Fall Summit 2022 Program Guide

WELCOME TO THE ANNUAL SOURCING JOURNAL FALL SUMMIT.

As someone in the media, you know I make my living off the headlines. The good must be great and the bad—really disastrous. But somewhere in between the extremes we report daily, lies reality.

And just what that reality is, can sometimes be hard to pinpoint. It often comes down to a matter of perception. The headlines I just spoke of have been getting more and more dire. Holiday will be challenging, the IMF is lowering its GDP forecast, inflation is raging, and I see story after story about companies freezing their hiring or laying off staff.

On the flip side, this is not 2008. Unemployment is still near all-time lows. People are shopping. Is it largely bargain hunting, yes, but transactions are happening. Your outlook depends on how you choose to see the proverbial glass.

For 12 years now I’ve been asking for change. Asking for common sense. Here I am again. This year, I want to suggest that our industry alter its behavior and break out of the boom/bust cycle that I’ve been watching play out as long as I can remember.

We can no longer be so myopic. We have to stop thinking so short term. We have to stop measuring success in months or quarters. We have to play the long game.

We must rewrite our benchmarks. We need to stop using “pre-pandemic” as a reference point. We often hear about a return to normalcy, or “the new normal,” but in my view that’s really just semantics. It’s the day-to-day running of our businesses that matters to all of us. And the fact is, 2021 is over and 2019 is gone. That cost structure will never be seen again. Is this unusual? No. 1978 is gone and its price structure as well. We no longer use that as a reference point. We need to face the facts that container prices, raw material prices, labor costs, etc…are never going to settle at the low levels we once enjoyed. To get a true gauge of performance we need to consider factors that take in the world “as is” not as it once was or could be.

We recently finished a research study with AlixPartners. Did you know only 1 in 4 retailers are investing in talent? With so many new roles coming online, and the ever-growing need for institutional knowledge, does this seem wise to anyone? Tech investment is another area that is being largely underfunded at the retail level. Again, its thinking the short-term trends are permanent, and trying to squeeze every cent out of the bottom line. I mean, someone has to explain to me how the same companies that were doling out 200 percent bonuses in January were laying off senior executives six months later. That is not, I repeat, is NOT a path to long-term success.

I think our industry needs that advice, needs to take heed. Once we accept these realities, and the cyclical nature of it all, we can go back to being resilient and build our companies for the future. We can build lasting enterprises, on solid, tried-and-true foundations, the way we once did. Companies that last for generations. And that is a cycle I’m in full support of.

EDWARD HERTZMAN President & Founder Sourcing Journal

8:00 -

9:00 –

Breakfast and Registration

Session I

WELCOME

Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION WITH ANDY DUNN

Andy Dunn, Author & Founder, Bonobos with Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

MANAGING YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN IN INFLATIONARY TIMES

Shekar Natarajan, Chief Supply Chain Officer & Executive Vice President, American Eagle Outfitters Inc. with Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

THE ULTIMATE EQUALIZER - CARBON: REDUCING OUR INDUSTRY’S FOOTPRINT

Michael Colarossi, Vice President, Product Line Management, Innovation & Sustainability, Avery Dennison with Kate Nishimura, Features Editor, Sourcing Journal

INFLATION & INVENTORY INTELLIGENCE

Greg Petro, Chief Executive Officer, First Insight Inc. with Jessica Binns, Managing Editor & Technology Editor, Sourcing Journal

UNCHARTERED WATERS: INFLATION AND TODAY’S CONSUMER

Daren Hull, President, Vera Bradley with Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

10:57 –

Networking Break

Session II

SOURCING I: BRANDS NAVIGATE AN UNCERTAIN LANDSCAPE

Michael Bland, Senior Partnership Director, QIMA Barbara Fevelo-Hoad, Chief Sourcing Officer & Executive Vice President, Sparc Group LLC and Bryan Riviere, Senior Vice President, Sourcing, Product Development & Production, Macy’s Inc. with Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

SOURCING II: MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS

Juliette Barré, Director, Enterprise Sales, Sourcemap Devender Gupta, Co-founder, Asmara International Limited and Jason Kra, President, Li & Fung with Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

SURVEY FINDINGS: DO YOUR STRATEGIES MEASURE UP? Murali Gokki, Managing Director, AlixPartners and Ryan Poole, Director, AlixPartners with Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

12:49 – 2:00 PM

2:00 - 3:45 PM

Lunch Session III

MAKING QUALITY ACCESSIBLE THROUGH COLLABORATION

Drew Lawrence, Senior Marketing Manager, Fruit of the Loom Inc. and Boris Mercier, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Recover™ with Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing & Labor Editor, Sourcing Journal

THE STATE OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN: PITFALLS AND POCKETS OF OPPORTUNITY

Fernando Moncayo, Managing Director & Co-founder, Inspectorio with Lauren Parker, Branded Content Manager, Sourcing Journal

MATERIAL EVIDENCE: DECIPHERING THE COMPLEX INPUTS LANDSCAPE

Jon Devine, Senior Economist, Cotton Incorporated with Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

LOGISTICS, LOGISTICS, LOGISTICS

Anisa Kumar, Chief Customer Officer, Narvar Erik Rosica, Lead Fashion Consultant, OEC Group Bob Silverman, Managing Director, Supply Chain & Logistics JLL and Stacey Wagner, Chief Experience Officer & Vice President, Zappos.com with Kari Hamanaka, Logistics Editor, Sourcing Journal

3:45 - 4:05 PM

4:05 - 5:30 PM

Networking Break

Session IV

SOCIAL CAPITAL

Jennifer Gootman, Executive, Sustainability & ESG Strategy Simon Platts, Director, Sourcing, Commercial ESG & Sustainability, Asos and Avedis Seferian, President & Chief Executive Officer, Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) with Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing & Labor Editor, Sourcing Journal

REAL TALK ON REDUCING RETURNS

Navjit Bhasin, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Newmine with Jessica Binns, Managing Editor & Technology Editor, Sourcing Journal

MEETING DEMAND AMID UNCERTAINTY

Nate Fleming, Chief Marketing Officer, Bamboo Rose with Kate Nishimura, Features Editor, Sourcing Journal

CLOSING

Edward Hertzman, President & Founder, Sourcing Journal

5:30 - 6:30 PM

Cocktails and Networking

JULIETTE BARRÉ Director, Enterprise Sales Sourcemap

NAVJIT BHASIN Chief Executive Officer & Founder Newmine

Juliette Barré, Director of Enterprise Sales at Sourcemap, has helped the company acquire dozens of new clients over the past four years, and has worked closely with the product, marketing and customer success teams to provide the best value and solutions to the clients.

Juliette is a passionate sales and business development leader with outstanding results in the technology and sustainability industries. For over a decade, she has worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies and research centers as a consultant or full-time employee, paving the way for improved sustainability and efficient business practices.

Juliette’s areas of expertise include strategy implementation, partnership creation and management, sustainability project management, materiality analysis and KPI definition, data management and analytics and CSR/ESG reporting.

Navjit Bhasin is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Newmine, a retail technology company with a mission to help retailers reduce returns. Newmine’s Chief Returns Officer® is the industry’s first and only AI-powered returns reduction platform.

As a veteran entrepreneur and an active angel investor, Navjit has worked in hands-on roles for several global retailers and consumer brands like Commercialware, Staples, Inc., Trendlines, Inc. and HCLTech.

He has built his career as a natural problem solver, having helped retailers navigate the changing industry landscape to achieve peak operational efficiency, transform their customer experience and enhance their profitability. Navjit holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Bangalore University.

MICHAEL BLAND

Senior Partnership Director QIMA

Michael Bland is the Senior Partnership Director at QIMA, a leading provider of quality control and social and regulatory compliance services for businesses importing from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

In his role, Michael is responsible for leading the strategic corporate alliances programs globally for QIMA, which has 40+ offices operating in 95 countries and over 17,000 active clients made up of brands, retailers and importers. Michael’s career has given him a broad view of the quality control process and social compliance and regulatory issues in the global supply chain.

He holds a Master of Business Administration from DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor in East Asian Languages from the University of California, Berkeley.

MICHAEL COLAROSSI

Vice President, Product Line Management, Innovation & Sustainability

Avery Dennison

Michael Colarossi is a Senior Executive in Avery Dennison’s $1.2B Apparel Solutions division and is the driving force behind its culture of innovation, while also leading a global technical innovation team. Under Michael’s leadership, the organization has adopted a strategic view, prioritizing solutions that shape the industry’s future, while meeting rigorous compliance standards. In fact, Michael played a vital role in developing Avery Dennison’s 2025 and 2030 sustainability goals and the Apparel Solutions’ Global Experience Centers.

Before joining Avery Dennison in 2013, Michael held numerous manufacturing and engineering positions in the U.S. and China. He holds a Master of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and is a frequent speaker on innovation and sustainability.

JON DEVINE

Senior Economist Cotton Incorporated

ANDY DUNN

Author & Founder Bonobos

As the senior economist for Cotton Incorporated, Jon Devine keeps key stakeholders in the textile and investment communities informed via timely market analyses of commodity economics and factors influencing their stability. Jon generates industry analyses of the various links on the cotton supply chain, contributing to the division’s examinations and reports on consumer and retail trends relevant to cotton textile and apparel sectors. He received a Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and Environmental Studies from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and holds dual Masters of Science degrees in Resource Economics and Policy, and Spatial Information Science and Engineering from the University of Maine.

Andy Dunn co-founded menswear brand Bonobos and served as CEO until its 2017 acquisition by Walmart. As an investor, he has backed more than 80 startups, including Warby Parker, Coinbase, Away, Glossier, Real, Parade, SeatGeek and Alula.

Andy was featured on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list in 2018, and currently he serves on the boards of Monica + Andy, an organic baby-apparel company founded by his sister, and the tech nonprofit RaisedBy.Us.In May, Andy released a memoir titled ‘Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind’, which explores the intersection of entrepreneurship and mental illness. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Bamboo Rose

Barbara Fevelo Hoad is the Chief Sourcing Officer and Executive Vice President at SPARC Group, a global enterprise that designs, sources, manufactures, distributes and markets apparel and accessories for men, women and kids. As Chief Sourcing Officer, Barbara has transformed SPARC Group’s sourcing operation from a single-brand sourcing model to a multi-brand sourcing organization with globally shared services and a commitment to advancing social compliance, product integrity and sustainable practices.

Prior to SPARC Group, Barbara served as the Group Vice President of Sourcing at PVH, Senior Vice President of Sourcing Operations and Strategy at Ann Taylor and Vice President of Sourcing at Liz Claiborne.

Nate Fleming is the Chief Marketing Officer at Bamboo Rose overseeing brand strategy, demand generation, industry insights, and public relations.

Prior to joining Bamboo Rose, Nate was an industry analyst at Forrester Research covering software and professional services that enable enterprise product organizations across industry verticals.

BARBARA FEVELO-HOAD Chief Sourcing Officer & Executive Vice President Sparc Group LLC

NATE FLEMING Chief Marketing Officer

MURALI GOKKI Managing Director AlixPartners

JENNIFER GOOTMAN

Executive, Sustainability & ESG Strategy

Murali Gokki leads the apparel-fashion sector as part of AlixPartners retail solutions and services. He has more than 18 years of experience delivering high-impact strategic and business transformation solutions for global retailers and brands. His clients benefit from his expertise in product development and global sourcing, product-life-cycle management, supplier relationship management, organizational effectiveness, cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) reduction and speed to market. Murali also has significant experience helping clients establish and grow their private label businesses.

Prior to joining AlixPartners, he managed consulting engagements at Dassault Systèmes and Kurt Salmon Associates. Murali holds a Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a Master of Science in textile technology management from North Carolina State University.

Jennifer Gootman is a sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy executive with in-depth understanding of supply chain ESG issues. Most recently she was the Head of Sustainability and Social Impact for Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSI), leading social and environmental strategy and programming across the company’s eight brands.

Under Jennifer’s leadership, WSI launched the first Fair Trade-Certified factory program in home retail and was a founding partner of the Nest Standard for Ethical Handcraft. She built on WilliamsSonoma, Inc.’s leadership in responsible materials and ethical production to launch a comprehensive climate strategy, including the announcement of the company’s Science-Based Target for carbon reduction across the entire value chain.

DEVENDER GUPTA Co-founder Asmara International Limited

Asmara Group, a retail apparel and fashion company that operates in 17 locations and works with top brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Tom Tailor and Marco’O’Polo. As the Founding Partner and Board member, Devender provides guidance and vision to the company and its management.

Additionally, Devender is a seasoned business leader with deep management experience, broad leadership skills and a wide business perspective developed over the last 25 years.

Devender’s career can be expressed in his three strengths—market and trends understanding, quick adaption of new technologies and people management. He is an alumnus of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, and his entrepreneurial mind and skills led him to start his own venture.

DAREN HULL President Vera Bradley

As President of Vera Bradley, Daren Hull is at the helm of the leading women’s handbag, home and travel brand. Daren is an experienced and technically skilled executive who has focused on improving the customer buying experience for more than 20 years. With knowledge in marketing, merchandising, technology, operations, strategy and leadership, Daren has a track record of conceiving and growing businesses and a proven ability to introduce, structure and deliver scalable programs that drive revenue and reduce costs in both national and international settings.

Daren holds a Bachelor’s degree in supply chain engineering from the University of Illinois and has experience scaling direct-to-consumer business models (digital and physical) for established companies including Amazon, L’Oreal, WilliamsSonoma and PepsiCo.

JASON KRA President Li & Fung

ANISA KUMAR Chief Customer Officer Narvar

Jason Kra is President at Li & Fung, overseeing its factory direct, wholesale and distribution import businesses for the North, Central and South Americas markets. Jason’s strong entrepreneurial mindset and change management abilities have brought tremendous value to Li & Fung’s transformation journey. In 2020, he assumed additional responsibilities to head the LF Americas (US Wholesale) and LATAM (Latin America) businesses, bringing further scale and leverage to support the three unique businesses he manages.

Jason is an alumnus of the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the Harvard University Business School. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in Marketing from American University and is currently pursuing an Executive Ph.D. in Business Administration at Florida Atlantic University.

Anisa Kumar is the Chief Customer Officer at Narvar, where she shares her deep retail expertise with over 1,200 of the most-admired brands in the world.

Anisa is a recognized leader in global operations, analytics and strategy with over 20 years of retail industry experience, most recently as SVP & Managing Director of Levi’s US D2C business. Previously, Anisa held leadership roles at Walmart, Mervyn’s and Target.

She holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Davis’s Graduate School of Management, a Master of Science, Genetic Engineering/Biotechnology from the University of Mumbai and a Bachelor of Science from St. Xavier’s College.

DREW LAWRENCE

Senior Marketing Manager

Fruit of the Loom Inc.

Drew Lawrence is a Senior Marketing Manager at Fruit of the Loom Inc., where he leads the Casualwear Retail business and the e-commerce digital marketing team.

Drew is an experienced marketer and business manager who—over the last ten years—has been focused on delivering the brand purpose to brighten the world for a bolder, better, more fruitful tomorrow. His expertise is in leadership, brand strategy and product go-to-market strategy with focus on national retail partners and e-commerce.

Drew holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Western Kentucky University, and is a graduate of numerous professional development and leadership schools through the United States Army.

BORIS MERCIER

Senior Vice President, Marketing Recover™

Boris Mercier is the Senior Vice President, Marketing at Recover™, a global materials science company and a leading sustainable brand in the textiles and apparel industry. His role at Recover™ is leading the marketing team in building a world-class ingredient brand.

A Generation X digital native, Boris started his career with a focus on new technologies as a Marketing Consultant in Petroleum and Banking industries (VISA, Total), before pivoting to fashion and retail (Desigual) and then textile.

Boris holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the IPAG Business School in France, and a Master in IT Management from the IAE Graduate School of Management at Aix-Marseille University.

FERNANDO MONCAYO Managing Director & Co-founder Inspectorio

Fernando is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Inspectorio, an all-in-one platform to help brands, retailers and vendors connect and collaborate with their global supply chain to achieve operational excellence.

In addition, he was a member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum, named an “Emerging Leader of the Latin American Region” by America Economia Magazine in 2011 and was co-founder of 11 for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Fernando has completed the entrepreneurship development program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the executive program at Singularity University in Silicon Valley. Now, Fernando is completing the owners and presidents’ management program (OPM) at Harvard Business School.

Shekar Natarajan is a transformative leader with a record of progressive, positive disruption and industry-standard-setting innovation for top Fortune 100 companies.

As American Eagle Outfitters Executive Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Shekar has brought transformation to the specialty retailer to create a robust ecosystem of operations rooted in operational excellence, strategy, data analytics and partnership.

In his nearly 20-year career, Shekar has created an industry-standard last-mile beverage delivery system, re-engineered a grocery home delivery/pickup operating model, built and scaled grocery-shopping operations, created and piloted a distribution center drone program, built an automated directstore delivery system, developed methodologies followed by the White House and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and enhanced visitor theme park experience through wearable radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

SHEKAR NATARAJAN Chief Supply Chain Officer & Executive Vice President American Eagle Outfitters Inc.

GREG PETRO Chief Executive Officer

First Insight Inc.

SIMON PLATTS Director, Sourcing, Commercial ESG & Sustainability Asos

Greg Petro is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of First Insight Inc., a company that helps leading retailers and brands with their most challenging task—accurately forecasting market trends, consumer attitudes and product preferences. Greg founded First Insight in 2007 after nearly two decades in executive roles overseeing supply chains, operations and merchandising for some of the world’s leading retailers. Additionally, he is an international keynote speaker, has written for Forbes for over six years and is a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia Graduate School of Business along with other universities across the United States. Greg holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business.

As ESG & Sustainability Director, Simon Platts oversees the company’s sourcing, packaging, ethical trade, product sustainability and third-party branded engagement functions.

Part of the industry for over 35 years, Simon started his journey as a sales consultant for Next retail in the mid-1980s before moving through the ranks into visual merchandising, buying and buying management, and sourcing, where he was responsible for setting up the UK arm of Next Asia Sourcing.

Before joining ASOS, Simon was Head of Branded and Own Brand buying for Blacks and Millets, an outdoor clothing specialist. Before that, he spent eight years as Director/Partner at a supplier of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel and footwear to UK High Street retailers.

RYAN POOLE Director

AlixPartners

BRYAN RIVIERE

Senior Vice President, Sourcing, Product Development & Production

Macy’s Inc.

Ryan Poole is a leader in AlixPartners’ apparel-fashion sector. With approximately 20 years of experience, Ryan has worked in both industry and consulting across various supply chain functions and projects, specializing in large-scale business transformations for apparel-fashion retailers and brands. He has deep expertise in optimizing the end-to-end apparel value chain, including global sourcing, supplier relationship management, assortment optimization, cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) reduction, speed to market and raw materials management. Before joining AlixPartners, he led consulting engagements at Deloitte Consulting and held various supply chain roles at Johnson & Johnson.

Ryan holds a Master of Business Administration from New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Bryan Riviere Senior Vice President, Sourcing, Product Development & Production at Macy’s Inc., an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858. He has been with Macy’s since 2019 overseeing its Private Brand division across all banners.

Bryan has over 25 years of industry experience in sourcing, product development and production in various retail and wholesale settings including Nike, lululemon and Levi’s.

AVEDIS SEFERIAN

President & Chief Executive Officer Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP)

Avedis Seferian joined WRAP in 2004 and became its President and Chief Executive Officer in 2012. Avedis has extensive knowledge of social responsibility issues within the highly complex worldwide supply chains of the apparel, textile and footwear sectors. A recognized expert in the area of social compliance and responsible sourcing, Avedis was named by Assent Compliance as one of the top 100 corporate social responsibility influence leaders for 2020.

Additionally, Avedis speaks five languages, has lived in four countries and holds three degrees from three continents—a Bachelor’s in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University in India; a Master of Business Administration from the American University of Armenia; and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in the United States, where he was a law fellow and made the dean’s list.

JLL

Bob Silverman is Managing Director, Supply Chain & Logistics at JLL, where he leads the supply chain consulting group for the Northeast region. Bob’s team consults on the changing trends in the global supply chain and the resultant impact on distribution networks and industrial facilities.

Previously, Bob was President of Gross & Associates, where he oversaw the business and managed assignments for leading companies across various industries. He was also VP of IT Business Systems for Tommy Hilfiger, where he designed and implemented the company’s North American distribution center rollouts and upgrades.

Bob also served as board chair of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and board president of the Warehousing Education Research Council (WERC).

BOB SILVERMAN Managing Director, Supply Chain & Logistics

STACEY WAGNER Chief Experience Officer & Vice President Zappos.com

Stacey Wagner is Chief Experience Officer and Vice President at Zappos.com, the experiential e-commerce and customer service company. In his executive role, Stacey oversees supply chain and fulfillment, Zappos’ well-known customer loyalty team (CLT), corporate safety and campus operations and inventory management and portfolio.

Previously, Stacey held the role of General Manager of Operations at Zappos, a title he shared with his former role at Amazon, where he spent six and a half years building upon a customer focus mindset before joining the Zappos team. With his favorite Zappos Core Value being to “embrace and drive change,” Stacey is continuously encouraging his team to push boundaries and think outside the box.

JESSICA BINNS Managing Editor & Technology Editor Sourcing Journal

KARI HAMANAKA Logistics Editor Sourcing Journal

Jessica is a tenacious editor who leans on two decades of experience to relentlessly craft content that is both comprehensive and digestible. A classic wordsmith and Wordle aficionado, Jessica is also at home on the cutting edge, doing double duty as Sourcing Journal’s lead Technology Editor. In her time away from work, Jessica pursues a love of fine cuisine, whether it’s the hottest new spot, the search for an off-the-beaten-path gem or pescatarian meal prepping for another busy week. In addition to a fondness for basketball, lacrosse, and Premier League football, she also nurtures a profound love of nature where she finds great peace roaming open land with a seven-pound miniature pinscher. Fittingly, Jessica now splits her time between downtown Manhattan and a bucolic corner of northern Westchester County, and can be found haunting opera houses, jazz joints, the finest urban speakeasies and international airports in search of her next adventure.

Kari covers all things logistics for Sourcing Journal, from first to last mile. A native of Southern California, she has worked at business trades, reporting on consumer trends, M&A, bankruptcies and turnarounds in industries such as commercial real estate, legal, retail, automotive, restaurants and advertising. She got her start reporting on the Inland Empire commercial real estate market during the subprime mortgage crisis while at the California Real Estate Journal and more recently covered American Apparel’s bankruptcies and the alleged pump-anddump at Los Angeles retailer Kitson for WWD.

EDWARD HERTZMAN

President & Founder Sourcing Journal

JASMIN MALIK CHUA

Sourcing & Labor Editor Sourcing Journal

Edward Hertzman received a degree in economics from NYU and spent more than a decade working as a top executive for major sourcing companies all over the world, including Synergies Worldwide and Pearl Global. Mr. Hertzman sits on the Board for Delivering Good, a charitable organization that channels the resources of the fashion industry to those in need.

In 2009, in response to a need in the industry, he founded Sourcing Journal Online. With more than 75,000 subscribers, Sourcing Journal Online is the largest trade journal devoted to the sourcing apparel and textile industry supply chain in the world. In August 2020, he was promoted to executive vice president of Fairchild Media, tasked with growing the businesses of all Fairchild Media titles in his new position, while continuing to lead the day-today operations at Sourcing Journal. He will also oversee the growth of Fairchild Media’s strategic content studio, bolstering the creation of engaging, interactive content to help industry partners stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Jasmin Malik Chua is the sourcing and labor editor at Sourcing Journal, where she writes about the apparel and footwear industry through the lens of sustainability and human rights. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Business of Fashion, Vogue Business, Vox, and others. Chua received an M.S. in biomedical journalism from New York University and a B.S. in animal biology from the National University of Singapore.

KATE NISHIMURA Features Editor Sourcing Journal

LAUREN PARKER Branded Content Manager Sourcing Journal

Kate is Sourcing Journal’s features editor. She has authored the columns On Brand, which focuses on timely issues facing emerging and established brands, and On the Hill, which examines the impact of legislation and lawmakers on the apparel and footwear industry.

Having spent her entire career in B2B fashion publishing, most recently as editor-in-chief of Accessories magazine, Lauren has covered the industry’s many facets, from trend forecasting to manufacturing to retail. Her work has also appeared in trade publications like FootwearPlus, EyeWear, National Jeweler, Earnshaws, JCK, and more, plus newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post. She holds a B.S. in Communications from Cornell University.

AlixPartners is a results-driven global consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses respond quickly and decisively to their most critical challenges – from urgent performance improvement to complex restructuring, from risk mitigation to accelerated transformation. These are the moments when everything is on the line – a sudden shift in the market, an unexpected performance decline, a time-sensitive deal, a fork-in-the-road decision. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients until the job is done, and only measure our success in terms of the results we deliver. We partner with you to make the right decisions and take the right actions. And we are right by your side. When it really matters.

Aptean is one of the world’s leading providers of purpose-built, industry-specific software that helps fashion retailers, brands and manufacturers effectively run and grow their businesses. Aptean is committed to providing our clients with the technology and services to accelerate growth while increasing efficiency and visibility. With both cloud and on-premise deployment options, Aptean’s products, services and unmatched expertise help businesses of all sizes to be Ready for What’s Next, Now®. Aptean is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Contact us to learn how we can help streamline process across the entire product lifecycle.

Founded in the year 2000, Asmara is a global fashion company that cares. With a mission of fulfilling customers’ and markets’ dynamic needs, we are connected with a global network of clients and suppliers. We have chosen them or vice versa based on shared values and vision.

We are a shareholder company, we give back to people what they contribute to the organization.

For us, work is meaningful only if approached with PASSION. Once partnered with our customers, we THINK ALONG to create efficient, cutting-edge solutions and a wide range of apparel products (casual, active and outdoor lifestyle), accessories and hard goods.

We believe TRANSPARENCY and direct channels of communication to navigate the fast paced and challenging business in the VUCA world. Knowing how the world of fashion turns, we INVEST strongly in sustainable and new-age materials, design, market intelligence, digitalization and adoption of 3D technologies.

We operate in 12 countries, 17 locations, servicing 125 customers with a 1200 strong team of associates and 300 partner factories. We operate freely, inside we are a very well organized system.

Avery Dennison is committed to reaching our sustainability goals by the year 2030. Sustainability is one of our core values and has long been an integral part of the way we do business. Our aim is to improve the sustainability of our products and processes, build a more diverse workforce and an inclusive culture, maintain a culture of health and safety, and support our communities to create value for all our stakeholders.

Our 2030 sustainability goals were developed based on careful analysis of what is most important for our business and stakeholders, covering the areas where we can, and should, make the greatest difference. Striving to meet our new goals will be the greatest test yet of our capacity to innovate and an invaluable opportunity to position our business for lasting success.

MORE

Carbon is the new equalizer in fashion.

Too often, brands’ sustainability initiatives amount to little more than toe-dipping, leading to accusations of greenwashing. Moving forward it’s the industry’s responsibility to collaborate and agree on workable, industrial-scale practices that will cut CO2 from apparel manufacturing, and promote circularity. Join Michael Colarossi, Vice President, Product Line Management, Innovation & Sustainability at Avery Dennison to hear more about The Ultimate Equalizer - Carbon: Reducing Our Industry’s Footprint.

Bamboo Rose is the industry-leading Multi-Enterprise Product and Supply Chain Platform, connecting the entire retail community and helping companies bring great products to market faster, more efficiently and at higher margins. Our platform features a suite of patented supply chain solutions, including Bamboo Rose Marketplace, Product Lifecycle Management, Sourcing, Purchase Order Management, Global Trade Management, and Financing, each one supported by intelligent engines for optimization, costing, and scheduling across the platform.

Birla Cellulose, part of the Aditya Birla Group, is a leading sustainability focused Man-Made Cellulosic Fibers (MMCF) producer and operates 12 sites that apply environmentally efficient closed loop technologies that recycle materials and conserve natural resources. Its five global advanced research centres are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and pilot plants. Its sustainable fibre brand Livaeco by Birla Cellulose™, Liva Reviva (circular fibres) Birla Excel™ (lyocell) and Birla Spunshades™ (dope dyed fibres) are designed with superior sustainable credentials. Birla Cellulose fibres are ethically derived from natural, renewable resources and manufactured using eco-friendly processes, contributing towards a greener environment.

Cotton Incorporated is the research and promotion company for Upland cotton. Funded by U.S. cotton growers and importers of Upland cotton-containing products, the not-for-profit organization’s mission is to increase the demand for and profitability of cotton. As a resource for the cotton industry, Cotton Incorporated conducts or oversees more than 450 research and educational projects in an average year. Research areas range from the development of agricultural and textile innovations to analyses of commodity and market data.

Cotton Incorporated’s CottonWorks™ program is an industry resource for professionals and emerging professionals in the apparel and textile industries. With hundreds of easily searchable resources, CottonWorks™ is the go-to textile tool and guide for producing outstanding cotton products.

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DeSL leads the market in integrated end to end PLM software for retail, fashion, apparel, textile, and footwear sectors directly supporting sustainability initiatives. Offering a wide range of critical tools for today’s progressive and forward thinking companies, seeking greater sustainability control and innovative digital transformation efforts. Modular design provides flexibility and scalability to leverage digital technologies from SMB to Enterprise level businesses. The experienced sales and implementation teams, consisting of industry veterans, are equipped to effectively identify and deliver solutions based on individual business needs.

Our Fashinza team is participating in the Sourcing Journal Trade show to showcase AI & tech based intelligent apparel manufacturing offerings & solutions for your clothing brand. Fashion brands can place bulk orders with just one click and discovers thousands of latest trendy designs on our tech based supply chain platform. Sourcing Journal show participants will get to see the robust platform offerings with the following primary features:

• Direct access to 250+ top rated supplier network with full transparency.

• Thousands of data driven global trending designs in menswear, womenswear, kidswear, Outerwear and athleisure.

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First Insight is the leading Next-Gen Experience Management (XM) platform that helps businesses make decisions with confidence and operate more sustainably, while delivering the best possible product, brand, customer, and employee experiences. The solution uses predictive analytics, voice of the customer, and AI to provide recommendations that are actionable and forward-looking with industry-leading accuracy. Over 200 of the world’s leading companies rely on First Insight to predict how products and messages will perform before they launch in the market. For more information, please visit FirstInsight.com.

Founded in 2016, Inspectorio is revolutionizing outdated manual quality inspections and facility assessments and turning the production of goods into a force for positive change.

Our cloud-based solution is trusted by three of the world’s Top 5 retailers and over 15,000 network participants across the globe, including Target, Crocs, and Carter’s.

Inspectorio gives you the power to resolve quality issues before they happen prevent supply chain delays practice data-driven decision-making enable a zerodefects, sustainable production chain

ITL - a global provider of intelligent label solutions supporting brands, retailers, and manufacturers with a comprehensive range of products and services, optimizing brand identity while maximizing supply chain performance. With 35 years of experience, we have established a track record of supporting many of the best-known names in our industry.

Members of The Sustainable Apparel Coalition, our global manufacturing facilities follow the Higg Facility Environmental Module to measure and report our environmental performance. We have invested significantly in developing products and solutions that can help customers reduce their environmental impact without adding cost or complexity.

Accelerating the digital sustainable supply chain, Logility helps companies seize new opportunities, sense and respond to changing market dynamics and more profitably manage their complex global businesses. The Logility® Digital Supply Chain Platform leverages an innovative blend of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics to automate planning, accelerate cycle times, increase precision, improve operating performance, break down business silos and deliver greater visibility. To learn how Logility can help you make smarter decisions faster, visit www.logility.com.

Mercado transforms the way the world trades, transacts, and interacts.

Every day, importers are burning money as they have no way to effectively manage their supply chain with transparency, efficiency, and accuracy.

The Mercado platform digitizes, connects, and standardizes your orders, giving you access to realtime data across the supply network so you can plan, buy, and move your products to market more quickly, efficiently, and accurately, boosting sales and reducing costs.

Bring order to your imports with Mercado, the leading import authority.

Narvar pioneered how brands engage with consumers beyond the “buy” button through branded order tracking, delivery notifications, returns and exchanges. Today, Narvar’s comprehensive Post-Purchase Platform empowers 1200+ of the world’s mostadmired brands including Sephora, Patagonia, Levi’s, Sonos, Warby Parker, Home Depot, LVMH, and L’Oréal to deliver transparency, build trust, and grow customer lifetime value. Recognized by Fast Company multiple times as one of the most innovative companies, Narvar simplifies the everyday lives of consumers.

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For more than 100 years, Neenah, Inc. (NYSE: NP) has been a partner in the creative process that provides the products and services — the solutions — to help bring visions to life and transform ideas into results. The Neenah signature portfolio includes marketleading brands such as CLASSIC®, ENVIRONMENT®, NEENAH® Folding Board, ESTATE® Label, NEENAH IMAGEMAX® Paper Card, NEENAH IMAGEMAX® Signage, and the new NEENAH ENVIRONMENT® Mailer. With multiple manufacturing facilities, Neenah is proud to devote significant efforts to increasing sustainable premium paper production by implementing responsible fiber sourcing standards, conservation efforts, and focusing on our products recyclability.

Newmine’s Chief Returns Officer® is a retail intelligence platform purpose-built for returns prevention. It helps retailers identify the root cause of returns, take remedial action through prescriptive recommendations, and scorecard key processes for greater operational control.

Leading retailers and brands use Newmine’s Chief Returns Officer to protect revenue, boost profitability, enhance customer experience, and improve sustainability.

For more than four decades, OEC Group has had a strong history of providing comprehensive logistics services to the fashion industry, helping to make us the leading Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier in the Trans-Pacific trade. OEC Group offers our fashion clients a vast global network of experts who support businesses with reliable, competitive and flexible solutions. OEC Group has the capabilities to address the complexities of any fashion client’s supply chain, allowing us to consistently perform at the highest levels for our customers. Join OEC Group’s growing list of fashion clients and let our experience be your advantage.

Pivot88 is the leading quality and compliance platform enabling 360° supply chain transparency from raw material sourcing to customer delivery and beyond. Our cloud-based solution integrates all data in one place, in real-time, generating instant, actionable data analytics for smarter and faster decisions. As industry pioneers with over 30 years of supply chain experience, Pivot88 places innovation at the forefront of our business. We created the market of quality & compliance digitization and continue to lead the industry through innovative business and AI technologies. Our powerful platform is the perfect match for brands, retailers, factories and third parties.

At QIMA we are on a mission to offer our clients smart solutions to make products consumers can trust. We combine on-the-ground experts for quality inspections, supplier audits, certification, and lab testing, with a digital platform QIMAone that brings accuracy, visibility and intelligence for quality and compliance data. We operate in 95 countries and help more than 17,000 global brands, retailers, manufacturers, and food growers achieve quality excellence.

Recover™ is a leading materials science company and global producer of low-impact, high-quality recycled cotton fiber and cotton fiber blends. Its premium, environmentally friendly, and cost-competitive products are created in partnership with the supply chain for global retailers and brands, offering a sustainable solution to achieve circular fashion for all.

As a fourth-generation, family-owned company, and backed by recent investment from STORY3 Capital and Goldman Sachs, Recover™ is on a mission to scale its proprietary technology to make a lasting positive impact on the environment and partner with brands/retailers and other change-makers to meet the industry’s sustainability targets.

BlueTriton Brands offers an extensive portfolio of highly recognizable, responsibly sourced, and sustainably packaged spring water and other water brands including Poland Spring® Brand, Deer Park® Brand, Ozarka® Brand, Ice Mountain® Brand, Zephyrhills® Brand, Arrowhead® Brand, Origin™ Natural Spring Water, Saratoga® Spring Water, AC+ION™ Alkaline Water, Pure Life®, Splash Blast™ Flavored Water Beverage and Splash Fizz™ Fruit Flavored Sparkling Water Beverage.

Based in Stamford, Connecticut, BlueTriton Brands and its affiliates in the United States and Canada employ approximately 6,600 associates. BlueTriton Brands manages resources for long-term sustainability, and conserves more than 20,000 acres of watershed area. The Company has 28 production facilities across the United States, 16 of which are Alliance for Water Stewardship (“AWS”) certified across 15 sites, with eight of the certified facilities being AWS Platinum, the highest-level certification.

SOURCING at MAGIC gives fashion designers, retailers and sourcing professionals the opportunity to connect and collaborate with an international community of global manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers. With a strong presence among international exhibitors and attendees and deep domestic connections, SOURCING at MAGIC is a “global” community. With a forward-thinking approach and commitment to the evolution of fashion ecosystem and supply chain, SOURCING at MAGIC consistently provides access to cutting edge technology, solutions, sustainable resources, educational content, networking, and extended visibility into the industry’s most critical global challenges. For more information on SOURCING at MAGIC and SOURCING at MAGIC Online, please visit: www.magicfashionevents.com

Sourcemap provides state-of-the art software that allows global retailers, manufacturers and brands to map their supply chains down to the raw materials and ensure operational best practices every step of the way. Sourcemap technology encompasses the full suite of supply chain due diligence requirements, including supplier discovery, supply chain mapping, supplier risk assessment, transaction traceability, resilience planning, real-time visualization and consumer-facing transparency. With more than 400,000 business entities registered, Sourcemap has been used to drive decisions on more than $60B of purchasing spend.

Supima is America’s luxury cotton. Founded in 1954, Supima is an organization that promotes products of Pima cotton on behalf of the 500 family farms that have produced it for generations. The Supima brand stands for an elite variety of Pima cotton grown in California and the Southwestern US Supima is prized around the world by more than 500 licensed manufacturers, designers and retailers who value Supima’s extra-long staple fiber for its luster, strength, and superior softness.

For over 80 years, we have been looking beyond fiber. With wood as our natural resource, Lenzing’s solutions are as innovative as they are effective when it comes to caring for our partners’ success, our planet’s protection and people’s needs in everyday life. Lenzing’s TENCEL™ Lyocell and Modal fibers help maintain the environmental balance by being integrated into nature´s cycle. The certified bio-based fibers are manufactured using an environmentally responsible production process. The fibers are certified as compostable and biodegradable, and thus can fully revert back to nature.

*Applicable to TENCEL™ fibers certi ed by Climate Partner.

wood and pulp we use comes from sustainably managed forests.

TENCEL™ is a trademark of Lenzing AG.

Texworld Evolution NYC brings together textile innovators, industry leading organizations, and brand thought-leaders to deliver a robust offering of networking and educational opportunities. Providing a stage for the industry to explore high quality fabrics, trims and accessories, together the four events feature over 50 product categories and host hundreds of international exhibiting companies representing India, China, Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan, and many more. This enables both visitors and exhibitors alike to gain exposure to new opportunities and outlets to grow their businesses. Attendees will also find the most cutting-edge information on Spring/Summer 2024 trends inside the Texworld Trend Showcase, curated by New York based trend agency, Doneger | TOBE. Visit www.texworldnyc.com to learn more.

Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production

(WRAP) is an independent, objective, non-profit team of global social compliance experts dedicated to promoting safe, lawful, humane, and ethical production around the world through certification and education. WRAP works with suppliers at the ground level to demonstrate that they meet internationally recognized standards and follow all local laws related to workplace safety and workers’ rights. Today, more than three million workers are employed in the over 3,000 WRAP-certified facilities that operate in all the major sourcing destinations of the world.

WRAP is the world’s largest independent social

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