A proposed “standardisation” of global apparel industry guidelines has gathered momentum during the final day of The Prime Source Forum in Hong Kong.
Leading apparel brands and manufacturers showed 100% support for the idea at a meeting last night (30 March), according to VF Asia’s managing director Thomas Nelson.
The proposal, revealed by just-style on Monday, involves setting consistent guidelines for auditing, sustainability and product safety right along the supply chain.
Nelson is driving the initiative, together with Lectra’s managing director for Greater China, Andy Kim.
“I am optimistic and glad we’ve had these talks that carried forward from last year’s event,” Kim told just-style today.
“This is one of the oldest industries out there, and it’s time to introduce people to a new concept, and not necessarily build anything from scratch, but take best practice from adjacent industries.”
Nelson told delegates in Hong Kong today that any new organisation would not replace the existing REACH or WRAP systems, but rather bring them together.
Meanwhile, Don Wright, director of standards at Lexmark International, gave an insight into how the technology industry co-operates with items like USB and printer connections.
“It is all about what the market needs and not what one Government needs or what one company needs,” Wright said. “You’re a huge industry that could benefit from innovations for standardisation.”
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