The sustainable, ethical cashmere marketplace may have a bit of a transparency problem:
Just for a moment, picture the most classic, elegant closet you can. What's in it? A camel trench coat, perhaps, or possibly a pair of buttery leather driving loafers. Regardless of the closet-haver's personal tastes, a perfect cashmere sweater fits in, too — maybe even more prominently than the trench or loafers.
With temperatures hitting as low as -40 degrees Farenheit, the region's goats have developed undercoats that allow them to survive the six-month winters. This soft, downy wool comprises the fiber we know and love today, but its shearing process has evolved over time. To start, the quality of the fleece is evaluated by three factors, as stated by the U.S.
At what point did the cashmere disruption begin in earnest? A Chicago Tribune article from January 2010 explored the seemingly sudden explosion of low-priced cashmere carried at retailers as mass-market as Costco. "What it seems to boil down to is that there's been a huge increase in demand for cashmere and a decrease in price," says Sarah Hayes, Patagonia's senior manager of materials innovation and development.
Naadam co-founder and CEO Matt Scanlan explains that they travel to Mongolia once a year, typically in May if the weather permits, to purchase material directly from roughly 1,000 herder families. During these trips, the Naadam team will buy anywhere between 75 and 120 tons of cashmere. Scanlan says it's really as rough-and-tumble as you might think, with herders sometimes carrying the wool on the side of a horse.
A tenet of many sustainable or ethical direct-to-consumer brands, cashmere-focused or not, is transparency, a heightened relationship between the company and the customer. But has that accountability become more of a marketing technique than a business strategy? "I think where people fall down is by saying, 'Oh, well, consumers want transparency. What parts of our supply chain can we show transparency?', as opposed to building with that focus in mind," says Shah.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Teens who changed a digital billboard to display pornography identified by policePolice in a Detroit suburb have identified two teenage boys responsible for changing a digital billboard along an interstate highway to display pornography, according to Auburn Hills police Lt. Ryan Gagnon.
Read more »
Appear Here Searching for Creative and Socially Responsible RetailersThe appearhere competition awards free flagship space to entrepreneurs and brands.
Read more »
Meet Lora Haddock DiCarlo. She's the woman responsible for the return of sex toys at CES 2020After taking away an award for a "pleasure tech" product Lora DiCarlo&39;s Osé, CES organizers reversed course and invited sex tech companies to exhibit.
Read more »
Judge orders districts be told they can join school segregation lawsuitThe lawsuit claims New Jersey is responsible for worsening school segregation because of a requirement that makes students attend schools in their neighborhood
Read more »