Trade Shows: Best of Kingpins24 and Transformers ED – Sportswear International

For two days we tuned in, listened carefully and selected some of the best quotes from Kingpins24 and Transformers ED. Here they are:

KINGPINS24Menno Van Meurs, co-founder, Tenue de Nimes, Amsterdam:Our business needed a reset and difficult roads sometimes lead to beautiful destinations. I know that the situation is difficult but it also brought new energy.

The Internet brought us lots of education. Consumers are better informed to me and that is all very positive. I do believe we should do a better job as retailers and manufacturers to inform the consumer.

After every crisis people tend to go on quality again and products they trust. In quarantine we learned that we only need a handful of productsa pair of jeans, a few T-shirts and a coat. I strongly hope people will start to invest in clothes they need and not buy mass.

Piero Turk, designer:Denim mills should create denim that can be very flexible. It is a challenge to have one denim that can used to be for a tailored blazer, a dress, an overall and a five-pocket jean with normal or extreme washes. Instead of using 30 different denims, brands can use 10.

My advice to the post-Covid industry is to take responsibility, transparency as a must, which finally means being responsible for the planet and honest with the consumers.

Alberto De Conti, Rudolf Group:Responsible apparel brands and retailers have to share knowledge with their audience because pushing consumers to have a different caring attitude towards denim is of paramount importance. The environmental impact of domestic washing is being poorly considered although it contributes to 20-25% of water consumption and to 35-40% of climate change.

Andrew Olah:My feeling of this situation is devastating. The supply chain is like after a bombing and you dont know what is left in the supply chain like being bombed so we dont know what was left. Letters of credit opened, companies that cannot pay, have no cash and we dont know how long this will last. Some countries are not even given assistance like in Bangladesh and Vietnam. I call this WW3, and these people have been attacked the most.

Nicolas Prophte, PVH:My challenge today is focusing on postconsumer products which are asking for always more transparent practice. The challenge we have in the industry now is the alignment, probably because of too many certifications and guidelines. We have to align ourself in our industry about what is sustainable according a holistic vision. Its not one parameter you take out of the context. We should scan all of our process - from the cotton seed to the consumers behaviour.

"The message outside at the consumer level is also so confusing as each brand has a different way to communicate sometimes consfusing or based upon greenwashing - and not always guided by the same expertise in denim. For this some brands often adopt a message too fast without checking the real topics behind it. Thats why the message is very difficult to understand and why probably the consumer is lost.

Asad Soorty, SoortyAfter the pandemic consumers will become price-conscious consumers, but will also look after quality, though maybe if they will discover a vaccine people forget that it ever happened and go back to fast fashion.

Sedef Uncu Aki, Orta:My hope for the future is denim because it is a cultural and iconic item and touches everybody.

When people say that the world after Corona wont be the same I ask myself: Was the world normal before?

My hope for this pandemic is that we will have a great global reset. And that this will force the global fashion industry to rethink. We had some crises but it now affects both supply chain and consumers. We as an industry must come together and work together.

Stefano Aldighieri, Another Design Studio:We cannot go back to business as usual. For a while I had already seen many people wearing a mask in Japan, China and Korea. Everyone will be wearing one from now on. Plus many will have to close down. The whole business will have to work with always smaller quantities, short-term commitments and probably closer to home.

Kingpins Transformers Ed

Michael Kininmonth, Lenzing:Producing viscose requires many different chemicals and a long process of about 24 hours from pulp to fiber. Producing Lyocell (Tencel) requires one chemical and takes three hours only form pulp to fiber.

Jacob Krzysko, Dystar:BASFs Dystar is a pre-reduced liquid indigo dye that is less polluting, requires only water and its safer for workers. It is an alternative to powder indigo which is much more polluting and requires many chemical agents. Between 2014 and 2018 many companies have switched to pre-reduced indigo. Unfortunately only Chinese denim manufacturers, which hold the biggest share of worldwide denim manufacturing, continue to use it probably because it is mostly made in China, cheaper and widely available.

Alberto Candiani, Candiani Denim:Before COVID-19 our company produced 22 million meters per year, the equivalent of a production of about 16 million pairs of jeans. Competitors that sell apparently similar fabrics offer them at half of our price. This is because of the global industry and volumes. The worldwide jeans total production is 140 billion units, the double of 2008.

"There is a yearly overproduction of about 250 million garments that goes to landfill or burnt. Even more scary is that 30 more vertically integrated denim mills appeared in the market in the last ten years. So we will produce even more and expect the denim capacity will go over three billion meters in the next five to 10 years. Unfortunately, the old capitalistic assumption that the world will consume always more denim is wrong. This is changing and mills should produce a different type of denim, not the old school commodity that consumes so much chemicals and causes a pretty huge damage for the planet. This old way of thinking doesnt make sense anymore.

Tony Tonnaer, founder, Kings Of Indigo:Eighty percent of a products environmental footprint is decided in the design stage. When you design a product make sure you define all of its pillars. Today 60% more clothing is being produced compared to the year 2000. We wear our clothes for an average 2.2 years.

Our vision for the future of fashion is based upon these aspects: The industry finally woke up, its time to develop a benchmark. Stimulate big players to really join the change and not greenwash. Find an alternative for cotton and focus on recycling and upcycling. Think circular and cradle-to-cradle. Wash and dye without water and chemicals like PP and bleach. Sell more quality to last longer. Less seasonals; more classics. Less waste, less sale.

Sanjeev Bahl, Saitex:In 2001 my company followed a very simple model business: We made a five-pocket jeans from one factory and one fabric mill in China and then after selling to the US, we operated in many countries. What I could see around we belonged in a system we could not recognize hunger, poverty and inadequate sanitation. Then in 2010 we moved to Vietnam where I built a new theory of change and a new system. It was an experiment. We put 1% of our revenues in poverty elevation programs. I consider Saitex to be an empathetic organization. We recycle 98% of the water we use, dry our jeans hanging them inside our company, produce our solar energy and reached break-even in six years. We also host farms and grow food for fighting hunger.

Stefano Aldighieri, Another Design Studio:We cannot go back to business as usual. Everyone will be wearing [a mask] from now on. Plus many will have to close down. The whole business will have to work with always smaller quantities, short-term commitments and probably closer to home.