Why AAPN is “Writing the Book” on the US Apparel Industry

 By Mike Todaro, Managing Director, AAPNetwork

Getting Started

FAQ's

Disclaimers

In the beginning, there was supply and demand - buy low, sell high. Buy some salt low, caravan over the mountains to sell it high, raise your standard of living, create enough wealth to organize a community, civilization evolves and eventually, thanks to the internet, the world returns to the same flat state it was believed to be in during the late 1400’s.

This on-line “book”, began thanks to the power of Web 2.0, which has truly made the world flat. Web 2.0 technology now allows us to organize the content we’ve accumulated here at AAPN over our 27 years. Fortunately, and uniquely in this industry, AAPN’s members span the entire global apparel supply chain, so our content does as well.

In the US, “industries” up and down the chain tend to only meet with themselves. So, AAPN’s meetings are of leaders, owners, executives and managers who, under normal circumstances, would never meet with one another. Out of these interactive “town meetings,” we’ve learned the bottlenecks, strategies, workings and opportunities of each link in the chain. In other words, we’ve learned “the one true story”, end-to-end, of how this industry works.

This opportunity to meet as a chain took form in 2001 when we expanded in 3 unique directions from our original core of cut/sew contractors. First, we opened our membership to contractors in this hemisphere. Seeing that, their US based suppliers of yarn and textiles began to join. And this, in turn, got brand and retail sourcing executives to join, starting with Kim Krummell of Timberland.

To take advantage of this, our meetings changed. We started them carefully, slowly introducing everyone so networking would start by design at the beginning. We also “harvested” issues so our agenda could adapt, realtime, to what was actually keeping people up at night. And finally we tapped the skills of those with their fingers on the pulse of industry realities.

Two things came out of this. First, the end of each meeting became the agenda for the next meeting. In effect, the meetings were held continuously and our work on the issues became constant, daily. We became an incubation site for the industry where knowledge accumulated and compiled. That’s the second thing – the information.

As you’ll see in this “book,” there is truly only one story in this industry. Of course, everyone is different. But the elements remain the same – design, trim, shipping, legal, technology, distribution, costing, finishing, embellishment, branding, consumer research, marketing, travel, and on and on – the pieces are the same. Its how you put them together that sets you apart - and that is what this business network is committed to do.

Enjoy this resource. Don't hesitate to send any comments to either me at miketodaro@mindspring.com or the Apparelpedia Administrator, Sue Strickland at sue@aapnetwork.net. Learn more about the American Apparel Producers' Network on www.aapnetwork.net