NEWS
Inside the Industry
Boardriders Inc. has announced the selection of Longbow Advantage, the brand behind The Rebus Platform, for its new warehouse-visibility and labor-management solution. Rebus is a unified supply-chain-visibility platform that provides real-time views into the warehouse for distribution teams and can connect to any supply-chain-execution software. Warehouses and distribution centers are increasingly under pressure to optimize warehouse processes amid increasing retail demand and a smaller labor market. “Rebus will provide us with unprecedented access into what is really going on in our warehouse—up to the minute—with real-time knowledge of what we are receiving or sending out of our warehouses,” said Cory Durrett, director of inventory control at Boardriders.
Italian denim brand Diesel has announced its foray into the resale market with Diesel Second Hand. The denim brand started a buyback program in July 2021 that collected pre-owned jeans and shipped them to a facility within 200 miles of Diesel’s Breganze, Italy, headquarters, where they were treated with Polygiene’s ViralOff and OdorCrunch technology, a combined treatment featuring antimicrobial and odor-resistant properties the brand began using during the pandemic. Both technologies ensure each product stays fresh and hygienic. The new collection is available in Italy in Milan, Florence and Rome as well as worldwide on Diesel’s European website. Pieces retail between USD$150 and USD$917. A rating system provides insight into the condition of each pair of jeans ranging from a 1, or “slightly worn,” to a 3, or “like new.”
Better Cotton has announced the launch of its new climate-change-mitigation target and set a bold goal of reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions by 50 percent by the year 2030 from a 2017 baseline. Since its inception in 2009, Better Cotton has worked toward making cotton production more sustainable around the world. The company released its first study on greenhouse-gas emissions in October 2021 and found significantly lower emissions from Better Cotton–licensed farmers cotton production. Along with its partners, Better Cotton has trained 2.5 million cotton farmers on more-sustainable cotton production. Four additional targets covering soil health, pesticide use, small-holder livelihoods and women’s empowerment are expected to be announced by the end of 2022.
Kontoor Brands, Inc., a global lifestyle apparel company with a portfolio led by Wrangler and Lee, released its 2020 Sustainability Report, which detailed Kontoor’s progress in advancing sustainability goals focused on the triple bottom line—people, product and planet. Highlights of the report include Kontoor reducing its water consumption by over 8 billion liters since 2008 by using water-saving and recycling technologies and sourcing half of its cotton sustainably for products manufactured in 2020, with plans to achieve 100 percent sustainable cotton in all products by 2025. Kontoor also initiated community-development programs in factories in Bangladesh that provide clean water, sanitation facilities and education to help benefit 1,200 local workers.
