Today, we unveiled three developments tied to the CFDA’s support of domestic fashion manufacturing in celebration of Manufacturing Day: third-round recipients of A Common Thread, the Workforce Relief Collective, and a guide to the CFDA’s Production Directory (click here to read more).
The developments add to the longstanding programming accomplished through our Fashion Manufacturing Initiative alongside the NYCEDC, Andrew Rosen, Ralph Lauren and other supporters.
To celebrate Manufacturing Day, we sat down (virtually) with Cal McNeil, who leads CFDA’s supply chain and manufacturing programming for the organization alongside Emilyn Edillon, to gain more insights into CFDA’s supply chain work and why it is so important to support the manufacturing sector.
What is Manufacturing Day?
Manufacturing Day is a nationally recognized day that falls on the first Friday of October each year and was created to highlight U.S. manufacturing businesses across all sectors and the significant workforce. Many companies and organizations use Manufacturing Day to also promote career paths within manufacturing and educate consumers on manufacturing processes and technology.
Why does the CFDA celebrate Manufacturing Day?
The CFDA has been formally supporting the manufacturing community for seven years through our Fashion Manufacturing Initiative alongside our strong partners such as the NYCEDC, Andrew Rosen, Ralph Lauren, American Apparel & Footwear Association, and many others.
So, for the CFDA, Manufacturing Day is an incredible touch point to highlight all of our programs, as well as extend the message to our audience across the industry and beyond that domestic fashion manufacturers need all of our support, especially this year with the pandemic.
What are the most recent ways the CFDA supports domestic fashion manufacturers?
We expanded our Fashion Manufacturing Initiative in 2019 which introduced programs like the Local Production Fund to encourage designers to increase their level of local production, began strategizing ways to preserve the existing workforce and pave ways for a new generation of workers. We also pivoted overnight this year to create COVID relief programs overnight including A Common Thread and our new Workforce Relief Collective. We also have invested time over the last few years exploring other U.S. manufacturing centers including Los Angeles and Detroit to help designers finds more of their desired production and retail price points while creating new business connections for manufacturers across the country.
How does the CFDA’s supply chain and manufacturing programming tie to the organization’s mission of strengthening a designer’s businesses in the global economy?
I have always found that offering support to the ecosystem around the designer is just as important to the direct support of the designer. Giving access, resources and connections between designers and a highly strengthened ecosystem around them like the supply chain will greatly benefit the designer at the center of it all.
For our programming, it is all about the designers and giving them tangible resources that can create a chain reaction for the suppliers around the brand. We invest in manufacturing technology to provide more local innovation, train workforce to give communities more industries more economic impact, operate directories to help build new mutually beneficial relationships, create educational opportunities to share knowledge and save money, build avenues to open new doors and test partnerships without high risk and cost conditions, and much more. These resources allow for brands to advance to the next level of their business and access one of the most global networks they will work with through their careers.
What most recent challenges have you seen most impacted manufacturers?
This year has brought extraordinary new challenges and highlighted many existing cracks in the industry and the manufacturing sector is no exception.
COVID hitting the U.S. very quickly earlier this year during and just before a major retail delivery season led to the collapse of the industry cash flow, which ultimately hurt the suppliers the most being the ones who rely on cash from designers who rely on funds from retailers. There was also the inability of many manufacturers to quickly access resources or adapt operations to produce personal protective equipment (PPE), which was the only potential revenue during shutdown. Without prior government contracts for production orders of PPE, most manufacturers could not easily and quickly create these products.
Lastly, what is the future of domestic manufacturing and a designer’s supply chain look like to you?
Before the pandemic, there was already a shift in exploring more localized supply chains, so I believe that will continue. At a minimum, a more diversified supply chain that doesn’t rely on one supplier, one production facility, one country, will become more prevalent – the shutdown of Asia to Europe to North America taught fashion some important lessons to that end.
I believe that domestic production will increase which ties back to localizing supply chains, but we saw some of the largest apparel retailers exploring U.S. production, so I remain optimistic about that shift continuing so local manufacturers can produce orders closer to the end consumer, which also would be a win at many level sustainability-wise. I also am hopeful that more fiber, fabric and other material production will grow as domestic sources for materials have never been needed and requested by designers.
For all the aforementioned to successfully happen, there will need to be a much higher investment in the sector overall and more specifically in to advanced manufacturing processes and technologies so models such as on-demand manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing can more of a majority model than a rare occurrence.
