Textiles, Apparel and Footwear

The textile, apparel and footwear marketplace:
How fashion is evolving

The global economic landscape is evolving, and with it also consumer preferences and technologies. 

Key market drivers for stakeholders of the textile, apparel and footwear industries are: 

• Global market access: staying on top of constantly changing regulations and requirements is not easy while you try to shorten your products’ time to market. Thinking of safety and quality early in the supply chain to anticipate risks can be fundamental. 
• Sustainability: the textile, apparel and footwear industry is blamed for being a major polluter in the world. In the last year sustainability has become a key pillar in fashion and luxury industry business strategy. Being more sustainable is not only linked to environmental stewardship but also to social responsibility of the global value chain.  
• Supply chain disruption: recently, brands and retailers understood how it is important to evaluate new emerging markets for sourcing, including India, Bangladesh, Turkey and many countries in Africa. Supply chain management can be difficult while you expand to new geographies. 
• Omnichannel: consumers are expecting you reach them in every moment and everywhere they are, both online and offline. This is bringing to a transformation of how companies are doing business and a poor supply chain visibility doesn’t help  

These market drivers can also be great opportunities if you, as a retailer, brand or manufacturer can establish a comprehensive strategy and holistic approach bundling compliance, quality and sustainability throughout your supply chain. UL Solutions can help you. 

Simplify global market access with UL Solutions testing

Reduce product defects while managing your global supply chain with UL Solutions  

Third party inspections are a key part of a global Quality Assurance (QA) program to help verify that your product meets specifications prior to release and shipment.

Thanks to UL Solutions’ global footprint, product expertise and data management dashboard, you can benefit from customized inspection programs to minimize the risk of shipping substandard products and optimize your global supply chain.

Benefits of building an inspections program with UL Solutions are:

• Improve your time-to-market 
• Demonstrate quality and accuracy of your softline products 
• Prevent defective products from reaching your customers  
• Avoid loss of products and revenues, delayed shipment or wasted materials and product recalls in your destination markets 

To gain greater visibility and control for your testing, inspections and audits, we can offer our software solutions PATH® SmartSuite. This suite of tools and resources will help you navigate through supply chain complexities, providing access to project order management, business intelligence, corrective actions, information management and product regulations.