• It’s time to tax fast fashion

    As Kenneth Pucker reports in the Harvard Business Review, “Like all industries, fashion is nested in a broader system. It is a system premised on growth. The urge to sell more and get consumers to buy more is still in the DNA of the industry.”

    The fashion industry is rapacious. Production has doubled over the past 15 years and will double again by 2030 while the amount of time clothing is worn has dropped 40%.  Every year, fashion uses vast amounts of earthly resources, makes between 100-150 billion garments, incinerates or landfills 87% and creates 92 millions of tons of waste.

    https://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_145439.shtml

     

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  • Is the Fashion Industry in a ‘Sustainability Retreat’ Or Not?

    Whether the fashion industry is or isn’t in a so-called “sustainability retreat,” as Tufts University professor Ken Pucker first described a year ago, has been a bone of contention. What some have characterized as a much-needed reset to adapt to turbulent economic and geopolitical realities is being interpreted by others as a feckless rollback of once-vaunted, if perhaps overly confident, greenhouse gas ambitions.

    https://sourcingjournal.com/sustainability/sustainability-news/fashion-industry-sustainability-retreat-climate-commitments-1234783318/

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  • ‘2 dolls instead of 30’: Will tariffs curb America’s passion for cheap goods?

    Even with high tariffs, says Ken Pucker, former chief operating officer of Timberland, an American footwear and apparel company, the economics of apparel making “continue to be overwhelmingly in favor of low-wage countries.” The U.S. lacks the skilled workforce, supplier network, and machinery to mass produce garments after decades of offshoring, he says.

    https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2025/0821/trump-tariffs-imports-consumer-culture?icid=rss

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  • The Fall of Forever 21 Means Fast Fashion Got Faster

    “Unfortunately, I think it’s pretty compelling to buy a $7 pair of jeans if you’re not rich,” Ken Pucker, professor of practice at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the former chief operating officer of Timberland, told me last year. “To a consumer, there’s no real functional benefit of sustainable fashion. Just perhaps a psychic benefit that they’re helping the planet.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/opinion/forever-21-bankrupt-fast-fashion.html

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  • The Emperor’s New Clothes

    In this interview we take a look at the fashion industry from Pucker’s unique perspective and history as a fashion executive, university professor, writer, business advisor and counselor on fashion legislation. We examine the fashion industry’s system structure, reporting, and regulations. Today, like the fairy tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, we are in many ways being fooled about our own clothing. We are told what to believe, and we believe what we think everyone else believes. But, just like the child in the fairy tale, it’s the voices that soar above the accepting crowd that tell us the truth we need to hear.

     

     

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  • Misguided Regulation Is Putting the Sustainable Fashion Movement at Risk

    A backlash against complex and costly new rules is threatening Europe’s pioneering efforts to make the industry operate more responsibly. Failure to address valid criticisms risks undermining the whole endeavour, argues Kenneth P. Pucker.

    https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/sustainability/europe-regulation-simplification-fashion-sustainability-threat-omnibus/

     

     

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  • Fast Fashion: Shop or Stop?

    Fast fashion has taken over the fashion industry, but is less expensive, trendy clothing really worth the purchase? Those who say to “stop” argue fast fashion harms the environment in many ways and exploits workers in countries with lax regulations. Those who say “keep shopping” argue it’s up to shoppers to choose, as fast fashion offers affordable options, supports jobs, and boosts local economies. Now we debate: Fast Fashion: Shop or Stop?
    Arguing Stop: Kenneth Pucker, Former COO of Timberland; Professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University
    Arguing Shop: Katherine Mangu-Ward, Editor-in-Chief at Reason
    Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-to-debate/id216713308?i=1000678619812

     

     

     

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  • Sustainability plummets as priority in 2025 for fashion brands

    Climate issues are near the bottom of the list of apparel execs’ concerns for the year ahead, according to McKinsey’s 2025 State of Fashion report. Here’s how sustainability teams can push ahead.

    https://trellis.net/article/sustainability-plummets-as-priority-in-2025-for-fashion-brands/?mkt_tok=MjExLU5KWS0xNjUAAAGXAmGp0G2GPbEnU0HyUwfGxh-bgvsnqPEt_exhawr2gKtx1wVMls7RfKdbQOmsW4KsbmMzeQyyVzKOC-uu5UtKGNYecmf3Lgod6v2Ne7UIrA

     

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  • Unsustainable Fashion Is Pricing Out the Conscious Consumer

    Brands that make products with little concern for environmental and social impact are benefitting from a ‘brown discount,’ undercutting industry efforts to operate more responsibly

    https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/sustainability/fashion-brown-discount-green-premium-shein/?utm_source=newsletter_dailydigest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily_Digest_051124&utm_term=K2KYSC5OSVDMDPYV5ZCG5C3B4U&utm_content=top_story_2_title

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