Duty free market access to China will boost exports of Pakistan’s made-ups. Pakistan’s annual trade deficit with China ranges around $12 to $14 billion. The country’s yearly exports to China are $1.2 billion and imports in the range of $14 to $16 billion. Apart from Pakistan, China offers duty free status to Asean and Bangladesh.

Pakistan and China will decide how much textile, leather, and other goods can be exported to fully utilise the duty free facility. At this stage, the list of products that would be eligible for duty-free has not been prepared. There will be further discussions on finalising details of market access and the balance of payment support.

The countries are working to have a free trade agreement in place before June 2019. They have signed 15 MoUs for further cooperation in the areas of socio-economic development, poverty alleviation, agriculture, economic and technical cooperation, forestry, earth sciences, higher education and technology. Industrial cooperation will be accelerated and both sides have decided to move with the next phase with a focus on industrial expansion, agricultural revitalisation and integration of trade ties.

Pakistan will request China to remove other non tariff barriers so that Pakistan can boost exports.

More than 150 million trees are cleared every year, shipped around the world, then pulped and processed into viscose. The viscose industry relies on wood from around the world including from some areas that have been designated as ecologically sensitive.

For the growing number of apparel companies promising an ecologically sounder manufacturing process, this presents a problem. So several brands, like H&M and Marks & Spencer spent the last year helping Canadian nonprofit Canopy build a web site that uses satellite imagery and conservation research to identify the forests that need to be left alone.

The images cover threatened species habitats and carbon locked away in trees and soil. Almost 50 fashion, paper, and publishing companies have endorsed the tool as a way to improve their analysis of where supply chains wind through ecosystems that are rare, nearly destroyed by people, or important for maintaining biodiversity.

The viscose supply chain was largely opaque until the last few years, when companies started asking questions and Canopy began auditing pulp facilities and mills. On-the-ground research, complemented by the mapping tool, is just now giving consumer companies and non-governmental organizations enough information to either prune undesirable supplies from the business or challenge suppliers to reform their practices.

Burberry is undergoing a major transformation, with a new designer, a new focus on ultra-luxury, a new logo and a change to the way it drops its product. The company has seen a successful launch of its new go-to-market model with social selling innovation contributing to building brand heat.

Most discussions to evolve its wholesale distribution are now complete and the required changes to its third-party distribution network are expected to accelerate in the second half of the year. The brand closed a net 19 stores in the last 12 months.

But while early signs are encouraging, transitioning the product offer, evolving its distribution, changing wider consumer perception and seeing this translate into positive business performance will take time. The company’s switch to regular monthly drops via its B Series has got off to a good start too. It sold out rapidly in China, prompted much higher levels of engagement online and attracted double the mix of new and younger customers to the brand than the February capsule.

All regions performed in the first half. The UK and Italy grew, with an improvement in the second quarter, while the Middle East remained weak due to macro factors. But Asia Pacific grew by a mid-single-digit percentage.

ASSOCHAM, during its recently held ASSOCHAM Summit – cum – Awards ceremony in Delhi rewarded the efforts of various institutes across India in the area of skill development. Apparel Training & Design Centre (ATDC) received the best higher vocational education institute award and NIFT TEA Knitwear Fashion Institute, was awarded as best professional institute for skill development with the gold trophy by ASSOCHAM.

Union State Minister for Skill Development gave this award to Rakesh Vaid, Senior Vice Chairman and Darlie Koshy, Director General & CEO, ATDC. Under the aegis of AEPC (Apparel Export Promotion Council), the official body of Indian apparel exporters, Apparel Training & Design Centre (ATDC), has emerged as India’s largest vocational training network for the apparel sector with nearly 175 centres across India.

On the other hand, Tirupur-based NIFT TEA Knitwear Fashion Institute has been implementing skill training for programs for the industry needs with good placement record, has been recognized for its outstanding contribution in skill development. .K Mohanasundaram, Skill Chairman of NIFT TEA and KJ Sivagnanam, Head, NIFT TEA – Skill Development received an award certificate and Trophy.

In the third quarter Adidas’ net income from continuing operations increased 19 per cent. Revenues grew eight per cent on a currency-neutral basis and three per cent in euro terms. Gross margin increased by 1.4 percentage points to 51.8 per cent. Operating profit was up by 13 per cent in the quarter, resulting in an operating margin improvement of 1.3 percentage points to a level of 15.3 per cent.

Due to the strong financial performance in the first nine months of 2018, Adidas has increased its profitability outlook for the year and specified the targeted range for its top-line growth. The company now projects currency-neutral revenues in 2018 to grow between eight per cent and nine per cent at the lower end of the communicated range due to lower-than-initially-expected growth in western Europe.

At the same time, Adidas now forecasts net income from continuing operations to increase between 16 per cent and 20 per cent compared to the prior-year level. The company’s gross margin is now projected to increase up to 1.0 percentage points to a level of up to 51.4 per cent. This, together with the projected top-line growth, is expected to drive an increase in operating profit of between 12 per cent and 16 per cent.

Unifi plans to recycle 20 billion bottles by 2020 and 30 billion bottles by 2022. The company, through Repreve, one of its proprietary technologies, has transformed more than 10 billion plastic bottles into recycled fiber for new apparel, footwear, home goods and other consumer products. Repreve is a brand of recycled fiber and pelletised resin, made with up to 100 per cent recycled materials including pre-consumer and post-consumer waste. Unifi works with brands such as Ford, Patagonia, Dockers, Haggar, New Balance and Quiksilver, from surfwear to outdoor gear to car interiors.

The bottles are sent to Unifi’s Repreve Bottle Processing Center in Reidsville, N.C. The center processes more than 2.2 billion PET bottles each year that eventually become recycled performance fiber. The front-end separation equipment comes from Bulk Handling Systems (BHS), Eugene, Ore; and nine optical units with in-flight sorting technology are from National Recovery Technologies, Nashville, Tenn., a wholly owned subsidiary of BHS. Optical separation units remove non-PET plastics from the raw-material stream and can process 22,000 lb/hr.

Off-White is officially the hottest brand on the planet in the third quarter of this year as per the Lyst Index, a quarterly ranking of fashion’s hottest brands and products. Over the last year the cult streetwear label has risen 33 places, surpassing Gucci and Balenciaga at the top of the table for the first time.

Gucci is in second place and Balenciaga third. Nike has moved five places up the index to grab the fourth spot. Also, four out of the 20 hottest products this quarter are Nike. Total search traffic to Nike related pages has grown 13 per cent quarter on quarter.

Prada is fifth and Versace is sixth. The seventh spot is taken by Yeezy. This is a brand founded by Kanye West. His personal profile helps to peak and sustain the hype around the brand. The brand generates major buzz online when a new product or collection drops.

Global fashion search platform Lyst analyses the online shopping behavior of more than five million shoppers a month searching, browsing and buying fashion across 12,000 designers and stores online. The formula behind the index takes into account global Lyst and Google search data, conversion rates and sales, as well as brand and product social media mentions and engagement statistics worldwide over a three-month period.

Much of the world’s T-shirts come from China. China has one of the world's largest textile industries, with 20 million workers relying on cotton imports from countries like Brazil, India and the US as they create products like T-shirts.

The US is the biggest source of Chinese cotton imports, representing 35 per cent of all incoming cotton. It is followed by Brazil and India with Australia, Uzbekistan and Mexico among other major exporters.

China produces 5.16 billion units of T-shirts a year – representing half of all global output. After being imported to China as cotton, the production process is completed and billions of these T-shirts hit the high seas once again, exported to all four corners of the world. The T-shirts are then sold off as high-end consumer products or cheaper goods in markets across every continent.

However, production of T-shirts is gradually shifting to other countries in Asia. While the economically mature markets of the US, Canada, and Western Europe are close to their saturation point in terms of T-shirt consumption, emerging economies, such as China, India, Russia, and Brazil, are far from saturated. They share a few similar characteristics, including a rising population, an improved economic situation, rising disposable incomes, and urbanization.

US apparel and footwear sales are expected to grow between six per cent and seven per cent this year and between four per cent and five per cent in 2019. Operating profit growth is expected to be in the range of eight to nine per cent this year.

Nike, PVH and VF are examples of large US companies that are active in the apparel and footwear sector that is seeing concurrent growth after a rocky two years. Nike’s progress with direct-to-consumer revenues and international expansion are seen as strong evidence that the company will shortly be posting solid profit growth. PVH is noted for its product offering and marketing. VF is expected to see continued growth in its Vans and The North Face brands as well as in its work wear business.

The positive outlook for the US apparel and footwear industry reflects faster-than-anticipated revenue and profit growth. Nearly all rated companies are expected to show some form of profit growth next year as they realize benefits from cost-saving initiatives, acquisition synergies, new product introductions and targeted marketing as well as improved macroeconomic conditions.

Many brands are focusing on direct-to-consumer sales channels as a driver of growth. This allows companies to more closely control brand messaging and the overall shopping experience.

"As re-commerce, when particularly executed by partners, unleases a low-risk, high-reward market for goods, and offers a straightforward path into a more circular business model, clothing brands are increasingly turning to re-commerce partners to tap into secondary markets. As thredUp's 2018 Resale Report indicates, the secondary retail apparel market in India, currently valued at $20 billion, is projected to grow by 15 per cent annually over the next five years. The country offers tremendous opportunities in secondhand clothing sales, with branding making a margin on selling the same garment multiple times while maintaining its quality control."

As re-commerce, when particularly executed by partners, unleases a low-risk, high-reward market for goods, and offers a straightforward path into a more circular business model, clothing brands are increasingly turning to re-commerce partners to tap into secondary markets. As thredUp's 2018 Resale Report indicates, the secondary retail apparel market in India, currently valued at $20 billion, is projected to grow by 15 per cent annually over the next five years. The country offers tremendous opportunities in secondhand clothing sales, with branding making a margin on selling the same garment multiple times while maintaining its quality control.

Four companies are catalysing the secondary apparel retail markets in India…

ThredUp

The company offers customers the opportunity to either receive cash or store credit in exchange for their clothes. Its new program UPcycle offers an additional 15 per cent in value if sellers select payment in the form of a partner brand's gift card. If a brand agrees to drive traffic to its online thrift store and pay the 15 per cent bonus to sellers, it can drive sales to returning customers without even touching the used clothing. ThredUP manages apparel intake, pricing, marketing, selling and shipping. The program has been initiated with only one brand partner; the sustainable apparel company Reformation. But ThredUP will announce its second partner soon. The company plans to form 10 new partnerships next year.

Yerdle Recommerce

This company offers a white label service to its apparel retailers — including Eileen Fisher, Patagonia and REI — which enables brands to develop an online re-commerce marketplace under their own names, without investing in a new website and warehouse or straying from their core competencies. These brands encourage customers to return used goods in exchange for store credit. These goods are then repaired and refurbished by Yerdle enabling apparel companies to sell them again under their own brands in their own online stores, complete with warranties, customer service and return policies.

The Renewal Workshop

This is a fully outsourced re-commerce service which manages the reverse logistics, repair, cleaning, quality assurance and resale of used clothing to companies such as the North Face, prAna and Icebreaker. To avail this service, apparel brands pay a processing fee at a rate comparable to apparel waste management and can sell "renewed" clothing in their stores or on the Renewal Workshop's website under a revenue-sharing agreement.

The RealReal

An online consignment store that targets the luxury resale market, this was set up in a founding partnership with Stella McCartney. Aiming to be the first $1 billion circular-economy company, this store offers its sellers that consign pieces from it a $100 Stella McCartney gift card. Similar to thredUP's approach, a financial incentive drives sales back to the company, while also giving apparel a second life.

RealReal recently launched an online "sustainability calculator" to quantify its impact. An initial calculation found that the 2.5 million women's clothing items consigned to the RealReal since 2012 have offset the equivalent of 65 million car miles worth of greenhouse gases and energy.

So far, only a handful of companies are embracing re-commerce. Many fear that by making refurbished versions of their products available, they'll curb sales of new ones. Whether brands will embrace re-commerce at scale, or if this trend quickly goes out of style, only time will tell.