Fast Fashion

From Tokyo, Japan and Auckland, New Zealand, this is Down to Business English, with your hosts Git Montreau and Samantha Vega.

Hello there, Samantha.

Hi, Skep!

Long time no speak. Good to be back with you. Yeah.

It has been quite a while.

Have you been well?

Very well, thanks. I've been enjoying summer here in New Zealand.

That's right. Your seasons are the opposite of mine. Have you managed to do anything? Any traveling?

Well made a trip to Auckland with my family back in December, and that was a lot of fun.

That sounds nice.

Yeah, but since getting back, it's pretty much work work. Nothing too much out of the ordinary.

Hmm, pretty much the same for me. I'd say the only real highlight I've had recently was a shopping trip to Uniqlo. I outfitted myself with a stylish blazer that I could wear when I'm teaching my business classes.

Oh, I love Uniqlo. Nice fashion. And for a reasonable price.

You really cannot beat their prices. Although every time I walk out of a Uni-Close store with new clothes, I'm always a little worried that I'm gonna run into hundreds of other people on the streets of Tokyo wearing the identical outfit.

Hmm, I suppose they have a fairly limited range of styles, but at least they change quickly.

Well, that is the fast fashion business model for you, and a very profitable model as well.

Yes, very profitable. And this is our topic for today, fast fashion.

Yes, today on Down to Business English, we are going to take a closer look at how fast fashion revolutionized the global apparel industry.

Excellent.

So let's do it. Let's get D2B down to business with fast fashion. What is it? Who are the big players in the industry? And what impact is fast fashion having on our lives?

So what is fast fashion anyway, Skip? That term gets thrown around a lot, but I think it means different things to different people. Is it like the term fast food?

That that's a good comparison. For me, when I use the term fast fashion, I'm referring to a segment of the apparel industry that focuses on perfecting their supply chain. so that they can get the latest fashions from the catwalk and into the stores as quickly and efficiently as possible.

So the emphasis is to keep manufacturing costs down and inventories low so clothes can be sold at inexpensive prices, but still be profitable.

That's right, said

And the big names in the industry are companies like Sarah, H and M, The Gap and Forever Twenty One.

And we cannot leave out fast retailing, the Japanese parent company of my beloved Uniqlo.

Ah, of course not. We can't leave out Uniqlo.

But you mentioned Zara. They are widely recognized as the founders of fast fashion.

Oh, not H M.

H and M were pioneers as well, but it was Amancio Ortega, who, together with his wife, well, I guess now ex wife, Rosalia Mera, Who revolutionized the fashion industry when they founded Zera in northern Spain in the nineteen seventies?

And what is the story behind that revolution?

In those days, traditional retail fashion companies followed a seasonal sales model. Their entire production schedule revolved around a very clear cut spring, summer, fall, and winter lineup of clothes. And if you think about it, this seasonal model required them to tie up capital for quite a long period of time. Not to mention, there was a certain risk of not selling everything by the end of a season.

Thus the much loved seasonal discount sale. A patient customer can wait till the end of the season to get a fifty, sixty, even a seventy percent discount on clothes.

Well Zera, starting out as a small family run company, could not afford to tie up their capital for such long periods of time. Nor could they risk not selling all of their products. So rather than focusing on seasonal fashion, they sped up the entire cycle.

They moved away from seasonal production?

Yes, they would design a lineup of clothes, produce a limited edition, get them into the store, and then start the whole process over again. All in the matter of a few weeks.

This meant that their designs were always changing, which encouraged shoppers to visit their stores more often.

And not only that, because their clothes were less expensive than high end brands, shoppers could afford to buy more clothes.

So, Zara introduced an entirely new business model for the fashion industry.

They get a lot of the credit, but it wasn't only Zera. The fast fashion industry evolved simultaneously across Europe in the seventies and eighties. Other companies like HM were moving in this direction at that time as well.

As this fast fashion model spread, I imagine it influenced the traditional brand names as well.

Absolutely yes. In order to compete with Zera and HM's prices, most other retailers had to adopt the same model. And the fashion industry has been speeding up ever since.

Just how big is this industry?

It is huge. Since 2011, the global apparel industry has had a growth rate of four point seven eight percent, and its estimated market value last year in 2017 was get this. One point four trillion dollars.

Wow. Bye.

But keep in mind that those figures pertain to the entire apparel industry, which also includes luxury brands and footwear. Fast fashion is a big part of it.

Four point seven eight percent growth rate? That is double the average global GDP.

I know. Another interesting tidbit is that Amancio Ortega, the co founder of Zera, is currently the third richest man in the world. His estimated worth is somewhere around eighty five billion dollars.

That is quite shocking if you stop and think about it. How can an industry be that profitable when they are selling such inexpensive clothing? The profit margins must be razor thin.

The key is to continually be cutting costs. And the biggest cost is always manpower or labor.

This is why we have seen such a dramatic shift from the West to developing countries in the textile and garment industry.

Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, and Vietnam are all big centers for production.

This leads us to the less glamorous or the dark side of fast fashion. It is no secret that working conditions in some of these developing countries are subpar, in some cases, even criminal.

No, there is no denying it. In a constant quest to reduce overhead, all of the big names in fast fashion rely on cheap labor from these areas of the world. Now, Samantha, you did a little digging into this. What can you tell us about the dark side of fast fashion?

Well, what I discovered was not pretty. Oxfam, the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, published a report earlier this year that highlighted the growing discrepancy between the rich and poor. To illustrate this gap, they found that a CEO of a fashion company can earn in four days what it takes a garment worker to make in their entire lifetime.

That is downright ugly.

A typical garment worker in Bangladesh makes about nine hundred dollars a year, and that is working twelve hour days, six, maybe even seven days a week. Yeah. It's quite sickening, isn't it? Compare that to the eight hundred and nine million dollars HM chairman, Stefan Person, made in share dividends in twenty seventeen.

How do these fast fashion companies get away with that? Reaping such large amounts of wealth while their workers are paid penal.

No, that's just it. All of their production is outsourced. They don't actually own these factories, so they don't have to take responsibility. To make matters worse, the factories are always being pressured to cut corners, which pushes wages even lower. And leads to unsafe workplaces.

Workplace safety, yes. That issue got some international attention in twenty thirteen when Ranza Plaza Factory in Dakah, Bangladesh collapsed, killing over eleven hundred people.

That was a horrific accident. However, a silver lining was that as a result of the public attention, some changes were made. For example, H and M launched their living wage initiative that same year. The goal was to increase the wages of their garment workers in Bangladesh and Cambodia to a living wage by twenty eighteen.

Okay, well here we are in twenty eighteen. Have they achieved that goal?

It's hard to say. They have been criticized for not sharing their records, so it is difficult to independently check their claims. However, their workers' wages have increased to$87 per month in Bangladesh, which is higher than other factories on average, but still well below what is considered a living wage.

And wage inequality is just one downside of fast fashion. There is also the environmental impact that needs to be considered.

I suppose so. With the focus being on fast production and low prices, the result is lower quality clothing. Lower quality means shorter lifespan and more weight.

It's estimated that two million tons of clothes are thrown away every year, and the manufacturing process uses something like seventy million tons of water. and produces two million tons of carbon every year. Yes indeed. I don't know about you, Samantha, but it is going to be a little hard for me to ignore all of this information the next time I'm browsing the racks at UniClo.

I know what you mean. It is easy for us to point the finger at companies like UNICLO, Zera, and H and M for their less than admirable business practices. But when it comes right down to it, they are just meeting consumer demand. Society as a whole needs to take a bit of the responsibility for creating the inequalities in the industry in the first place.

Unfortunately, I think that is easier said than done.

You know what they say? Big changes start with small steps.

Really? Who says that?

A man that knows a little bit about inequality himself. Nelson Mandela said that.

Nelson Mandela didn't say that. He said it always seems impossible until it's done.

Pretty much the same sentiment.

Down to business English audio scripts are a great learning tool. Be sure to visit the D2B website and download your free audio script of today's podcast. Down to businessenglish.com. That's www.down to businessenglish dot com.

First on our list today is the phrasal verb to revolve around. The direct meaning of revolve around communicates a subject moving around an object in a circular motion.

As in the moon revolves around the earth, or the Yamanote line revolves around central Tokyo.

Those are good examples, but I'm afraid listeners who have never visited Tokyo probably will not get the last reference.

Sorry. For those of you who don't know, the Yamano line is a train that travels in a circle around central Tokyo. A very convenient way to get around, but very crowded.

Okay, that helps. Now, idiomatically, to revolve around something means to center your attention or focus on one thing.

In the story.

Gip told us that the fashion industry traditionally revolved around a seasonal sales pattern.

In other words, the fashion cycle from design to production to distribution all focused on one season at a time. Samantha, can you give us a business example?

Sure. Take the fast food chain McDonald. Even though their menu revolves around greasy hamburgers and French fries, they have introduced healthier items in recent years. I actually ordered a pretty good salad the last time I ate at McDonald's.

Nice example. Here's another one. I used to work for a small company here in Tokyo whose entire business revolved around one single client.

That sounds dangerous.

It was. When that particular client decided to cut their language training budget, it had a very negative impact on my employer at that time.

No doubt, small companies should not depend too much on one large client for their sales. What's our next word?

Next up is the noun tidbit. A tidbit is basically a small piece of interesting information. It is a great word to use when you want to indicate that what you are saying is not the main point, but rather a side point.

In the story, Skip shared the tidbit that the founder of Zera, Amancio Ortega, is the third richest man in the world.

Did you hear that here in Japan, Tadashi Sasaki recently passed away? He was a former vice president of Sharp Electronics, and he is widely seen as the man who made Sharp a global company. He retired many, many years ago and lived to the ripe old age of a hundred and two.

Sorry, I honestly have never heard of him.

Well, he isn't that famous outside of the business world. But one interesting tidbit about him is that he was Masayoshi's son's mentor.

Masayoshi san, one of Japan's most famous entrepreneurs, the CEO of software.

Bank? That's right. If it wasn't for Sasaki's encouragement and backing, Sun would have never found enough investors to establish SoftBank.

Really? I didn't know about that connection between SoftBank and Sharp?

It's interesting, isn't it? What's our next word?

Let's talk about the adjective sub-par. When you say that something is subpar, you are saying that it is low quality. In the story, I commented that the working conditions in countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia are subpar.

In other words, the labor standards and practices are below the standards found in other countries.

Well below.

A related phrase of subpar is the expression to be on par with someone or something. This means that the two things are equal. For example, I am not a wine connoisseur, but it is my understanding that some of New Zealand's wines are on par with wine that comes out of California.

Oh, that is very true. The New Zealand wine industry has really come a long way in the last few decades. I've had quite a few nice wines in my time here.

Sounds like a good topic for a future down to business English episode.

Nice idea. Let me look into that.

Moving on, let's take a look at the compound adjective to be razor thin. This simply describes something that is very, very thin. In the story, Samantha speculated. In other words, the amount of profit per item is very, very, very small.

In business, you often hear the collocation razor thin profit margin.

Many of my students here in Tokyo are salespeople in B companies. They supply semiconductors or raw material to manufacturers. They are always telling me how razor-thin profit margins are and how much pressure they are under from customers. to reduce the price even further.

Do you know what else was Razor Thin?

No, what?

The men's speed skating 5,000 meter final at the Pyongchang Winter Olympics this year. The Canadian skater beat the Norwegian skater by.002 of a second.

Oh, that's right. is definitely what you would call a razor thin victory.

Did you watch it?

Unfortunately no. But I did see a photo of the two skaters at the finish line. Very dramatic. Do you have our next word?

I do. Next is the noun quest. A quest is a journey, usually a long journey, for something important. In today's report, Skip used it idiomatically when he said the big names in fast fashion are in a constant quest to lower costs. In other words, they never stop looking for ways to reduce the price of making their product. Can you give us a business example of using Quest Skip? Sure.

We have been following the journey of Bitcoin here on D2B.

Is that still a thing, Bitcoin?

Well, it certainly has cooled off in recent weeks, but it is still on a quest to become widely accepted and trusted as a currency. I wouldn't give up on it just yet.

The problem with Bitcoin right now is that the people buying it are just on a quest to make a lot of money. They're not really using it.

I think there's a little more to it, but that is part of the problem as well.

So you think Bitcoin will eventually be widely accepted?

Hmm, it's hard to say.

Why is that?

Well, I don't want to go off on a tangent about Bitcoin. I just wanted to segue to our final item today, which is the expression, it's hard to say.

Ah, I see. We will leave Bitcoin to another day.

Good idea. So, the saying it's hard to say. This is a common way to express that. You don't have enough information on a topic to give an answer or make a prediction. In the story, when I asked Samantha if HM has achieved their goal of raising the wages of factory workers in Cambodia and Bangladesh, she replied, It's hard to say. In other words, there isn't enough. data available to answer that question.

This is the very professional way to reply to someone when you don't know the answer to their question. Listen to this conversation between a customer and a salesperson in an electronic store. Good afternoon. Can I help you with anything?

Yes, please. I purchased this Bluetooth speaker from you yesterday, and when I got home and tried to use it, nothing happens. What's wrong with it?

I'm afraid it's hard to say without sending it to a repair center for a service person to look at. Sometimes they fix things in a day or two, sometimes it takes over a week.

Can't you just replace this one with a new one?

I'm afraid not. That is against our store policy.

Nice example, Samantha. Very realistic.

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Speaking with you about the fast fashion industry today, Samantha.

You too skip. I always pick up a tidbit or two during our shows.

As do I.

As I've said before, the next time I go on a shopping quest, I'm going to think twice about how the purchase I'm making is impacting society.

That just goes to show you that most things in this world, living standards, the environment, social justice, They all revolve around business, don't you think?

That's a little hard to say.

Well maybe that's a bit of an overstatement. Anyhow, listeners. If you enjoyed today's episode of Down to Business English, And are finding our program useful in your English self-studies, please support the show by becoming a D2B member. D2B members have unlimited access to our complete audio script library.

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