Liz Long Brings Us Near Shore
Article for Fabric’s “Behind The Seams”, a sustainable fashion production in which guest speakers discuss our retail world with owner Angela Johnson:
FABRIC is democratizing fashion. Taking it out of the hands of large corporations and making it possible for small brands to succeed and domestic manufacturing to occur, promoting a long-term sustainable model.
The featured speaker for FABRIC's May Behind The Seams event was Liz Long from Nearshore, a global manufacturing specialist. Nearshore has launched multiple lines that have been associated with different brands. It acts as a sourcing platform where brands look for contract manufacturers (or factory partners). Nearshore specializes in the Western Hemisphere and, even though its original goal wasn’t Latin America; It ended up shifting its focus there.
“It felt [a] little like China 10 years ago…right? Where factories just weren’t online as much, the ones who were really great were dealing with like Disney and Adidas and big companies, but they weren’t opening up themselves to grow through working with smaller, less established brands, which is the way you kind of bring out those ecosystems” Long said.
Long explains the shift in her company’s goals.
“We really knit together the Americas, that’s kind of like the vision in my mind.”
They knit supply chains together to give you access to every supplier possible.
Angela Johnson, Owner of FABRIC, asks:
“How and why did you create this?”
“We were one of the only producers who were google-able in the US” Long says. She adds on that the old model for manufacturing just wasn’t working anymore.
They’ve moved from producing into a consultative role. They’ve put 100 brands through this model successfully.
“Are there any factories in your network that are in the US? Does it have to be just nearshore or offshore. Are there some that are domestic and of those, are there lower minimums so that somebody who is just getting started, you know, doesn’t have to make so many...so they’ll do smaller batches for them?” Johnson said.
“Half of the suppliers are U.S suppliers and a ton are low minimum suppliers. Low and no minimum factories are present.” Long replied.
Low minimum suppliers allow small brands to flourish and diminish the power mass production companies hold.
“Those that will be working with people that are over the border, what are some of the ways to sort of avoid the tariffs or lessen them? Because we all know so much of that is really why people are looking for onshore factories, but if you grow, it makes more sense to make someplace else. It’s something you have to figure out how to navigate.” Long added.
“Latin America was not hit as hard as other countries with the tariffs. There are free trade zones on the sites, where you locate sewing factories, which means you don’t have the tariff burden and have minimum material importation tariffs.”
“What is some sort of [like] tangible benefits of nearshoring?” Johnson asked.
Long names one advantage “Coming from China, it could take 8-12 weeks on a boat”. She dives into another.
“The second is a bit more of a focus on sustainability, ethical practices, and factories tend to be more prevalent in these problems, it’s also a highlight on natural fibers.”
Long touches on the time zone advantage and also addresses the issues with the mystery that surrounds manufacturing with foreign factories.
“Yes, I have met a lot of people who came to FABRIC because they are frustrated working with some factories in other countries that won’t share their own IP with them and now, they are starting from scratch.” Johnson says.
