Jose R. Suarez, Impactiva founder and CEO, is blunt about the current state of apparel and footwear quality control: The industry needs a complete transformation.
With the rise of the direct-to-consumer model comes greater demands on apparel and footwear factories. The current system of policing defects at the end of production won’t work. Now products are being shipped directly to consumers. Removing the retailer has eliminated a layer of accountability that can have damaging repercussions for brands that aren’t prepared.
“When you’re shipping to someone’s home, you’re really losing brand equity when you ship a defective product,” Suarez said. To preserve brand equity, factories must evolve into a culture of “right from the start.”
Unfortunately, Suarez notes in his talk with Sourcing Journal founder and president Edward Hertzman, most factory workers and management haven’t received the proper training to be successful in this new model.
Watch the video to learn the hard numbers around the cost of shipping defective products—and discover how to prepare for this new zero-defect mandate.