Sustainability challenges in the fashion/apparel value chain

In the last several decades, the outsourcing and offshoring of manufacturing in the apparel and textile industries has become commonplace and as such the fashion/apparel supply chain has become increasingly complex and lacks transparency. It is not uncommon for small firms to manage between 30 and 50 suppliers. The firms/brands may know their main supplier but they don’t know who their sub-contracted suppliers are, and worse yet, they have very little control over suppliers and sub-contracted suppliers. That’s logical, because as a customer, you can’t ‘run’ your suppliers’ businesses. You don’t have the authority and, perhaps more importantly, you probably don’t have the resources!