said never let a good crisis go to waste and I think coping 19 was the perfect
crisis or e-commerce and and you know it's no secret that those who will be
able to overcome a shift to online will
survive this crisis better than others if you add this to the significant shift
that we see in consumers preferences to sustainability the effect that they'll
worry about over consumption that we actually force brands to move to more
responsible business practices I think this will also be a major impact on on
on our market we already see a drop in
consumer spending on apparel and it will result in a massive inventory buildup
and a lot of companies are already sitting on piles of inventory and and
some of them don't even know how much inventory they have stock in containers
somewhere in the middle of the ocean or warehouses and in their closed
stores so you know this will all you know the entire collection that should
have been sold February to May will have to somehow get rid of it okay so that's
a huge impact on our an owner market I think the social distances this is
saying has has an effect it would drive more consumers into the digital channels
even the elderly that were never a part of the online experience
so the those retailers and brands that have rushed to upgrade their their e-commerce
platforms they will probably survive this crisis and you know come out of it
as hunters a son will consolidate I believe in summary disappearance I think
that Marta already felt that happening actually in front of her like in the
daily experience indeed yeah definitely
so what I find most interesting now is that the whole word is on course and
especially the especially the closing industry and when I when I remembered
the many conversations I had we said what would all people had in common
working in the fashion industry no matter where in the value chain they were like they felt like they they're
part of a higher speed kind of vicious circle right
you always run you never come to an end there's always like more collections
faster cycles so we just nobody had the
chance to kind of sit back take a breath you know have a conversation with the
smartest people around you investigate the best solutions out there and we
think if this is really necessary you know what is the value we are ending what is the purpose that drives us white
why you should actually consumers desire and love what we give to them why don't
why should they come back why should they keep our fans why should like future talents and
employees really long for joining our teams I mean you know we just had no
time to think about and this is super exciting now so I'm also very sad for
the many really really great companies that probably need to go out of the
market and the mayor many individual like really really heartbreaking stories
I also hear beside that and that sounds probably cool because an entire season
is like for the bin and tons of fabrics
tons of goods that are going to be disposed but we have a very very unique
chance to rethink and redesign so we can do two things basically because there's
this paradox of being in a super super super complex industry globalized that
needs a lot of time and a lot that is resisting change because it's so complex
and never change the running system and high speed highly fast cycling short
lifespans industry so somehow we have to match that and we have to balance that
so we can slow down well we can we can introduce smarter better connected
systems and Costin I know that you at
the Erb are you already like sort of reacted to all that and you see that actually also happening in in many areas
I mean so first of all in terms of co19 impact you know when a I oftentimes we'd
like to think of it as an event and then it's gone I it's not so more and more
the way we've you know been engaged in the crisis we were trying to
differentiate that would just encourage everybody to think a little bit maybe that same way is theirs during the
crisis there's emerging from the crisis and there's post crisis right and some
of this comes in waves and it's not the same in every locale or region right during the crisis what we've seen is no
big focus on on restructuring obviously acts that are described big focus on PPE
you know production of personal protective equipment and you know this is a great example that shows that the
companies that are agile and digital today they can of it in a matter of days so we've seen
for example manufacturers that have gone from making you know regular clothing to
masks in within a week and then it took another two or three days to start
making gallons so and this has been very important for a lot of at least our customers to help address a help
obviously provide PPE which is in short supply and then secondly keep their teams no busy and working and create
some positive but now that's been during the crisis the emerging what we see is a
continued strong focus on cash you know every business needs to watch it's its money and with that and we've seen a lot
of unfortunate impacts also on jobs but also you know the the forward-thinking
ones particularly are looking at growth areas now where are some of the opportunities you know BPPV
or other because you know there are segments of the market that are growing like crazy right now and you know the
submergence of you know combining fashion with PPE you know reimagining
what's the new normal you know one of the things we've been discussing out with corny there's no personalizing
masks no giving everybody their own special flavour I know so thinking through what is the new normal and then
really you know what we see coming out of the crisis is driving the digital
models and that's in very simplistic terms there is no one simple answer because it's gonna be a journey so
anybody that tells you they have a special formula for you you know there's some some guidance you know we see you
know obviously starting with what you really want to create as an experience for your consumer your end customer is
key and then a little bit like Martha was saying just sitting down and reimagining what can you change and it's
not mostly gonna be a big bang you know this stuff is difficult you know we're not changed decades of doing things
differently but I also saw in the in the chats that you know a lot of companies are already using digital tools know for
3d virtual product about for example so know as you pick more and more of those areas connect the data where
strong believer you know in the end it's it's about the data and connecting the data along the supply chain the more you
do that the more you're in control of your destiny but I would encourage everybody to think of Kovac as those
phases and working your way through them yeah and and actually the where we
wanted us to go now is actually to understand where the fashion industry is
going after you met you mentioned some of the areas but and I think person you
get you got gave us a very good split of
you know what happened what is going to happen now in the future but I thought
of starting with talking about the supply chain innovation that is needed
in order you mentioned the ones that already or could do that change very
rapidly and maybe Marta you can lead us through this innovation that is needed
there yeah with pleasure so what we observe already today is a massive
demand for new showing on touring reshoring I don't want to go into
details here but producing close to market as Carson said customer centric
concepts will be succeeding very far so they will recover more quickly from this
current pandemic and so we will see very successful business models popping up
that we are not yet aware of or we are not aware of their their massive
potential and this will be dynamized through autumn ization because if you
produce in europe for example of course you have higher staffing costs and so
slowly but surely this is also getting more interesting for investors and
technologies are more available and accessible so it's not you don't buy the
machine anymore actually paid to use or pay per clicks
or 20 minutes of irony and not find a time machine which is really interesting
so what I see is a shift in service towards more service-oriented business
models on the supply side which makes technology that is not yet accessible
because you have to have trained staff you have to have massive investment to
make this is going to get way more easy we will see technology such as
blockchain making transparency and data management cheaper faster and easier to
access and we will also see artificial
intelligence and machine learning supporting actually education training
understanding monitoring operating so you can actually adapt to changing
markets and changing consumer needs and then of course the massive need for
sustainability will dynamize that so that's the very poor who haven't started
putting huge effort in sustainability goals is I believe out of the market
very silly so this is not a trend or a future topic this is actually the very
core if you harm your people or you you harm your consumers and you will have no
future sorry if I say that that's harsh but I'm very convinced so I mean circular economy will will
play a major role will have also more let's say closely to the market
circulating more materials I mean we sell 1 billion t-shirts in Europe a year
so we could endlessly reproduce what is it what is there already we don't even
have to in in in a perfect future we don't even have to produce new materials
because they're so I wanted question two to also give his
point of view because Carson you mentioned also changing also the
business model and producing after that purchase itself so how where do you see
the first blocks of innovation coming into the supply train yeah so I think
it's it's a great question to be a long discussion here but maybe huh maybe a few few points
no we I think again I mentioned this earlier the most important thing for any company in our mind is to really not
just try to you know apply formulas to to the problem right but to say look you
know here's the consumer here's our customer that we want to serve here's the experience we want to give them and
how what's the best way to do that so I think that's really the most important if you're just trying to do on demand
because you're doing on demand it may not be the best thing now if you're doing plain white t-shirts and you know
exactly how many people are gonna buy those from you you're probably best off making those in a very sustainable way
but as low-cost as you possibly but you know if you're you know making a very
personalized experience and product know the the low-cost approach it's
definitely worth reconsidering and this is where these new models come into play
you know is adding a little bit here on the chat or so that you know everybody's been so focused on the unit economics of
the lowest possible cost but if you factor in some of the things that Roth said you know the the things that end up
in the landfills and everything else the economics of high-volume production aren't nearly as good as people think
they are right so if you then look at only making exactly what you've sold so
you digitally develop the products you put them online maybe you created small
batches and samples which by the way can be done more efficiently you know and on
demand runs without you know large ml queues
then then you can really test and iterate and then only really end up making the products that the customers
need and want so I think there's a huge opportunity for what we call on-demand and it leverages the combination of
digital product development and you know on-demand production of shorter runs so
a combination of digitally creating those patterns those tech packs digitally printing them off of white
rose like it is doing and then making them you know cutting and sewing them on
demand you know we've actually worked on a project with core need in New York
City in our innovation center where we can you know make shirts and dresses on demand in less than an hour and you you
really the technology is gonna continue to evolve but it's there today to give you some tools and options to say okay
certain things I'm only gonna make what I really have orders and maybe it costs
it's definitely gonna cost me more per unit to make them but the margins still going to be better than wasting a ton of
and it's gonna be faster too so just to give you some examples of what's possible today and we we do believe that
this type of digital integration again is is where it's going so we're going to
touch base now you in a few words some
of the of the terms that we touch base today so I wanted to just talk about
sustainable sourcing Madhab can you help us a little bit understand what is it
about well it's a whole world of new
technologies that have developed in recent years too as Martha I mentioned before the circular idea of reproducing
items that have already been born for example trying to wash textiles with dry
processes not consume as much water as
today when it comes to printing obviously corny
you know develops inks that are sustainable in a way that not only that
it's safe to wear them because they are safe for your body and then one can wear
them babies and but also there is no water involved in the production process
you don't waste any there's no carbon emission there's no waterways there's no
washing involved steaming if you look at the traditional ways of producing
textiles these are no longer relevant when you see the damage that they actually do world and it's interesting
to see that the markets that are driving the change to a more sustainable future
are actually the same ones that are heavily invested in production you know
like you wouldn't you wouldn't believe how these people are concerned with
sustaining anything way more than people in the Western countries where there's
no production whatsoever definitely I wanted Karsten maybe you
can give us some explanation about transparency it's a world that I hear
all the time you know we talked about it but maybe what is it about what is the
expectations yeah I mean I think yeah transparency is a broad term but you
know to me it means the end the visibility to have information no long
supply chain and to be able to you know leverage data to make intelligent decisions so often transparency is
linked with sustainability you know knowing where a product was made and and you know hasn't been sourced ethically
and I think all those points are important but for development no brands
and manufacturers to make decisions you need information along the supply chain and also you know rather than having
silos of brands and manufacturers on the other side to actually share and from more information with each other and
really need to make intelligent decisions you know we do see without mentioning names you know some of the
large brands looking at their supply chain reconsidering who their suppliers will be going forward postcode at 19 and
with a focus on more strategic relationships so I think you know a lot
of the comments in the chat also say this is not gonna be easy know this it'll be interesting to know everybody
said for example with this PP initiative we're in everybody said let's buy local
PPE but then if you buy a medical gown at $10 made domestically versus you know
$2 made offshore you know pretty quickly people change and they have budgets and
then you go back to to offshore again so it's this is going to be a pretty difficult process and some of the the
local and domestic on-demand manufacturing is gonna have to be facilitated by the the specific
countries and the government's with funding programs investment programs but I think all of us in the industry can
also play a role to create the transparency to to use the digital tools
and to start redoing the processes and marginally set it for that you have to
take time you have to take time out of your day to day grind and you know covered 19 through a lot of people out
of their regular routine which in some ways may be a good thing a lot of companies have realized you can work
even for groups that never thought they could so it will have an impact it will
still be a journey but the transparency I think it's up to all of us to collect
meaningful data for every little process step we're responsible for and figuring out ways to share it with others I mean
you'll still have proprietary information but more we can change share though I I move to the next slide
because yes block which is another word that I hear all the time it's very popular and market also mentioned so can
you just give us like before we are moving because I know that there are so many questions yeah it's just I mean we
can hit it super briefly on blockchain I mean again blockchain is is a tool it's
a technology I know there's a lot of hype around it but it is one of those one of the big issues you have right now
with 19 is the lack of trust and supply chain people are getting paid you know with
PPE there are new players nobody knows you know who to trust and one of the very promising technologies here is bar
chain that essentially acts like a digital ledger so you can keep track of
transactions it's distributed you know you don't have the big banks or other intermediaries and it's a really
promising technology that will allow for establishing trust between parties and
that's really what it boils down to so I think along with some of the other digital tools blockchain is going to
really play a role in the fashion industry going forward and that has nothing to do with necessarily the
cryptocurrencies but much more even with the ability to have any kind of transaction to be able to trust that the
other party is who they are and that they're going to be doing what they say because if not and I think just to wrap
it up for questions so Martha know that you're Eugene to collaboration and this is the essence of what you are doing so
just to recap everything and talking about this collaboration that will start
happening in the industry I think collaboration is key to manage this
transition at a large scale and so interesting enough that all those
systems and organizations that are most likely will be opening up large
corporate brands collaborate with with small pioneers and that's that's purely
and truly a win-win situation that's a winning bet and and also collaboration
in teams inside organizations is the success factor for managing and not only
the crisis but also redesigning and business models so from from the as
mentioned the horizontal hierarchical model with low level of collaboration
towards an end to end - core scheme where designers sit
together with engineers machinery operators and line planners and and
simulate the best possible supply chains and now for their product and so it's
going to be fun we will learn a lot we will also learn a lot from people with
different mindsets from different cultural backgrounds can only be beneficial so I wanted to give some some
you know some of the questions here before we will we have a nice movie that
is talking about the innovation center of Gerber and corny but I wanted I know that you guys have hard stop at the end
of the hour and I want you to have some options for answers so so fast fashion
leads to more consumption don't you think more consumption is not good for sustainability when circularity is
missing so laughs can you maybe help us with that yeah you know we're all in agreement
here that fashion has rose years ago and
it actually changed the whole world of fashion and consumption and made us
believe that if you don't buy something new every week then we're out of style and we don't keep up with you know
modern life and and actually created a lot of damage to to our consumption
habits and and and actually also lower the quality of items that we wear so
there's a lot of talk I hear a lot of brands talking now about producing less
but in a better quality a like we used to do before fast fashion and I think
the shift to the online model will also change the the fast fashion model which
you know which which is done you have to admire this company in the way that they actually execute this
model is quite amazing fact that they can move a new product to their store
twice a week is logistically genius okay but but but I think Kovac 19 definitely
raised a lot of questions about this model and I believe that if we drive a
shift away from the fast session and we probably bring very interesting brands
that we reverse some new concepts new design will drive the market for more
quality versus quantity type of market and as Karsten said before we are
looking at a market that is driven by by demand so you buy your item first and
then it produces so lower we lower quantities we only produce what people
are buying and we are we are not over producing that's the most important
thing yeah so actually there there is a interesting question here that I think
it came from Nepal or something the do to copy 19 all of our markets are
in trouble so what could be as suggested strategy that they should pursue to keep
the sector survive and their their e-commerce is not possible so it's quite
challenging what would you suggest in case you know anything that you you see
how we could you know versus a mist which examples so there is the question
from Nepal okay from vice-president of the Nepal and
Kashmir Association so so for them it
due to copied 19 the markets are in trouble and they are looking for a strategy to keep the sectors of you know
survive so the problems there is that there is no ecommerce is is less
possible yeah I mean for for the apparel industry in general that's what I mentioned we've seen a lot of our
customers globally leveraged you know PB production as an opportunity to on the
one hand help but also to keep the manufacturing and apparel sector going
no they've been really millions and hundreds of millions of gallons and masks produced that way and that's one
of the things we also Gerber can help with I can put a link on on the chat
here with the website that has access to a number of resources if you want to know leverage PBE production as an
apparel manufacturer or even know brand with your suppliers you can do that and
there's help and there's a lot of resources again we have some you know a lot of free resources on our website
that's one way I don't know if Martha has any other ideas to to clients and
suppliers and connecting strong chains there's a there's of course a big risk
because there's it's not the error anymore the error is all the time is
over that they're very loyal long-term partnerships created as I experienced
when I started working in this business so the question is how can we establish
loyal relationships to get some to make
some more long-term plans that is gives us some space for future investments for
also taking time and training this our staff and and improving processes so that just
needs courage that needs stable relationships but also that needs strong
leadership so this is all where it all starts so you have to decide if you if
you want to contribute something purposeful of value to this word and to
this business it's basically I mean it's I know it's a very mushy but she term
but I strongly believe in in in mindset shift so I see that Martin and Kirsten
you already answered many of the panelists the panelist or participant
questions but since we are like 1 minutes before yen we will take all the
questions and all the comments we get them and we will make sure that you guys will get them and will be able to answer
the people and we do have the information I want to finish with this
short movie that we have and that shows the concept of micro Factory and I want
to thank you everybody and especially my dear panelists here for the participation and again everybody will
get their recording after the session from the area
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so I would like to thank everybody for joining us today thank you my dear
friend here in the panel and have a great weekend thank you bye-bye
stay safe