Time Capsule

As seen over at Future Commerce…. Time. There’s never enough of it. Teams are constantly sprinting to hit deadlines, leaving little room to test, adapt, or react. Launching a new collection tied to a movie, cultural moment, or Love Is Blind merch drop? Nearly impossible. Unless your process changes. Enter Acceptable Inequality…our version of AI […]

Everyday Is Sunday.

The hot news today is that Lululemon will be cranking out fan apparel for all 32 teams of the NFL. I’ll look at this from the point of view of the NFL, because they are the biggest winners here. For NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, everything (seemingly) is geared towards hitting the goal of an annual […]

Size (Still) Matters

Yes, size still matters. (hee hee, cue the teenage giggles) It’s no shocker that sizing and fit drive a huge share of apparel returns. Coresight Research puts it at over half. The bill is brutal: shipping, inspection, restocking, markdowns, and scrapping what cannot be resold. In some models, up to two-thirds of a product’s price […]

Inventory Woes at Saks

As seen over at Retail Dive: The company is now acknowledging its predicament in stark terms, though it said the situation continues to improve. “Trends within our business demonstrate that when merchandise is present, topline performance improves,” the company said Thursday. “For example, our concession business continues to reflect strong demand from the luxury consumer, […]

Hidden Damage

Where is the “hidden damage” in your business? If that sounds like an odd question to you, well, it is. If it’s hidden, how would you know where it is? That’s the point. You don’t know where it is. Worse is that you don’t know when it will surface. Think plaque slowly clogging an artery. […]

Coming in December: The Material Life

Special Announcement: Our next book, The Material Life: Process Innovation for Retailers and Brands, is coming in December 2025. We’re excited for the release of this book and it could very well be the best book written on the topic of process innovation in apparel! The best, market-leading brands across the globe know that process […]

We Don’t Sell Tops. We Sell Tuesday Mornings.

Consider the following: A beauty brand selling a single lipstick vs. a beauty routine. A furniture brand selling a single chair vs. a styled room. Buying a single stock vs. a managed portfolio. Booking a flight vs. a curated itinerary. And in the case of apparel, selling a single item (tops) vs. a lifestyle or […]

I’ll Tell You Where The Money Is.

According to Harvard Business Review, there are five key “commandments” that can be derived from Costco’s Code of Ethics. Here is one of them… The shop floor is where the money is made. And weak executives still find excuses to not spend time on the shop floor or even shop their own businesses.

Material Aura Farming

I’m experiencing a kind of material déjà vu. Here’s what I mean. Natural Fiber Welding (NFW), a next-gen material company is winding down operations. This after restructurings, leadership churn, and a stopgap $23.6M raise. And also despite marquee brand investors like Allbirds and Ralph Lauren. I say déjà vu because it doesn’t feel that far […]

The Vegan’s Nightmare

A trio of companies, The Organoid Company (NL), Lab-Grown Leather Ltd. (UK) and US marketing agency VML issued a press release saying they will produce “the world’s first T. rex leather.” The pitch is to grow luxury-grade leather in bioreactors using fossil Tyrannosaurus rex collagen as the template. According to the press release, this is […]