Outsider Innovation recently began contributing to Ssachs Magazine, and you can find a link to the article here - An Outsider's Perspective on Sustainability . I had the pleasure of reviewing the magazine’s Materials Section lead, Ruth Kelly. I have found Ruth to be an amazing resource, and her experience in the industry invaluable. Together with the rest of the community at Ssachs, Ruth and her colleagues offer current industry news and perspectives, giving industry thought leaders a voice and exposure while connecting developing brands and young professionals to a robust network of freelancers and consultants. Our conversation jumped between number of topics, so the exchange below is paraphrased from the entire discussion.
“This is something that many people can’t do today, so I feel fortunate to that I could – it’s too difficult to spend that much time working with suppliers overseas when you’re on a ten day trip to three countries. ”
Ben: So, how long have you been in the [apparel] industry?
Ruth: About thirty years now. I graduated in 1990 in the UK, and at the time, they had a very active, profitable textile industry. Most of that has moved now, and really had within the first ten years of my career. My first job was with a full-service garment vendor that supplied athletic apparel, lingerie, and swimwear to major international brands. I’d drive to see the local manufacturers and learn the ins-and-outs with their technicians, on-site. This is something that many people can’t do today, so I feel fortunate to that I could – it’s too difficult to spend that much time working with suppliers overseas when you’re on a ten day trip to three countries. There seemed to be more time then too, since my trips were local, and I wasn’t trying to do as much with each trip. Also, there were no language barriers, which helped out a lot. That first six months or so was so instrumental to me learning, I think it would take years to get that kind of experience now.
In the late 90’s I moved to Hong Kong and saw the transition from British to Chinese sovereignty. Living in Asia made it much easier to travel to the different countries and see how the textile industry was different in each region. Its pretty incredible how different things are in each part of Asia, even in one industry.
Things used to be done based on your relationships, which you built through these more personal interactions, but that takes so much longer now.
image from Unsplash by Unknown Wong
Ben: What have you seen change [in the apparel industry] in that time?
Ruth: There’s been a lot of offshoring and outsourcing from the UK and the US. Email – this wasn’t a thing when I started out, and it’s become ubiquitous now. I wonder what it will be like in another 30 years. We used to do everything by fax. Occasionally I’d get a call from Italy or another international vendor, and it would be so special, because those calls cost a lot. We spent a lot of time on the phone too, and I think how we do business now has changed. Things used to be done based on your relationships, which you built through these more personal interactions, but that takes so much longer now.
Retail chains have changed a lot too. I remember when Asda launched a clothing line, before they were part of Wal-Mart, and thought, “Oh, this will never take off.” That’s changed.
Ecommerce has been a huge change. The UK was an early leader in ecommerce, but it’s much like email – how do you communicate as effectively in that medium? We’re so much more connect in general today, which is overall pretty good, but is a very different type of day. You used to do your hours, then you were done. If you wanted to get more work done, you had to go back into the office.
How we select fabric hasn’t really changed at all. Shipping fabric around, keeping libraries, dealing with courier times and fees. That’s been the same.
Trend board in Ruth’s home office.
Ben: What have you seen change in just the last few months [since the coronavirus pandemic]?
Ruth: I’ve started to see more collaboration across brands and suppliers. It’s been in non-competitive areas, but still good. There are some examples, like the SAC and similar organizations, but those are high level and not product focused. I’ve seen more collaboration on PPE equipment recently – a few companies withing the BC Gear and Apparel Association, Arc’teryx and Mustang worked together to make their tech packs available to all for free. I hop we see more of that and it stays around.
Ben: So, what do you think some of the outcomes of [the coronavirus pandemic] might be?
Ruth: I think we’re going to see mills going out of business. I was doing research for an article and came across a statistic that there are around half a million textile producers in the world. This was across the supply chain and across tall the related industries, but it still sounds like a lot. Many are probably focusing on making everything, not just what they’re good at. If you think about the Abundance Theory [Abundance in Business], it might say the if people focus on their strengths, other opportunities will come up, but instead many are fighting for the same markets and not doing it very well. I hope the ones that make it through are the ones who are more mission focused and dedicated. During industrial revolution, the cottage industry workers were up in arms, but the revolution went ahead anyway. We might be in another similar case now. There are so many new jobs now that there weren’t 10 years ago, who knows what we’ll be doing in another 10 years?
I think we’re going to see mills going out of business.
We have to change how we do things. If you look at Bangladesh and the garment makers and works not being paid, things like that have to stop; you have to pay for your orders. It’s tough. If you consider consumerism and how we’re so addicted to fast fashion, we need to break that. Gucci is dropping their fashion shows and seasons, and going to launching product less often. That’s great, and we need to do more of that. I think it’s going back to how we used to do things – we worked hard, and we made good stuff, but we weren’t as driven by arbitrary timelines and pumping out new product. People are getting burned out and we’re trying to make quality product that lasts years, but we drop new product every few weeks. It seems like we’re all working hard to make a few people very rich. I think we can still do good work but not at the cost of our people.
I think we’ll see more 3D garment sampling. Some companies have come to this by necessity, but we need to see more of it. Many companies have fallen into a comfortable cadence of “3 prototypes”, but do we need those? The process is good, but you also need flexibility and agility. I think this [pandemic] has shown us that.
“It’s all about collaboration and networking, working on your own is really tough as a freelancer.”
image from Unsplash by HIVAN ARVIZU @soyhivan
Ben: So, tell me more about your company, Weft X Warp and your latest endeavor, Ssachs magazine.
Ruth: I’m really focused on Ssachs now. It’s all about collaboration and networking, working on your own is really tough as a freelancer. I met Diane and Soudi through LinkedIn and they interviewed me for their magazine. Eventually I joined on with them to lead the Materials section in Ssachs. We want to create this community to highlight the talent in the industry and tell the stories that don’t usually get told, to celebrate all of the usually unsung functions within a brand – developers and creatives should be recognized too. Even though we may be working in competing categories, many of the challenges and issues we deal with are the same. We also wanted it to be a platform for new brands, since there a not a lot of space for them to do outreach. Mills are also looking for that, so they can learn about the up-and-coming brands and separate those from the random “found you online” inquiries. We also want to highlight athletes that are looking for sponsorship and get a chance to dig into their kit to learn more about how they do their sport. Finally, we wanted to connect students too. Since you can’t just jump in the car anymore and drive to the local textile mill to learn the ropes, we wanted to help bridge that gap.
We’re here to offer a point of view, not regurgitate press releases. When you work for a brand, you’re fed information. You get so much information from so many sources, you’re almost bombarded. As a freelancer, you have to work so much harder to stay up to date. We want to serve as a way to connect these freelancers to brand and mills so they have the information they need.
We’re here to offer a point of view, not regurgitate press releases.
We also serve an agency function. When I started working on my own, people were already pretty used to working with freelance designers, but not with freelance Product Development or Materials experts. COVID has helped prove that you don’t necessarily have to be co-located, you just need good people. If the client is working with multiple freelancers, they have to develop relationships with each one at each step, but the Ssachs community can help that transition from the “design line to the finish line”.
“COVID has helped prove that you don’t necessarily have to be co-located, you just need good people. ”
While the Ssachs Magazine and Community may be new to the scene, they have already added top-tier contributors and talent to their team. I encourage you to add Ssachs to your list of frequently checked publications, as there is already a robust selection of articles to browse and new, high-quality content added frequently. Should you or your company need assistance on a project, reach out to the team at Ssachs for more guidance.
Until the next installment, thanks for reading Outsider Innovation's newsletter, Outsider Information. Stay well.