I used to think apparel was mostly about design and branding, but the more I look into how products actually get made, the more it feels like a logistics and operations challenge.
Even small clothing runs involve coordinating factories, sourcing materials, sampling, quality checks, timelines, shipping, etc. It’s kind of wild how many moving parts exist behind something as simple as a finished garment.
Recently I was reading about platforms like Greige, which seem to act as a layer between brands and manufacturers by coordinating production and delivery. It made me realize how fragmented apparel manufacturing still is compared to a lot of other industries.
For people here who work closer to manufacturing/operations:
- Is apparel production unusually fragmented compared to other industries?
- What are the biggest bottlenecks when scaling small-batch manufacturing?
- Has the industry become more efficient over the years, or just more outsourced?
Interesting to see how much industrial coordination sits behind products most people think of as purely “fashion.”