I am super lucky that in Canada, we have some of the most influential companies in the smart clothing market. I had the chance to sit down and discuss with Hannah Fung, the Marketing director Myant inc., about their vision of the future and their contribution to the smart textile industry.
It was also very interesting to hear her point of view from a marketer’s perspective and all the challenges that comes with marketing a product like smart textiles and smart clothes.
S.C : Tell me a little about yourself. How did you get interested in smart textile, AI, remote patient monitoring, and human connectedness?
H.F : I have an engineering background. Funny enough, I never actually worked as an engineer. I aspent most of my career working on analytics & insights for companies somehow related one way to another to medical devices, MedTech, healthcare, or pharmaceutical. I guess healthcare has always been on my radar.
One thing led to another. I took the position of marketing director at Myant inc. Working on something that feels like the future is not easy every day. However, I like the idea that I help create a more optimistic future. For me, this work has meaning and I can’t think of doing anything else.
S.C : Can you tell us a little more about Myant inc’s positioning in the IoT/Smart clothing market?
Myant inc works at the intersection of so many disciplines. We are end-to-end solution providers. Some companies may be able to put together some resources to create a prototype. However, we can provide an A to Z solution because we reunited the whole process under our roof.
Back when Myant inc was created and even now, there weren’t any other companies that had the expertise to make all the various disciplines smart clothes or smart textile require. From the fibers to the patterns, or the electrical components, everything that is involved in the creation of smart textiles, we do that either in-house or with the help of very close providers. Indeed, a part of it relies on textile manufacturing but also data science.
photo credit : Myant inc
As a matter of fact, you need data scientists to figure out what to do with the data. But, you also need specialists in biology and kinesiology to understand how to make sense of the data that was extracted and how to make it useful to people. Then, once that is done, app developers can work on the platforms that can convey the right message in the right forms to people.
S.C : Myant Inc. often uses the term “Textile Computing”. What is it exactly?
We have a very broad vision of what we want to accomplish. It’s not only about changing the way people connect to healthcare. It’s about giving power to the textiles that surround you so that you can learn more about yourself and optimize your life thanks to them.
And we’re not only talking about clothes. Textiles are everywhere in your life. You can find textile on your bed, your chair, your couch, your car. If you want to find a way to connect to the human body, isn’t using something that is already everywhere in our life the best way to do so?
Think about your phone or your laptop. We tend to organize our lives around them to use the technology. What we are doing is, on the contrary, embedding technology into something that we already interact with, so that we don’t even have to think about it. We want smart textiles to become a bidirectional interface for the human body.
When you think about it, textile computing is quite a transformative approach. The real power of textile computing happens when most of us are connected most of the time.
S.C : You just launched Phase 2 of Skiin, Myant Inc’s smart clothing line. Do you market smart clothing the same way as in any other markets or are there any specificities tied to the smart clothing industry?
We’ve been testing the alpha version for a while but now, it’s finally ready to go public and is available on our website. By knitting the ability to sense the body into everyday clothing, Skiin provides people and their loved ones a connection to their well-being.
photo credit : Myant inc
At the moment, Skiin’s main customers are people who have a real need for a non-stop connection such as people whose parents have dementia for instance, or overweight people who need to be careful about their vitals. Companies might also be interested to monitor the well-being and performances of their employees.
Smart textiles and smart clothing follow the same innovation curve as the Internet of things. Just like smartphones, it starts with a niche and early adopters. But the dream we have will truly happen when we reach a certain connectedness critical mass.
One last thing, the main challenges I’ve been facing though is that most of the time: consumers have no idea what smart textiles can actually do. The thing is explaining what smart textiles are to people with 2-second mental space is not easy.
S.C : How do you see the smart clothing market? What are the opportunities and the main roadblocks?
H.F : Part of what we do is building the infrastructure for the smart clothing industry so that anyone can innovate. There are many great researchers and academics who can create smart clothes. But finding a factory that can take the prototype and mass-produce is still a true challenge. That’s why we are working hard on defining industry standards and processes that make prototyping easier and scaling possible.
photo credit : Myant inc
With Digital Textile Exchange, a digital manufacturing platform we created, we can connect a network of stakeholders in the advanced textile innovation value-chain.
In other words, if you want to create a smart clothe, with Digital Textile Exchange, you could have access and be introduced to suppliers who have the capability to create your product.
Another major roadblock is the lack of skilled candidates. The technical expertise from a knitting perspective doesn’t really exist out there in the world, which will make the recruitment an issue in the future if we do nothing. So, we work closely with institutes so that they can have access to the technology and start experimenting. But by doing so, we are also creating for us and the industry a true talent pipeline.
For more information on Skiin, feel free to visit skiin.com .
Spinali Design is a French company created in 2015 by Marie SPINALI and her husband Romain Spinali, specialized in smart clothes. Their first product was the Neviano, a connected swimsuit that allows the person to know when they need to put some sunscreen on.
In today’s interview with Romain Spinali, we are going to talk about connected swimsuit, fashion, market fit and sustainability.
Photo credit : Serge Nied
S.C: What made you launch Spinali Design?
R.S : When my wife told me about this idea of a connected swimsuit, I thought it was a great idea. At the time, we were selling technological solutions to the real estate industry. It was a completely different challenge.
The development of the swimsuit took about 4 months.
As soon as we launched it, the connected swimsuit almost immediately caught the eyes of the media and even the international press. American and Chinese media mentioned the Neviano.
S.C: So, fashion-wise, is there a market for Smart Clothes?
R.S : What we understood afterwards is that it’s a market in which you need to create a demand. No one really needs a swimsuit, unless you go to the sea, and even less a connected swimsuit. You need to create to create a desire for it. Same goes for dresses.
Here’s an interesting statistic : in 2019, 1 out of 2 female clothing is worn less than 2 months.
In other words, it’s all about frustration and nowadays, social media and mass marketing are building this frustration. Today, people are not buying a piece of clothing for its inner quality anymore but they are making purchases out of frustration and desire.
However, I think there is a true opportunity for smart clothes if you look at it, not with a fashion angle, but as a service-based accessory.
S.C: Can you develop your thoughts?
R.S : 5 years later, we now see a true opportunity for service-based pieces of clothing. Beyond the aesthetic, smart clothing can provide a service. And that gives a new meaning, new direction to the textile world.
We can definitely see it with our connected gloves. Our gloves are made with a fabric treated with titanium dioxide that can destroy microparticles, bad bacterias and viruses. Thanks to the photocatalysis principle, these gloves help people easily disinfect their hands.
The demand is actually higher than we can actually produce. Covid-19 definitely accelerated the need for change and the society’s transformation.
S.C: Since we are talking about transformation, what do you think of the growing importance of sustainable development in fashion? Can smart clothing be sustainable?
R.S: Smart clothes are made of fabrics and electronics. The electronic parts will last longer than the fabric. This being said, if you source eco-responsible and quality fabrics, the smart piece of clothing will last longer.
On top of that, we believe in a circular economy. In other words, we give the possibility to buyers to recycle their gloves once they reach the end-of-life phase. When we receive the used gloves, we recycle them and transform them into new products.
S.C: According to you, what are the main challenges of this industry?
R.S: I think, for this industry to reach their full potential, we need to develop a second hand market for smart clothing. Just like a car, we must be able to sell smart clothing to a second-hand shop so that they can have another life. Of course, clothes need to be evaluated and resale prices should be fixed according to a certain price list.
If European cities and the state work together to build this second-hand market, Europe could become a leader in the market of service-based textile.
Many thanks Romain for answering our question on the smart clothing market. To learn more about Spinali design, feel free to visit their website, Spinali-design.fr .
Hexoskin is a Montreal-based company specialized in biometric shirts that can monitor your health vitals such as cardiac, pulmonary activity, or sleep data. Created in 2006, Hexoskin is a leader and a pioneer in the smart clothing industry and advanced body-worn sensing technologies. They sent smart shirts to space and are currently working closely with governments and health systems in the US, UK, and Canada to support the fight against Covid-19.
Hexoskin’s mission has always been to make the precise health data collected by its body-worn sensors accessible and useful for everyone. So, we sat down with Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, one of Hexoskin’s co-founders, to talk about the future of smart clothing.
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SC: What led you to create Hexoskin?
PA.F: Hexoskin was born from the desire of helping our society better care for a population that is steadily growing. Fifteen years ago, it was clear that the existing (Canadian) health system was not ready for what was coming. That’s why we wanted to find a solution that could potentially prevent diseases and reduce the hospitalization rate.
At that time, most solutions required the person to keep a health journal and enter his or her data into a system. However, not only don’t they result in objective and quantitative data that could be used for predictive analysis but they also demand a lot of effort from the patient.
We believe that for a system to be viable in the long run, it needs to be seamlessly integrated into the daily life of people. Hence, we thought a lot about systems that could be placed in one’s home. But to collect data and effectively monitor human health vitals, you need to place captors on the torso area. So, we quickly realized the best way to go was to integrate the systems into an object that everyone is already used to: a t-shirt.
SC: Data collection is quite a hot topic at the moment. Is it also an issue for smart clothing & smart shirts?
PA.F: Smart t-shirts collect data. So, it is indeed a sensitive topic for us as well. However, our information system is well secured and only the user can access the collected data.
Besides, we only collect human health data (heartbeat, respiratory rate…) Who could benefit from such data aside from the patient itself or the doctors? In countries where there is universal health coverage, stealing that kind of information would be pointless.
The personal data collected via smart shirts should only be used for the user’s health, or medical research if the person gave his/ her consent beforehand. It should never be used against you.
SC: What do you think of the smart clothing market and how do you see it evolving in the next few years?
PA.F: I don’t see any economic opportunities for smart clothing in the fashion segment. I feel most needs are more easily covered with wearable techs, like the Apple Watch for instance. This being said, individuals could purchase a smart t-shirt. We intentionally drove the price down so that people who want to invest in themselves and their health could afford it if they want to.
What I notice though is that there is a growing demand for smart clothing in the healthcare and public sector. Among our clients, we have medical researchers, healthcare and governmental organizations, first responders (firefighters, policemen, or military) as well as aerospace companies.
There are true benefits in investing in health-related programs that can help people stay independent and healthy longer. Smart clothing can help improve the lives of elders or people with specific conditions. Right now, we are mainly focusing on heart and respiratory diseases. But smart clothing could also help monitor and prevent other types of diseases. I foresee a future when it will be normal for people to be equipped with smart clothing to keep themselves healthier.
On top of that, prevention is better than cure. It is less costly to invest a few thousand dollars in health-related programs than sending people to the hospital.
SC: What are currently the main challenges in the smart clothing industry?
PA.F: On the one hand, the smart clothing industry is faced with the same challenges as the IoT industry. In other words, companies are still looking for the right business models. Besides, medical information systems are not as advanced as what you can find in other industries and lag about 20 years behind.
Until the pandemic highlighted the benefits of teleconsultation, the technological advances were slow.
On the other hand, the smart clothing industry still needs to define and standardize industrial processes. Unlike the automotive or the aeronautical industry, you can’t just walk to a manufacturer with a list of specifications to develop a prototype.
Creating smart clothing requires many skill sets and a wide range of know-how. A smart clothing project involves people from the clothing, textiles, industrial design, electronics, biomedical engineering, and software industry. You can’t find all these skills in one single factory. Besides, the tools and techniques that can currently be used are limited.
That’s why we created our production chain. That way, we can control the cost and the quality of our t-shirts.
SC: Do you feel being in Montreal helped in regards to that matter?
PA.F: It sure helped. Until the 2000s, Montreal was considered one of the most important cities for fashion in North America. Everything we needed for the project was right there.
SC : Can smart clothing be sustainable ?
PA.F : We are doing a lot of Research and Development on the subject. It’s possible. Our main challenge is that we must use stretch fabric to embrace the body forms and keep the monitoring sensors in place. So far, synthetic fabrics like spandex offer the best value for money.
This being said, with the right materials and fabrics, smart clothing can last 30 up to 100 washes.
Is smart clothing the future of healthcare ? Pierre-Alexandre seems to think so. Many thanks to Pierre-Alexandre for answering our questions. If you’re interested in learning more about Hexoskin or if you’d like to buy yourself a smart t-shirt, feel free to visit hexoskin.com .
Back in 2004, everyone was talking about the Internet of Things and smart clothing was definitely seen as the Future.
However, thanks to technological progress and the amount invested in R&D by several AI and tech companies, smart clothing is not a dream anymore.
On top of that, it’s truly a fascinating world. Smart clothing and e-textiles are at a crossroad between fashion, technology and healthcare.
What is smart clothing?
Smart clothing is a category in itself. It’s clothes that have been enhanced with technology so that it can perform a wide range of functions. They can have aesthetic or performance enhancing purposes.
Smart clothes enable better communication with other devices, analyze and sense the stimuli. They can pass on some data that can be analyzed to predict and prevent injuries, diseases and protect the wearer from future dangers.
Smart clothing vs Wearables
While there is a growing number of online searches for smart clothing on Google, many people are still unaware of the existing product offering.
On the other hand, they are quite familiar with wearables. As a matter of fact, everyone pretty much knows what a smart watch or what a fitness tracker is.
Ont could say that smart clothing is a sub-market of the wearables market. Smart clothes mostly refer to enhanced garments whereas wearables tend to be associated to high tech accessories and garments in general.
E-textiles vs Smart textiles
Smart clothes can be made using either e-textiles or smart textiles. Contrary to what one thinks, these are not exactly the same thing. Let’s talk briefly about the difference between e-textiles and smart textiles as it can quickly be quite confusing.
The term “E-textiles” stands for “electronic textile” or “electronically integrated textile”. In other words, small electronic components are embedded in the fibers of the fabrics. Your fabric becomes a sort of circuit that can then sense data, store it, transmit it and react to it.
E-textiles are always created with specific applications in mind. They are designed to act like a truc electronic product, with features and functionalities. Most smart clothes are made using E-textiles.
Smart textiles, on the other hand, are a subgroup of e-textiles. As a matter of fact, smart textile materials are environmentally sensitive. They are more passive and only react in the presence of various stimuli, like temperature, light, air or water pressure or sometimes blood circulation.
This being said, both are technical textiles that go beyond the purpose of aesthetic.
12 fascinating examples of smart clothing
Levy Strauss Commuter trucker jacket, in partnership with Google
Wearers of this connected jacket can use hand gestures like swiping, touching, and tapping to access various remote control options of their smartphones.
Hexoskin’s smart shirts that can accurately monitor health vitals
The Montreal-based company developped a high-tech shirt that monitors heart rate, breathing, activity intensity, steps, peak acceleration, sleep, and various other data points.
Athos’ smart clothes to improve the athletes’ performance
Athos is the world’s first system to deliver instant and actionable insights around athletic training load and movement quality using personalized, muscle activity data.
Ambiotex’s smart shirts to measure your stress level
With Ambiotex, you can record your vital data and determines the status of your autonomic nervous system in real-time. That way, you can monitor your stress level and take action if you need to do something about it.
Myant’s smart clothes that help you stay connected with your dearest ones
Skiin garments sense and react to your body, allowing you to understand your well-being, provide comfort and care when it counts, and stay connected to what matters most.
Siren’s Smart socks that helps Diabete patients
The Siren Diabetic Sock and Foot Monitoring System, which enables wearers to monitor foot temperature and spot early signs of inflammation that are indicative of diabetic ulcers.
Sensoria’s Smart socks that helps you improve the way you run
The Sensoria Smart Socks can detect which part of your feet are receiving the most pressure during your run and can send this data to a smartphone app.
Smart Yoga pants to accompany you in your yoga practice
Nadi X, developped by Wearable X, are smart yoga pants that use gentle vibrations to help wearers better perform exercises and correct their postures.
UnderArmour’s smart sleepwear to better sleep through the night
Under Armour’s Athlete Recovery Sleepwear absorbs heat from the wearer’s body while releasing infrared light to increase sleep quality and improve muscle recovery.
Spinali Design’s Connected gloves to kill bacterias and viruses
Spinali Design created smart gloves that can help fight bacterias or viruses like Covid-19 thanks to photocatalysis.
Owlet’s smart socks to keep the babies safe during their sleep
https://youtu.be/xcOySTHZaqk
The Smart Sock is the first baby monitor to track your baby’s oxygen level and heart rate—the best indication of baby’s health—while they sleep.
Cutecircuit’s smart clothes, a crossroad between technology, art and fashion
CuteCircuit’s smart clothes help people have new kinds of experience.
Smart Clothing: Fad or trend ?
When we think about fashion, smart clothing is not necessarily something that comes right into your mind. Yet, according to many forecasts made by different studies, the market is expected to reach US$ 4 to 5 billions in 2024 and 6-7 billions by 2027. In 2019, the market was valued US$ 1.2 billions.
Indeed, Covid-19 definitely had an impact on the projected growth. In countries such as Italy and Spain, there has been a dip in the demand for smart clothing at first and the pandemix slowed down all operations. However, the smart clothing market is likely to exhibit positive growth in post-pandemic period.
Smart Clothing market: Analysis and growth opportunities
The growing use of smart clothing can mainly be noticed in the healthcare, military, sports, and the defense sectors.
Fashion-wise, smart clothes can be used as a form of art but there isn’t a massive demand for fashionable smart clothes. Wearables, for now, are more suited to the B2C market.
As a matter of fact, at the moment, the B2B market seems to the main driver for the industry but many actors dream of turning smart clothes and textiles into a normal item of our daily lives. In Europe, people are more and more taking attention to their health. Growing consumer awareness about fitness is likely to fuel market growth.
On top of that, in several parts of the world, the ageing population and the increasing government’s preoccupation for a better and more efficient healthcare system are creating a need that smart clothes can answer.
Moreover, rising number of sport injuries in the US and at the workplace in Asia-Pacifica can also be a factor that boost the demand for such products. More and more athletes and professional sport teams in North America and in Brazil are adopting smart clothes to prevent possible injuries and improve their performances.
In the military and other public services as well (like firefighters for instance), workers are starting to use smart clothes as their uniforms. Smart uniforms that are able to identify and alert about the impacts of bullets or wounds can help prevent injuries, deaths and can help the leaders better take decisions on the grounds.
Last but not least, the advances made in the sensor technology in Asia are key drivers for the growth of the industry. Many companies invest heavily and research and development in order to grow faster and deliver better quality products.
Who are the key players ?
Some of the main players of the smart clothing market are :
AiQ Smart Clothing (Taiwan),
Athos (US),
Carre Technologies/Hexoskin (Canada),
Myant inc (Canada),
Cute Circuit (UK)
Sensoria (US),
Spinali Design (France),
Vulpes Electronics (Japan),
Wearable X (US),
Toray Industries (Japan),
Myontec (Finland),
Myzone (US),
Siren (US),
or Owlet (US).
The list is not exhaustive. Right now, the entry barriers are quite high. However, as the technology gets more accessible and industry standards get established, we will probably add more actors in the near future.
What are the main roadblocks to the development of the Smart clothing market ?
Anyone who works in fashion knows that the production chain is still quite running with old practices, despites the retail & distribution sector being so avant-gardiste and infused with the latest technologies. The thing is smart clothing is at the crossroad of technology and fashion. Therefore, roadblocks to the traditional fashion industry also apply to the smart clothing players.
Producing smart clothing is still expensive. Right now, the development of smart prototypes still require a lot of time and money for instance. On top of that, smart clothing have some extra-production steps as technologies and sensors need to be embedded within the garment. There are no real industry standards though some companies like Myant inc. or Hexoskin are working hard towards developping them.
The industry is also facing major challenges regarding the adoption of data. While big data is well adopted in the retail or the banking system, it is not necessarily the case in the healthcare or governmental sectors for instance. In addition to that, there are growing data privacy concerns. What will happen to the data that are recorded by the smart clothes ? How do you secure the privacy of such data ?
Last but not least, the vast majority of people have yet to grasp the added value of smart clothing. Right now, the most accessible smart clothe would still cost a couple of hundred dollars. Therefore, only early adopters and people very anxious about their health and shape would dive into it. So until people fully see the potential behind smart clothing, B2B will still be main venue.
Go further
Studying this clothing niche was truly interesting. It shows you that clothing is not all about fashion and that there are incredible things that can be done with garments. Smart clothing really projects you into the future. I found it really fascinating and I can’t wait to see what will happen in the future.
Are you interested into learning more about this market ? Dive into the interviews I made with some of the key players of the sector.
PS: If you are in the smart clothing sector or are an expert in this field and would be interested into giving your opinion, please contact me. I’d love to hear and share what you have to say !
Today, I’d like to deep dive and really share concrete measures and actions that you can take if you are a fashion designer or a fashion brand to make your business crisis-proof.
Indeed, these actions are designed considering the context of the pandemic but they could totally apply whatever the crisis you might be facing in the future.
Short Term actions fashion brands and designers can quickly implement during the Pandemic
Product related actions
Organize promotional operations to liquidate dead stocks
In the fashion industry (clothes, shoes or accessories), many products are highly linked to a season. Winter coats and boots, for instance, mostly sell during fall or winter. Beachwear are more popular during summer. The ugly christmas sweatshirts are sold a few weeks before the end of the years.
Some clothing or footwear items you have might also be part of a trend that might not last long. Prints, for instance, have a short shelf span. While some fashion trends can come back, you don’t know how long they will take before they come back. How many flamingo or leopard print do you see in the street lately ?
Not only do you need to pay for storage in order to keep them, but dead stocks are also a useless weight in your P&L that drive your results down. Not really ideal if one day you need to convince a bank or an investor to lend you money.
So, if you have that kind of products in your inventory, quickly organize promotional operations to get rid of them. Here are a few things you could try :
Organize Private sales with your already engaged clients and consumers
Offer major discounts
Make Outlet sales
Sell to wholesalers
Sell on Fashion marketplaces
Group the products and sell them in Lucky bags
Run a contest and use the dead stock as the rewards
Use the dead stock to start an ambassador program and use the inventory as samples
Reschedule product and collection launches
Unless you are selling exactly what people are currenly looking for (athleisure, lingerie, pajamas and comfy clothes), you might want to reschedule your product launches.
It doesn’t mean you can’t talk about the products that should be coming. However, during a pandemic, people are not in the mood for shopping, especially if the country is under lockdown. You might be able to sell, but it might cost you more than what you initally designed in your business plan.
As an example, if you are selling clothes and people can’t come to your store to try, you might have more client returns than planned.
If your cashflow allows it, it might be better to reschedule the launches or to push collections or products that are more adapted to the situation.
Cancel or reschedule orders with suppliers
Let’s say you have a concept store. If you can’t open or can’t serve as many people as usual, you might want to reduce the number of clothes, accessories or shoes you sell.
Otherwise, you will end up with a lot of inventory. Why pay for goods you might not be able to sell ?
If you are a fashion brand that decided to push the next collection to the year after, you might want to reschedule the production or/and the delivery of the parts and fabrics needed in this particular collection. It’s a matter of cashflow management.
If you know money will not come in easily in the next months, try to negotiate with your suppliers so that your (professional) bank account doesn’t get overdrawn.
Focus on the most profitable products
In nowadays’ world, unless you invented a new kind of clothes, or shoes or you are selling luxury goods, the market also help define the prices.
As a matter of fact, some products might cost you more to produce but have less value in the eyes of the customers. One of my friends was selling leather goods. She had a brown leather purse that required a lot of manual work and stitches. At some point, she decided to launch more colorful products and came up with a red and a yellow folded purse. This specific product costed her less money and time to make but after surveying her customers, they were willing to spend more money on the colored items rather than on her timeless brown purse.
Another good example is jewelry. Especially if there are made out of copper or brass, they don’t cost a lot to make. Yet, you could have x6 or x7 margin because for customers, they seem more valuable.
If you have some items like that in your product line and you are in need for more cash flow, try to highlight these products a little more.
Communication
What should you communicate about during the Pandemic ? How do you communicate during a Pandemic ?
Communicate about all the operational short-term measures you took
Some countries took specific measures against the virus. Lockdown is one of them. Therefore, your customers or potential customers might be wondering if they can still go to your shop or order online.
What are the operating hours? If you have a physical location, can they still visit your shops or are you completely closed? Do you have employees who can answer the customers’ questions regarding that matter? If you sell your clothes online, what happen to the on-going orders and deliveries?
People would definitely want to know what they can expect.
If you have employees, quickly inform them of the measures you are taking and how they are going to affect their jobs? For example, do they need to work from home?
Be online where your customers are
Since people have nowhere to go, they spend a lot of time online, surfing on the internet or browsing social media. In 2020, according to Telegeography, average international internet traffic increased by 48%.
If you don’t already have an online and a social presence, it is high time you get on them. If they can’t go to you, just go to them.
During Lockdown, in the UK, internet users spent a record-breaking amount of time online, spending 36% more time on social media than usual, and 26% more time on news websites. Young adults between 18 and 24 spent the longest time online, that is to say, an average of 5 hours per day.
Should we also talk about the rise of Tik Tok? If your fashion brand targets young adults (15 to 25), this is the place to be. Interestingly, 47% of the tiktokers don’t use Instagram.
Remain true to your brand’s values
More than ever, stick to your brand’s values. People are looking for genuine brands.
Keep your editorial line.
Operations-wise
Create a store environment your customer feel safe in
In some countries, the government is requesting some shops to enforce specific measures so that they can remain open. Make sure you apply them.
For instance, in France, during the second lockdown, shops were asked to reserve 8 square meters per client. Social distancing and hydroalcoholic gel were still needed.
To make sure you have enough space between each client, as a fashion retailer, you might need to remove and re-arrange some clothes racks.
Customers don’t really know what’s going on with the virus so they might reassured to see that you are taking all the appropriate measures to keep them safe. Same for your employees.
Set up contactless payments and implement click and collect
Contactless payments might not enable you to do more sales but implementing it or increasing the limit will make your customers feel safer. And customers that feel safe are happier customers who might be more faithful to you.
Operationnaly speaking, contactless payments help speed up the time people spend paying for their clothes. So, that’s good in terms of safety, and you might be able in a day to welcome more customers because of those little seconds you succeeded saving. The queue will also be shorter and less frustrating.
Then, setting up a “click and collect” service could be a good way to keep sales coming in. People can shop safely from their home, quickly come get their order and happily avoid delivery fees.
Contact your retailers to understand their problems and offer solutions
If you are a fashion brand or a fashion designer who relies on a network of boutiques, quickly contact your retailers.
They might be struggling as much as you are. Be human and try to understand their own issues so that you can come up with solutions that can help you both.
You can maybe offer to give a special presentation on their social media or slightly delay your shipment. Connect with them and see how you can keep working together despites the situation.
Focus on E-commerce
This might seem obvious but sometimes, you just gotta have people tell you the obvious. Now is the moment to sell online.
The good news is : people are more and more used to buy clothes, shoes and fashion accessories online. Yes, their spending is decreasing but the number of online buyers is increasing.
Another good news is that clothes and shoes are products that can somehow easily be shipped. That’s particularly true for clothes because they are lightweigth products. Sometimes, they can even fit in a padded enveloppe.
One last good news regarding e-commerce : if you don’t already own an e-shop, there are multiple platforms that enable you to easily create one.
About your finances
Get rid of all non-essential expenses
When the business is doing great, we don’t take attention to all the small expenses that we have because they feel like nothing.
Thing is: Small expenses quickly add up. On top of that, you might be paying for services or softwares that you don’t even use and this can represent quite a big amount of money at the end of the day.
And this money can be exact sum that you need to pay your employees or fuel your upcoming collections. So check out your expense list and get rid of everything that is not useful or doesn’t add any value in the short, middle or long term.
Apply for all the government’s aids and subventions
In France, the government gave some financial help to the companies that lost 50 to 75% of turnover compared to the previous year and were partly financing the wages of the employees that were forced to be put under partial unemployment.
It may not represent a lot, but it’s worth trying and it’s better than nothing. If the government of the country you are in offers any form of subventions, apply for them.
Contact your financial institutions and renegotiate some terms
Fashion requires a lot of cashflow. You need to pay for the materials and the R&D that come with any new fashion designs. To do so, you may have requested a loan from the bank or from business angels.
If that’s the case, you might have a debt you need to reimburse. Bankers and business angels are not necessary sharks. A lot of them are quite human and can understand the issues you are going through. They should be true partners in your fashion adventure.
So, go discuss with them. They might be able to reduce your interest or delay the payments you need to make. They can also loan you some money if you absolutely need to.
Also, check whether you can get anything with your insurance. You never know.
Mid-term Actions to take to help your fashion brand better navigate during difficult times
About the products and collections
Adapt the collections to the new tastes of your target customers
When you stay at home all day long and even work from home, you definitely don’t have the same needs, fashionly speaking.
And statistics showed that people were more about buying athleisure goods, casual pieces of clothing and lingerie. They want to feel comfortable in their clothes.
People also feel like wearing more colorful tops. As a matter of fact, they spend a lot of time on zoom or other video conferencing softwares. And on these platforms, you only see the top part of the person. So wearing acolorful t-shirt or sweatshirt helps bring some liveliness to the situation.
Black, white, dark colors, despites being timeless essentials, will likely be less in demand.
Consider relaunching previous product winners
If you have some sale history, you might have launched in the past some products that really overperformed. Can you re-enact this success by relaunching them? Who says you can only launch a product once?
Think about this : you already did all the R&D. You have the patterns, the technical sheets. People were already satisfied and might have left you some good product reviews. On top of that, you might also have photos and videos you can use again. All you need is to produce the item.
It might cost you nothing to sell this product again. And you can ask people to pre-order it instead of producing ahead.
Re-evaluate fabric and raw material sourcing
Most borders were closed. In fact, many fabric or clothing factories based in Asia were unable to ship their orders to their clients.
There might be great fabric factories in your own country or at least in your neighbour countries. It might cost you more at first but reducing your prototyping and production time can be worth it.
If you used to work with Asia, by sourcing locally you might remove the language and cultural barriers that made transactions difficult. And it will give you a marketing advantage. Two birds one stone.
Find other alternatives for your production
Having several factories or ways to produce your fashion line can avoid you having frustrated or angry customers (waiting for their orders). Let’s say one of the workshops you used to work with goes bankrupt, you will still be able produce and/or launch your new collection.
But to do so, you need to test the skills of the factories and see what it feels like to be working with them. Don’t rely on just one workshop or one seamstress. Have several so that you can mitigate the risks. That’s what all other FMCG businesses do.
It will also give you some peace of mind, which is absolutely essential when you are a fashion entrepreneur.
Communication
Improve your client services
A good client service can do wonders. People are less likely to be angry at you or leave negative reviews on your social media.
They will also be more faithful to your fashion brand if they received good services. Of course, you should work on your client service from day 1. If you are a fashionpreneur, you are most likely the one answering clients’ questions and demands.
But what would be great for your fashion brand is to start structuring the way you address clients’ problems. You (or your team) can create templates and step by step tutorials that explain what to do if scenario A or scenario B show up.
Build and develop an engaged community for you and your brand
And if you are really in the pinch, you can ask your community for help. Ask them to pre-order, support you on your crowdfunding campaign or share your communication with their relatives. These are things that faithful customers or ambassadors would do.
But you don’t build trust in a day. It’s an every day effort to create authentic relationships with your community.
Communicate about your USP and what you do best
When in a doubt and when you don’t know what to communicate about, talk about your Unique Selling Point. What made you start and make you continue despites the Pandemic and all the hurdles it incurred?
How what you are doing right now is link to your expertise?
For instance, during the first wave of Coronavirus, many French fashion brands and designers produced masks for the nurses and doctors. Some also helped coordinating the workshops so that they could produce masks and blouses to help the medical staff.
Communicate with your employees and their families
If you have ever read Delivering Happiness, then you should know that employees are the first ambassadors of your brand (be it in fashion or in any industry).
In difficult times, it’s important to take care of your employees if you have any. Because when employees feel like they are appreciated and that the management care about them, they are a lot more productive and a real source of added value.
Don’t wait for them to ask you the difficult questions and let uncertainty and uneasiness install. They are probably scared about the situation. If you need to let go of them, tell them and if you can keep them, tell them as well. Communication is key to keeping a strong team together.
Distribution and logistics
Rethink your packaging, unboxing or click and collect experience
Is your packaging adapted to the e-commerce or click and collect experience? Now might be a good time to think about this.
Believe it or not: people do take attention to the way their products are packaged. Almost everyone received at least an absurd packaging in their life. I.e a freaking small product in a very huge box.
Try to make your packaging more ecological because it’s part of the customers’ expectations but also more lightweight and easier to manage. It will drive your logistic cost down. Luckily, they are some cool innovations for eco-friendly and lightweight packaging for fashion items.
Inspect other markets
We are evolving in an international world. Who said you just have to limit yourself to one country?
Obviously, each country has its own specificity and the standard body measures can be different. However, there might be some potential clients in other countries: some that share your values and fit the sizes you offer.
Finances
Review your business goals and desires
Since the world is going a lot slower than usual, it could be a good moment to do some introspection work.
Are you happy with the way the direction your fashion business is taking Does it fit the lifestyle you want for yourself? Or are you getting stuck into something that doesn’t match your life expectations? Was the business, before the Pandemic crisis, already struggling or was it doing well?
Analyze the results, adjust the business goals and align it with your own life goals.
Make sure you are tracking the right KPIs
When you are in your day-to-day operations and you have more work than you actually can do, it’s hard to strategically think about the business. And metrics are often part of the things that are overlooked by fashion entrepreneurs because the business of fashion in itself is very time consuming.
Sewing takes time. So does prototyping. Same for fulfilling orders.
But metrics help you see if you are going into the right direction and if you are investing where you need to. Some of the key metrics in fashion include:
User Acquisition Cost
Customer Lifetime Value
Profit margins per types of product and per channel
Turnover
Engagement rate…
Do you follow them? Or have someone follow them and report to you?
Renegotiate the contracts and apply for subventions and business contests or awards
A pandemic or a crisis is a good reason enough to renegotiate a contract (ideally to your advantage) with a supplier/ workshop, financial institution.
Also, fashion contests are projects that take time. If you have more time on your hands now, try to send your application. Professional recognition bring trust and can be a good communication tool.
Long term actions to make your fashion brand crisis proof
About the design and the fashion positionning
Find or strengthen your market fit
Do you already have a market fit? If not, keep testing until you find it. Survey your actual customers about the type of clothes they like or about their hobbies.
If you have a market fit, strengthen your position. Develop more by products inspired by your main line. Try offering new colors, new designs or even different type of products.
Have the right creative people in the right place
Do you know the saying : Hire Slow, Fire fast?
Is the person doing the design or giving the creative direction the right one for the task?
If you are doing it all by yourself and you feel you don’t quite have the right results, seek for external advice. And if you think the stylist or creative director is not good enough, change and find another person.
Be humane but don’t stay stuck because you are afraid of hurting people. Your fashion business can’t afford it, especially during a crisis.
Invest in photoshoots, videos, or user experience that can take your brand to the next level
When you are selling fashion, visuals have a lot of importance. They contribute to attaching values and emotions to your fashion brand. It’s the little magical je-ne-sais-quoi that makes people buy.
When a crisis happen, companies tend to cut marketing and communication first. However, more than ever, they need to communicate and innovate. That’s how you can get out of a crisis.
Adopt a transparency and traceability policy with the suppliers and customers
This is a huge project but I believe every fashion brand and retailer should do it. Not only is it good for communication, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one day it becomes part of the legislation.
On top of that, having a transparency and traceability policy makes all business relations more honest and authentic.
Long-term Communication
Create or optimize your editorial line for all communications
You probably are on multiple social networks and most likely have a website and a newsletter.
Are all the communications efficient and in line with your unique selling point and values?
If not, work on your editorial chart and optimize your content.
Offer a personalized customer experience through all channels and provide unique experiences
Online and offline technologies are getting more and more interconnected. Think about measures you can take to offer a seamless experience to your client.
For instance, if they visit your social network or are already on your newsletter, the day they come to a shop to buy one of your fashion product, you can use the data you have to do something that will make them feel special.
It could be as simple as greeting them with their first name and thanking them for being on your newsletter.
Communicate about your CSR
If you are implementing a Corporate social responsibility policy, talk about it and show the progress you make.
Changing packaging more eco-friendly ones can take some time for example. But if you communicate about this and explain why it takes time, people would understand and applause your efforts.
Invest in your corporate culture
Your employees and partners are your first ambassadors. Having a corporate culture doesn’t consist in putting some nice words on a manifest or on a flyer.
It’s about putting these values at work in the corporate everyday life. If you are all about transparency for instance, then organize monthly meeting where the employees can openly talk about the issues. For a fashion brand that encourage body positivism, pick non stereotyped models.
Long-term Distribution and logistics
Digitalize point of sales to offer new experiences in store
Have you ever heard of Augmented reality mirrors? These mirrors enable you virtually try any clothes or makeup without having to put them on. You can even pre-order clothes that are not in store.
How about equipping your sales people with tablets that they can use to show your online communication and connect with people?
What if you could use neuroscience to boost your experience in-store?
Develop and optimize for e-commerce
E-commerce is actually not a short-term or mid-term actions. Shifting to e-commerce tend to reshape completely a business.
In the long term, if the business has a big volume and if you don’t have it already, you could consider outsourcing all the logistics.
There are many good logistic centers that can take care of the storage, packaging and shipping of the products.
Implement demand forecast and demand sensing tools
That has always been the core issue with fashion. As a matter of fact, the more you produce, the less a product is going to cost.
But what if a collection or a specific color in the fashion line doesn’t sell? You are stuck with a lot of inventory. However, there are now demand forecast and demand sensing tools that can help you mitigate the risk. Check it out.
Deliver single view and access to your inventory across channels
How many items do you have in each retail location and in your logistic center? If you don’t know that, that could be an issue in the future.
If all your channels you have are connected and you give a precise idea of the exact inventory you have left, not only will you save time but you could also better promote your offers.
About your overall strategy
Create processes and implement tools that can help you get real time metrics
We talk about the importance of following the right metrics earlier, but having them real time could be equally important.
Being able to operate fast and in real time is crucial and will give an edge towards your competitor.
Evaluate your business risks and plan for them
No one could have expected a pandemic. But now you have a plan in case it happens again. Don’t forget to download our Pandemic management cheatsheet if you need a reminder.
There are, however, other business risks that you can anticipate and prepare your business for :
the launch of a new fashion competitor
a supplier bankruptcy
Lost shipped products
Quality issues with your fashion clothes or accessories
Social scandals…
Have contingency plans and allocate some emergency funds you can use in case they happen.
Review your capitalistic investment and your development strategy
If you want to develop an international scaled fashion brand, you need to think about having a capitalistic investment and development strategy.
Fashion requires a lot of funds. And if you want to accelerate and scale your business at some point, your organic sales might not be sufficient.
Invest
Last but not least, no business can resist if they don’t invest at some point. And that’s particularly true when facing a crisis.
The question is: what are the smartest investments you can make?
The Fashion industry is one of the sectors that got severely hit by the pandemic.
In 2020, more than 48 countries were put under lockdown. In most places, all the non-essential businesses remained closed and unable to operate. Fashion retailers and boutiques, being considered as non-essential, were closed which resulted in huge losses of sales and an accumulation of inventory.
Covid-19 definitely had an economic impact on the fashion industry but also contributed to reshape the way we work in Fashion. Things are changing and so shall we. Let’s see how.
How did the Pandemic affect the clothing industry throughout the world ?
Covid-19 is a global phenomenon that involves almost all countries in the world. While the impact is not similar in each country, there are some global trends that we can notice here and there.
Many Fashion brands and retailers are closing or going bankrupt
When you are a fashion retailer, you have huge fixed charges: the rent and all the costs affiliated with running a shop like the employees’ wages or the electricity. You also have inventory and taxes to pay. In other words, everyday you don’t sell, you are losing money.
Similarly, a fashion brand may have employees they need to pay, some fixed costs linked to production or logistics and investments to make for the next season.
With that being said, it’s no wonder why the number of bankruptcies and closures increased these past months. As a matter of fact, even if you can benefit from the governments’ subsidies, if you are in a just-in-time distribution logic and cash flow doesn’t come in, it’s hard to keep the business afloat.
In the USA, many brands and retailers filed for bankruptcy : Century 21, Muji, Brooks Brothers, Aldo, J Crew, True Religion. In France, historical actors of the clothing and shoe industry, Naf naf, Camaieu, la Halle and André also filed for bankruptcy. The fashion men brand, Celio, closed down most of its stores in Europe.
Zara, Guess, H&M and even the luxury brand, Diane Von Furstenberg, are shutting down stores across the world.
The supply chain is also suffering from this pandemic
A lot of factories had to close down because of Covid-19. The Pandemic started in China, so it’s natural that this country was profoundly impacted.
According to Apparel Resources, China’s market share in the US apparel import market alone fell to a mere 21.3% this February. Many factories were forced to close. They couldn’t operate and couldn’t even ship the garments that were ordered.
And it’s not only the case in China. The same situation has been seen in Europe or in the Usa. Many brands failed to show their new collections because the fabrics didn’t arrive in time or the prototypes were just stopped.
On top of that, many buyers, seeing the situation, canceled orders or didn’t pay for orders that didn’t get shipped. And when retailers and fashion brands are struggling to survive, they are unlikely to invest massively in research and development. When the distribution is suffering, so is the production.
It also takes time for a factory to restart. It’s like a vicious circle where everything is intertwined and has a sort of ripple effect.
A wave of discounts
Obviously, every actor of the clothing industry accumulated inventory. Covid-19 was unexpected and no one predicted that shops would completely have to close.
Clothes are not a necessary item in your daily life. On a daily basis, you need new food, new electricity but do you need new clothes every day? Statistics show that people wear only ⅓ of their closet and some garments are bought and will never be worn.
Since people were confined at home, they didn’t need to change clothes. And when life is uncertain and you are not even sure you will have a job tomorrow, you just avoid making unnecessary expenses.
So during the lockdown, sales plummeted.
As a result, many brands and shops were left with most of their winter/ spring/ summer inventory. To get rid of the stock, many actors massively discounted the items. On the internet, you could see ads, during the whole spring summer, promoting a -50 or -70% discount.
However, the flash promotions didn’t always translate into conversion as consumers were bombarded with the same types of ads during this period of time.
How can you, as an independent fashion designer, navigate and survive through this pandemic?
As we could all see, the clothing industry overall is not doing so well. And if it’s the case for major brands, what can smaller fashion brands with less media power do? Does it mean it’s over and we should shut down our brands? I don’t think so.
We just need to assess the situation, understand the changes and take the appropriate measures.
The pandemic and its consequences might last longer than we think/ and would like to
As we can all see, no one really knows how long it’s going to last. As a matter of fact, most countries are undergoing a second lockdown. The virus was said to die during summer but apparently it did not and it came back stronger.
So, we must now live with the “new normal”. In other words, we can’t just pause and think it will pass. It might not. We might have to live with this situation longer than we’d like to.
Given, it’s not easy because we must think both short term and medium term. In the short run, we need to think about what we can do to survivre right now. But, we also need to think on the medium term about what we need to implement in case the situation lasts longer.
For example, If the shops are closed, it might be time to rethink the distribution and the logistics. We might have to train the sales people how to reassure clients regarding the new practices. Finally, we might need to implement stricter sanitary measures in our process.
Consumers’ tastes changed
Working remotely has become common practice in many companies. Some workers are already asked to work from home until the end of the year. Meetings now take place on Zoom or Teams. Finally under lockdown, people are not supposed to leave home or meet with friends.
Obviously, you won’t have the same needs if you are to stay at home all day. Why wear a suit when you don’t need to physically see your managers or your clients? Because they were at home, people tend to favor comfort over looks. They were looking for coziness. Casual clothes, jogging, pajamas, sleepwear were pieces of items that were in demand during the pandemic.
Two other fashion segments were on the rise this year. The first one is athleisure, because people were working out at home in order to relax and release the stress and fear from the situation (and because they didn’t have much to do).
The second is lingerie. During the pandemic, people, influencers, brands and retailers were promoting the importance of self-care and wellness. There was a sort of “cocooning effect” that gave people the desire to treat themselves. Lingerie definitely responds to that need as you mainly buy lingerie to feel better.
The power of digital
The web traffic has never been as high as during the pandemic. With the rise of social distancing, people are seeking to connect with friends and family one way or another. The use of video chat and social media has increased exponentially. So more than ever, it’s time to be online. If clients can’t come to you, just go to where they are : online.
Of course, this pandemic benefited a lot to the GAFA. These giants are digital born and have all the logistics and communication power to easily capture clients online. As a matter of fact, Amazon doubled its profits in the second quarter and they said that third-party sales increased by 53%.
However, it’s never too late to start building a community that will favor you over Amazon, Asos or Zalando. If you are clever in the way you communicate and act, people will stick with you. That leads me directly to the next point.
Having a clear, coherent and distinct message is key
Competition online is really big. People are bombarded with promotional messages. It takes at least 7 messages to get a potential client online and you only have 3 seconds to grab someone’s attention.
And when you are an independant fashion designer going online, you are not only competing with other fashion brands but also retailers, marketplaces and other types of brands and services like food delivery, cosmetics or home decor.
So it’s vital to differentiate your brand and to make sure that the message you are showing is:
easy to understand,
can be explained within 3 seconds,
and is original enough to stand out of the crowd.
Adapting the communication
Social distancing and media is definitely provoking fear, stress and anxiety to many people. Therefore, having a reassuring voice (in terms of message and tone) in your communication is crucial. No need to add fuel to fire.
More than ever, people needs dreams and transparency. They are either looking for something that will help them evade from their dark day-to-day or for honest and reliable brands.
If sustainable development was not part of your strategies, it should now be. Ethical practices are rarely the trigger for a purchase but it could be a good additional argument to close a sale. More and more consumers want to know where their clothes are made and how they were made.They want to back brands that pushes for positive messages and values. Beyond clothes, people are buying a philosophy and a way of living.
Is mid-range clothing still a positioning to consider?
That is just my analysis but I believe that the mid-range market in the clothing industry might suffer the most from this pandemic. People fear the future and many are being dismissed because of the lack of business and sales. In some cases, the crisis is just an excuse to get rid of somebody. Whatever the reasons, uncertainty and anxiety is in the air. And generally speaking, middle-class spending tends to slow down during this kind of situation. People prefer to save rather than to spend.
In my opinion and in regards to this situation, there are 2 ways people can react. They will either go for very low-priced products or high-end ones. Low-priced because they want to treat themselves but can’t afford making unreasonable purchases considering the situation. Expensive pieces because people would rather buy something they think will last or that they truly love than low quality products.
In addition to that, you need to have sufficient cash flow to resist the crisis and make the necessary investments that will help you get out of it as fast as possible. When you are selling low-priced clothes, you can count on the volumes that will be generated by the sales. And when you have highly priced clothes, you have the margins that make it up.
However, the in-between is not the most comfortable place because you are always tight on money to pay your suppliers or even your employees. Production costs are still high because you don’t have the volume, yet, the margins aren’t that great either. You are in survival mode all the time and that can be tiring over time.
Reevaluate the distribution channels
Knowing what we know, are all business models still valid? Is going wholesale still an option? Does having your own boutique still a good strategy? How would you approach your retail strategy if the situation lasts longer? What about next year’ events? Should you participate in trade fairs? Are you investing enough on digital channels? What products or assets are more profitable right now for your brand?
Now, more than ever, is the time to ask ourselves (and our team if we are lucky enough to have one) the right questions.
Business models and strategies are not supposed to stay frozen. What was true yesterday might not be true today. The context and the needs changed. So, it’s important to remain flexible and to adapt the strategies.
Pandemic Management cheatsheet
What doesn’t kill you make you stronger
Again, I’m not an expert but this is my humble point of view regarding the situation.
As far as I am concerned, I believe that crises are always an opportunity to shine. You might need to reevaluate yourself and to undergo many changes (in your life or your business) but if you keep working hard, great things will eventually arrive.
