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Fashion’s worries in the age of the coronavirus may be vast, but the ethics surrounding footwear and apparel sourcing have become a clear cause for consternation in recent months.
At Fashiondex’s Fashion and Sustainability Summit on Thursday, industry experts gathered for a conversation about how the sector can ensure socially compliant practices across its supply chains. It turns out to be a taller order than one might think.
According to Avedis Seferian, president and CEO of factory certification program Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), “demystifying” the complicated systems that make up today’s footwear and apparel supply chains has become an increasingly difficult task.
“You have to understand that the primary mode of making stuff in the branded world has shifted away from the post-war years,” he said. Where brands used to produce their goods in facilities they owned and operated, “they’ve moved to a much more outsourcing-focused model today.”
Brands “don’t have the degree of visibility into those production facilities they used to have back then,” Seferian said, “but they are still responsible for making sure that the working conditions in those facilities are meeting the generally accepted standards that they want to see in their supply chains.”
These circumstances make it incredibly important that companies do their due diligence by engaging with third-party auditing bodies like WRAP, he argued. The organization analyzes factories based on 12 principles, including the prohibition of forced labor, child labor, abuse and harassment, compliance with local laws regarding workplace regulations,...