Agility, Innovation Key to Making Multichannel Work

The borders of the retail landscape are blurring more than ever. Moving from a company’s brick-and-mortar store to its online marketplace to its Instagram page, today’s consumers expect a seamless, unshackled experience that allows them to browse, buy, and receive their goods not just whenever but wherever, as well. Slowly but surely, the world of…

Nike Calls Flyleather its ‘Most Sustainable Leather Material’ Yet

When Nike introduced its Flyknit technology in 2012, the sportswear giant literally broke the mold of sneaker construction. By using a weaving technique that results in a virtually seamless one-piece upper, Nike is able to create a shoe that has the featherweight pliability of a sock yet the support and durability of a trainer. Flyknit…

No Sweat: Small Doses of Exercise May Ward Off Depression

Anyone who has experienced the euphoric “runner’s high” that follows a satisfying workout will likely attest to a connection between physical activity and mental health. Studies have long borne this theory out: Endorphins, the opiate-like chemicals that flood the brain after intense or sustained exercise, appear to act as a buffer against depressive thoughts and…

NRF: E-commerce and Stores Aren’t Mutually Exclusive

Don’t sound the death knell for brick and mortar just yet; only a fifth of U.S. consumers are primarily online shoppers, according to the inaugural issue of Consumer View, the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) new quarterly report designed to measure consumer behavior and shopping trends in a shifting retail landscape. Further, if malls and shopping…

Meet the Time Lords: The Many Faces of Doctor Who

When the BBC announced that Jodie Whittaker would be the first female Doctor Who, fans of the long-running science-fiction series were quick to query: “What will she wear?” It wasn’t a jab at her sex; far from it. Clothes have always maketh the man, especially when that “man” is an enigmatic Time Lord with the…

Hugo Boss, Adidas, Gildan Top the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index

When it comes to sustainability in fashion, Adidas, Burberry, Gildan Activewear, Hugo Boss, and Kering come out tops, according to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World), an annual review that ranks the 2,500 largest companies in Standard & Poor’s Global Broad Market Index based on their economic, environmental, and social practices. As the…

Amazon Boosts Whole Foods. Could Another Acquisition Be Next?

Amazon’s world-domination tour continues apace. The e-commerce giant gobbled up Whole Foods last month for $13.7 billion, boosting customer traffic by 25 percent after dangling the carrot of lower prices, according to data from Foursquare Labs. And the company’s invasion into the brick-and-mortar landscape may not be over yet. Roughly a dozen Amazon bookstores have…

Fast Fashion’s Surprising Origins

The Vogue editor didn’t hold back. Writing with palpable excitement, Isabella “Babs” Bouët-Willaumez proclaimed the high-low collaboration a “basic design of perfect proportion and line for which haute couture has always been famed.” The partition between haute couture and off-the-rack had been all but eviscerated. This was the democratization of fashion in action. “Now the…

Should Performance Outweigh PFC Concerns in Outerwear?

For today’s consumer, clothes are not merely clothes. They wick away sweat, coddle us from the cold, and navigate us through both calms and tempests. From athletic wear to bedding to even lingerie, “performance” is king, even when some of the measures are more aspirational than practical. All that tactical-grade reinforcement doesn’t come without a…

This Robotic ‘Eel’ Hunts Down the Source of Water Pollution

Lake Geneva’s latest resident—all four feet of it—is neither man nor beast. Dubbed the Envirobot, the critter is a biomimetic robot designed by Swiss researchers to pinpoint the source of pollution in tainted waters. Bereft of fins or propellers, Envirobot slithers through water like an eel, leaving mud and aquatic life undisturbed. Just as stealthily,…