Following the article about the introduction of fast-fashion, I want to talk to you about the supply chains and the garment workers. So many people say fast fashion is bad but why? Since the beginning of time, people make clothes. Why is this seen as a problem now?

Well, there are several factors such as the environmental impact, the economic impact, your financial impact. But the one problem which is impacting all the above is the supply channel.

In this article, you will find what means supply chains, what are the changes over the last 200 years in the industry and the impact on human rights.

What does the “supply chain” in the fashion industry mean?

A supply chain according to Investopedia is “a network between a company and its supplier to produce and distribute a specific product to a final buyer” Kenton, W. (2020, March 15). Nowadays everything we touch is likely to have been created far away. For example a table: the wood can have been cut in one part of the world, then processed in China and the handle made in eastern Europe to be sold in Target/ Argos. You would think it is expensive: due to the really low wages and the big quantities, companies manage to create a cheap product. You do believe your clothes are all made at the same place? Well, actually they are assembled in the same place but the tissue can come from different areas as well as the buttons.

For most of the industry, the supply channels are managed in a way to reduce costs and have a faster production cycle. Companies such as Zara, H&M and Mango wants to not only have more profit but also an extremely quick production.

The supply chain:

In clothing, it all starts with the materials. The most common materials are cotton, wool, silk, leather and denim.

In 1817, Mississippi was the biggest producing county for the cotton with more than a million acres planted each year. 

In the following years, due to the improvement of living conditions, and the longing for big corporations to make more profit, the production of cotton moved to Egypt, Brazil and India.

From 1860 to 1864, the price of cotton increased by more than 180% from a few cents to nearly two pounds.

You can see that, with the increase of quality of life in the countries and its development, the industry of cotton and other materials moved to third countries. Nowadays, if a country such as the US wants to produce cotton, they need to use toxic pesticides to reduce the cost of cotton care, which will reduce the cost. One movie, a must-see, to understand more about this is “The True cost“: an amazing documentary.

In the next article, we will talk about the environmental impact of the treatment of those materials.

The garment workers

The cotton industry and fashion supply moved countries to be more profitable. The workers are kept with low wages, poor working conditions, excessive hours, lack of benefits and child labour. 

Before explaining a little bit more about them we want you to realise the price of fast fashion:

A $25 shirt in a fast fashion store, gives a salary to the worker of not even $1.35 and the profit on it is $15.62.

Garments workers are people that need a job for their family and survival. However this is not considered the employer’s problem so here are the offers: low wage, no contract, 24/7, bad work conditions and dangerous ones.

Of course, you can think that in those countries the standard of living is low so the minimum wage is lower ad so all of this could be ok. But imagine what they are paid by those company, this is not even enough. People work too many hours just to satisfy our consumption of products. Some are dying due to too much inhalation of chemicals used in the materials. Factories are collapsing because the owner does not want to use their money.

You would think that big companies would see that and help their workers, have a good work ethic. You could not be more wrong! Big companies will search constantly to lower their prices. For that, they will put in competition those sewing factories to reduce their costs. Impact: always lower salary for workers or more hours but, still, same price for the shirt.

To really make you understand the facts we will review a simple hoodie at ZARA that will cost around $30:

• Material (growth, treatment and creating the fabric, wages): 18%
• Creation (sewing, workers wages): 5.6%
• Travel to a destination: 2.36%
• Cost of the brand: 33%
• VAT: around 13%
• Profit: more than 26 %

If those companies would reduce their profit by not even 2% to pay the factory workers, the fashion industry would not be that disastrous and against basic human rights.

And you?

A lot of people tell me that they do not want to pay for expensive clothes: just think!

Would you want your kid to work in a factory that pays not even the lowest wage for more than 19hours a day? 

Would you let your sister die for you to wear a cheap t-shirt?

 Would you buy the $9 t-shirt your mum died making because of lack of sleep and ingestion of poisonous chemicals? 

Would YOU work for a low wage just to wear a cheap tee shirt? If you would note do it why are you expecting others to do it for you?

Let us know what you think by writing a comment or on Instagram and Twitter. Also, we would love to know more about you: which topic you would like to see us looking into?. I really hope you liked this article and learned a little bit more about fast fashion. At The ideality, we want to make you understand the importance of sustainability and ethical brand nowadays. Let us know one of your favourite ethical and luxury brand.