The power of a large expert network is the ability to spot trends across the industry, impacting brands and suppliers of all sizes and segments. And the collective of practitioners at Zefyr Consulting have distilled those learnings into 4 key trends for 2024 - and how your company can leverage those insights in the new year. From consumer sentiment to margins to political change... what does our team of experts see on the horizon for the industry?

Brands are going into the Nearshoring conversation with a set of expectations that may not be realistic or fully informed.  Surely when the big footwear and apparel brands ventured into China and Vietnam in the 1980s, they had more of a Pioneering Spirit. They knew there would be hardships and obstacles to overcome, but they were hellbent on achieving success because they knew it was the right thing to do at the time.  When facing these sorts of obstacles today, it feels like brands are saying, “It can’t be done until something changes,” without knowing that THEY are the change that needs to push forward.  

In today's fashion landscape, consumers demand transparency, and government regulations reinforce it. 📜 To thrive, apparel and footwear brands must adapt. Here are four essential strategies, inspired by Zefyr's expertise.

While an optimized supply chain involves many more components than cost, it is a great starting point for a supply chain review. Supply chain expenses can be a very large component of your final product cost. Given that fact, it is surprising how few companies actually look at the supply chain as a key competitive advantage and spend time and effort to regularly review and improve on the network. 

Traceability is about managing risk and providing evidence for every Apparel & Footwear supply chain, but does your company have a robust strategy in place?

Hear from four experts across supply chain, consumer, regulatory, and technology about what you need to know for your traceability strategy.

When you’re building a brand, you’re determining what you sell and which vendors you can partner with based on financing or cash. You sell what you buy. But once you have a portfolio of products and a suite of factory and material partners, you’re going to face challenges to continue growing sustainably without proper planning fundamentals.

Traceability is the ability to see a product’s journey from the finished product all the way back to the raw material, and all the processing and transportation in between.  Transparency is what you choose to disclose to the public or to your stakeholders. Read more about the elements that should be a part of your traceability initiative and how Zefyr can help through our latest service offering.

The global COVID pandemic has stressed economies and supply chains in ways that haven’t been experienced in decades, if ever.  The result has been difficult for many to understand and manage, as evidenced by the overwhelming inventory situations that the US and other nations continue to work through in early 2023.  

The pandemic has continued to affect every part of the #supplychain in 2022 for Apparel and Footwear. As we close out the year and look forward to 2023, we’ve collected the insights from our Zefyr Consulting leadership team. We asked everyone for a key takeaway from 2022 and one key consideration for 2023.

Three shifts in the footwear materials industry from the 2022 NW Materials Show.

Everyone’s talking about nearshoring and reshoring to the Americas. Mitigating transportation risk, increasing flexibility, reducing time to market. It might be the right time to set your supply chain up for the coming strategy shift.

What are three unexpected learnings about Footwear nearshoring?