Daily LInks
1. Secondhand clothing on track to take 10% of global fashion sales. The U. secondhand market grew seven times faster than overall fashion retail where sales were flat in 2023 from a year earlier. – Read More on the Guardian
2. Is time running out for fast fashion? Restrictive new EU legislation now looks like a real risk for clothing companies that have been relying on a high-volume, low-price model. – Read More on the FT
3. RELATED READ: Keeping Up with the Laws of the Fashion, Beauty & Luxury Business in Europe. The European Commission’s goal for the textile sector is to create a greener, more competitive, and resilient fashion industry which respects social and environmental rules. – Read More on TFL
4. Chanel Flap Bag Now Costs More Than €10,000 in Paris. In a sign that some luxury brands are willing to keep pushing prices higher despite weakening demand, Chanel has lifted the price tag of its best-known bag to €10,300 in the French capital. That’s up about 6.2% from €9,700 earlier this year. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. Has the Luxury E-Commerce Bubble Burst? After the pandemic boom, many e-commerce platforms were overstocked and left with mountains of unsold inventory. They subsequently resorted to aggressive promotions and discounting. This pushed heavyweight brands to seek more control over their e-commerce and distribution. – Read More on the New York Times
6. Tod’s investor calls for L Catterton to raise buyout offer. Tod investor Tabor Asset Management has published an open letter calling for an increase in the price offered by L Catterton to buy 36% of the Italian luxury shoemaker, saying the price of 43 euros per share is unfair. – Read More on Reuters
1. This Startup Promised to Help Fashion Go Green. Brands Didn’t Want to Pay for It. Having misjudged how quickly the fashion industry would switch to more sustainable sourcing, Renewcell was left with a costly factory running far below capacity. – Read More on the WSJ
2. US, UK accuse China of cyberespionage that hit millions of people. American officials said that the hackers’ decade-plus spying spree compromised defense contractors, dissidents, and a variety of U.S. companies, including apparel firms. – Read More on Reuters
3. As March Madness unfolds, more brands look to get involved in NIL deals. NIL deals, which allow athletes to receive financial compensation for their name, image and likeness, have opened a new lower-cost opportunity for brands to be involved with big college sporting events like March Madness outside of traditional corporate sponsorships. – Read More on Modern Retail
4. RELATED READ: How Brands Can Navigate the NCAA Athlete Advertising Landscape. he NCAA’s adoption of an interim NIL policy is proving to be attractive to brands, including those outside of the sporting goods space. – Read More on TFL
5. Should SHEIN and Fast-Fashion Retailers Be Subject to Additional Fines? The bulk of fashion’s emissions occur during production, yet industry leaders resist changes to overproduction and design practices. – Read More on Retail Wire
6. US companies increasingly opt to reorganize in bankruptcy, not liquidate. Reorganization is becoming a more popular option for US companies seeking to address their financial challenges through bankruptcy. – Read More on S&P Global
1. China’s luxury tastes are changing. China’s $8 billion-plus second-hand luxury market is booming, and shopper preferences are shifting away from affordable, mass market luxury to less frequent but higher-end purchases. – Read More on the FT
2. The tech industry can’t agree on what open-source AI means. That’s a problem. The concept of open source was devised to ensure developers could use, study, modify, and share software without restrictions. But this doesn’t translate from software to AI neatly. – Read More on MIT Tech Review
3. Japan company beats ‘bad-faith’ trademark filer in Chinese court. For a Chinese court to revoke trademark rights on the grounds of unfair competition is “unprecedented,” said Ming Xingnan, a Chinese attorney who represented MTG in court. – Read More on Nikkei
4. Has Fashion Canceled Canceling? “None of these people” – or brands – “were ever actually canceled.” They were simply moved out of the spotlight and have since returned. – Read More on the New York Times
5. RELATED READ: A Year After Balenciaga Was Nearly Cancelled, a Look at the State of the Brand. Fast forward to March 2023, and signs of a comeback for Balenciaga and its creative director Demna – who managed to remain in his role amid the fallout, as did CEO Cédric Charbit – seemed to be quietly coming about. – Read More on TFL
6. Consumers sue Apple, taking page from US Justice Department lawsuit. At least three proposed class actions have been filed in CA and NJ federal courts by iPhone owners who claim Apple inflated the cost of its products through anticompetitive conduct. – Read More on Reuters
1. Nike’s Aging Sneaker Models Feel Heat From Upstarts. Company will reduce supply of classic shoes ahead of launches as it works to realign merchandise to better match what shoppers want to buy. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. UN adopts first global artificial intelligence resolution. The nonbinding resolution, proposed by the United States and co-sponsored by China and over 120 other nations, encourages countries to safeguard human rights, protect personal data, and monitor AI for risks. – Read More on Reuters
3. How AI Is Changing Retail. AI deployment is expected to grow nine-fold in the next two years, enhancing store analytics, loss prevention and asset protection to reduce costs and lead to higher profits. – Read More on Nasdaq
4. AI Will Transform Retail. Many retailers have used some form of AI for years in demand forecasting, supply-chain logistics, and online-shopping algorithms, but generative AI offers something new. – Read More on Barron’s
5. Tennessee becomes the first state to protect musicians and other artists against AI. The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act, or ELVIS Act, is an updated version of the state’s old right of publicity law. While the old law protected an artist’s name, photo or likeness, the new legislation includes AI-specific protections. – Read More on NPR
1. Apple accused of monopolizing smartphone markets in US antitrust lawsuit. The U.S. Department of Justice and 15 states on Thursday sued Apple as the government cracks down on Big Tech, alleging the iPhone maker monopolized the smartphone market, hurt smaller rivals and drove up prices. – Read More on Reuters
2. Who’s the Aspirational Luxury Consumer? Many Different People. The cohort has different tastes, financial resources, purchasing habits, inclination to become a true luxury consumer and different ages and backgrounds. – Read More on Yahoo
3. What France’s crackdown on Shein and Temu means for global ultra-fast fashion. “Hopefully, [it] helps become a model or move other regulatory bodies to consider these issues and consider what the role of regulation is in addressing the challenges we’re seeing in the industry.” – Read More on the BBC
4. Shein to Market Its Unique Supply-Chain Tech to Global Brands. Under the plan, Shein would make its supply-chain infrastructure and tech available to outside brands and designers to test out new fashion items in small batches and track how popular they are with consumers. – Read More on the WSJ
5. Should Amazon be afraid of Temu? More than a third of the U.S. e-commerce market flows through Amazon. Now Temu wants to undercut its U.S. rival, delivering impossibly cheap stuff to Americans straight from factories in China. – Hear More on the Economist
1. Location (Data) Is Everything for Retailers Opening Stores. Untuckit leaned heavily on cellphone and other data from technology company Placer.ai in choosing its store locations. – Read More on the WSJ
2. Nordstrom, Macy’s deals could put private ownership back in vogue for US retailers. In its new bid to take Nordstrom private, the Nordstrom founding family wants to keep control of the chain but doesn’t want the pressure of having to release quarterly performance as it’s trying to figure out its strategy. – Read More on Reuters
3. Google fined €250m in France for breaching intellectual property deal. France’s competition watchdog is fining the US tech company for breaches linked to IP rules related to news media publishers. The regulator also cited concerns about Google’s AI service. – Read More on the Guardian
4. How People Are Really Using GenAI. Six top-level themes give an immediate sense of what generative AI is being used for: Tech Assistance & Troubleshooting (23%), Content Creation & Editing (22%), Personal & Professional Support (17%), Learning & Education (15%), Creativity & Recreation (13%), Research, Analysis & Decision Making (10%). – Read More on HBR
5. CVC-Backed Perfume Retailer Douglas’s IPO Raises $967M. German perfume retailer Douglas AG priced its €890 million ($967 million) initial public offering at €26 a share, the bottom of a marketed range. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. RELATED READ: A Running Tracker of Fashion/Retail Industry Initial Public Offerings. Against the background of an evolving market, we have compiled a tracker that aims to provide a broad overview of recent retail and luxury-focused initial public offerings. – Read More on TFL
1. U.S. Lawmaker Demands LVMH’s Loro Piana Answer for ‘Exploitation’ in Peru. A US lawmaker wants Loro Piana to answer for what he sees as the “exploitation” of Indigenous workers providing raw materials for the Italian fashion house’s trademark luxury sweaters. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. RELATED READ: You can find the letter that U.S. Congressman Robert Garcia sent to Loro Piana – in which he requests a written response to questions in connection with the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement – right here.
3. Tesco loses appeal it infringed Lidl’s trademark with discount scheme logo. Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco lost an appeal against a ruling that it infringed German discount supermarket Lidl’s trademark over the use of a yellow circle on a square blue background. – Read More on Nasdaq
4. Big Tech says AI watermarks could curb misinformation, but they’re easy to sidestep. The technologies are only in their infancy and in a limited state of deployment but, already, watermarking has proven to be easy to bypass. – Read More on NBC
5. Gucci owner Kering issues rare luxury sector profit warning. “The bad news on Kering is company specific, but is also a good reminder that consumer confidence and discretionary spend in China is soft.” – Read More on the FT
6. Speaking of China … Demand for Rolex and Tag Heuer watches slump as demand in China falls. Sales in the U.S., Japan, Singapore, the UAE, and France remained on a positive course in February, but it was not enough to offset the sharp decline in demand for Rolex and other watches in mainland China and Hong Kong. – Read More on Yahoo Finance
1. Can the Fashion Industry Kick Its Plastic Addiction? Each year, the industry uses 342 million barrels of petroleum to produce plastic-based fibers such as polyester, nylon or acrylic. – Read More on Wired
2. Salesforce Survey: 36% of Retail Employees Already Using Generative AI. The survey, of 1,390 retail decision-makers from Canada, the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Australia, reported that 81% of respondents already have a dedicated AI budget, with an average of 50% assigned to generative AI. – Read More on Retail TouchPoints
3. Watered down in ‘horse trading,’ EU supply chain law approved by member states. Activist law group ClientEarth said the bill can potentially improve international business practices but the reduction in scope leaves much on the table. Only a third of the companies covered in the initial version will need to comply under the final version, the group said. – Read More on S&P Global
4. RELATED READ: A Snapshot of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. European Parliament announced that they reached “a provisional deal” on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which aims to “enhance the protection of the environment and human rights in the EU and globally.” – Read More on TFL
5. Retailers are cutting SKUs to improve margin. During boom times, the philosophy of many brands has been to offer people the luxury of choice. But as inflation has driven up the cost of manufacturing, having a broad assortment can be a bad thing. – Read More on Modern Retail
6. EU AI Act: Tech experts say the world’s first AI law is “historic” but “bittersweet.” There are “significant loopholes for public authorities” and “relatively weak regulation of the largest foundation models that pose the greatest harm.” – Read More on EuroNews
1. Fast fashion: the French are bringing Shein and Temu to heel. Can Britain follow suit? Escalating tariffs on every piece of throwaway clothing contrast with Jeremy Hunt’s eagerness to host a multibillion-pound Chinese IPO. – Read More in the Guardian
2. Prada’s vision for the future of fashion? AI helpers and metaverse handbags. Over the past two and a half years, Prada’s head of tech Christiano Agostini has worked to transform Prada’s systems, often in ways that aren’t visible to the customer but make a noticeable impact on their shopping experience. – Read More on Fast Co.
3. How can fashion’s net-zero future be paid for fairly? Big brands must pay their share of green investments to shrink the industry’s carbon footprint, Global South garment makers say. – Read More on Context
4. SXSW Tried to Silence Critics with Bogus Trademark and Copyright Claims. Amid heavy criticism for its ties to weapons manufacturers supplying Israel, South by Southwest—the organizer of an annual conference and music festival in Austin—has been on the defensive. – Read More on EFF
5. FTC conducting inquiry into Reddit’s AI data-licensing practices ahead of IPO. “On March 14, 2024, we received a letter from the FTC advising us that the FTC’s staff is conducting a non-public inquiry focused on our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models,” Reddit said. – Read More on CNBC
6. Fashion Accountability Report Slams Brands Such as Temu, Fashion Nova and Skims for Environmental Impacts. Remake, a U.S.-based nonprofit, has released its annual Fashion Accountability Report for 2024, with brands including Temu, Fashion Nova, Missguided and Skims scoring zero points out of a possible 150 for factors like transparency and environmental justice. – Read More on EcoWatch
1. The Vicuñas and the $9,000 Sweater. Despite thirty years of providing the world’s finest wool to the fashion house, LVMH-owned Loro Piana has done almost nothing for the Indigenous people of the Peruvian Andes. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. The Rise of Quiet Sustainability. While some brands and retailers have been working together to lower their environmental impact, high-profile cases accusing brands of greenwashing are on the rise and have resulted in industry–wide caution when sharing environmental efforts. – Read More on Yahoo
3. RELATED READ: The Risks of Green Marketing. A Snapshot of Greenwashing Litigation. While companies’ climate claims and other “green” marketing may have been met with relatively lax regulation in the past, that may not prove to be the case going forward in light of rising attention to and scrutiny of such ESG and climate-related marketing by a growing pool of investors, regulators, and lawmakers. – Read More on TFL
4. Snap Inc. Bid to Trademark ‘Spectacles’ Hinges on Smart Tech. Snap Inc.’s bid to trademark the word “spectacles” for its smart glasses faced a federal judge, who will decide whether the term is a generic word for computer hardware worn on the face. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. Danish Superligaen wins EU lawsuit forbidding Super League to register name as trademark. A possible future European Super League will not be able to register “Super League” as a trademark in the EU after a ruling in favor of the Danish Superligaen, a trademark jointly owned by Danish clubs, the league said. – Read More on Reuters
6. Aura Blockchain Consortium’s CEO on bringing luxury onto the blockchain. “We’re in close contact with the EU and are trying to get all the information needed to help brands navigate the regulations.” – Read More on Jing Daily