Politics Influencing Fashion Industry

Blog 1: Politics in Fashion Business

A fashion company includes a business which design market and sell clothing merchandise. Fashion and politics possess a multidimensional relationship wherein communicative power of artistic practices of fashion brings challenges to the political status quo. While modern technology has helped to open new global markets, companies should be sure they keep abreast of the political situation at home and abroad, as either of them possess impact on the operation of the business (Puwar, 2004). In any apparel business, political stability is indispensable. political factors make it tricky for brands retailers to make a profitable business. The political issue comes with a long-term effect. However, certain past situation disturbs the current textile trade, business of fashion if they are not solved properly such as Brexit, Terrorism and Stalled trade deals. Couple of years back Margaret Thatcher stated that geopolitical instability, Brexit and stalled trade increases a pervasive sense of uncertainly in the global economy (Conway, 2016). Political instability continues to pose a threat to business. In this way, the higher the level of geopolitical instability, the higher will be the level of uncertainly in the fashion industry.

There are several ways in which being aware of the political situation at home and abroad can benefit a business and help it gain competitive advantage .However ,as politics is probably the most of volatile and hardest element of PESTEL to predict, it can be good idea to build in a certain amount of flexibility and agility to your business model ,so that you can react quickly and effectively to unexpected changes.

Blog 2: Adidas and COVID 19

More recently, WHO declared COVID 19 as pandemic, which has claimed the lives of thousands of people in China and several hundred outside China. In fact, COVID 19 has emerged as a major social factor which has not only resulting in the loss of life, but more severe impact has been on the global economy. The multinational companies (MNCs) across the world is identified to be already experiencing the brunt of COVID19 in the form of supply chain disruption and decline in the sales which is further projected to hit their profit (Bain, 2020).

Evidently, the share price of Adidas is ascertained to have already dropped by 6.3% due to the uncertainty created by COVID 19 in China. It is projected that the sales of the company in the first quarter of this year will plunge by almost $1.14 billion in greater China while the operating profit of the company is anticipated to drop by $200 million (Taylor, 2020).

Adidas generates a third of its total sales from Asia and for years Asian market has been a major driver of its growth. However, the rate at which COVID is spreading outside China to other countries like Japan and South Korea has created risk of full year impact on Adidas sales and operating profit of Adidas. In order to limit the adverse impact of COVID 19 on the sales, Adidas has started offering special deals such as buy-one-get-one free in markets like Hong Kong but experts believe that such offers are less likely to have a major role in controlling the decline in the sales and profit of the company (Bloomberg News, 2020).

Blog 3: Adidas and Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability has emerged as a major factor influencing different sectors and industries. Consumers across the world have been constantly expressing their willingness to purchase products offered by the companies that are engaged in environmental sustainability. However, fashion and sportswear industry for a long have been lagging when it comes to responding to the environmental concern of the consumers (Danziger, 2019).

Nonetheless, Adidas is identified to have acknowledged the importance of adopting environmental sustainability practices in order to address the growing environmental concern of its customers and to achieve its broad organisational goal. Correspondingly, the company has rolled out its new environmental strategy and has set target of using eco-friendly materials in the manufacturing of all its products by 2024 (Moore, 2019).

It has been observed that the company manufactures 400 million shoes annually, which consumes a lot of resources and materials. However, consumption of resources in such a large quantity has environmental consequences. Hence, Adidas has now started to use resources from different sources. In this regard, Adidas is identified to have started using plastic ocean waste for manufacturing sneakers and sportswear. The goal of the company behind this strategy is to minimise the plastic pollution and contribute to sustainable future (Morgan, 2019).Additionally, it is expected that such strategy would also contribute in improving its brand image among the environmentally conscious customers and help it attract and retain loyal customer base. It is also anticipated to help Adidas to achieve greater competitive advantage and drive the sales of its products.

References

Conway, D (2016). ‘Margaret Thatcher, Dress and the Politics of Fashion’. The International Politics of Fashion: Being Fab in a Dangerous World. Routledge, UK.

Puwar, N. (2004). ‘Thinking About Making a Difference’. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 6(1): 65-80