The results are clear. Companies increased the diversity of skin tones in their Instagram posts, following their mid-2020 pledges to support Black Lives Matter and, in particular, commitment to improving representation. However, it is also clear that those increases were often only marginal.
At the end of May last year, as protests exploded over police killings of Black Americans, numerous fashion and beauty companies went online to post their messages of support for the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as to pledge their own commitments to change.
Nike is always in the middle of a balancing act. It’s both the world’s biggest footwear company, selling several million pairs of shoes annually, and an ultra-exclusive designer, making some of the most sought-after, hardest-to-get sneakers on the market.
In China, fashion sales have already been on the road to a recovery from the pandemic for months.
If there’s one thing Nike and Adidas appear to agree on, it’s that the future of the sneaker business is digital.
Nike is facing a loss of trust among its most loyal customers, the die-hard sneaker fans who show up every week to buy limited releases of its shoes and share their scores on social media.
Fashion companies have often been criticized for relying on low-paid workers in some of the world’s poorest countries to make their clothes. In Myanmar, they now have an opportunity to use their presence in that country to be a force for good.
For a brief period in the 1980s, Reebok was the biggest sneaker brand in the US.
Saks Fifth Avenue made its name as one of the world’s glitziest department stores. Now its owner, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), is admitting that stores are not where the business’s future value lies.
A few years back, as Target thought about the future of its digital business, it saw a few possibilities for growing online sales, which it knew would only grow in importance.
Birkenstock, maker of what is affectionately deemed the original ugly sandal, has a luxurious new owner.
The US postal service announced the first part of a multibillion-dollar scheme to modernize its delivery fleet yesterday, revealing a more sustainable, redesigned postal truck reminiscent of a friendly cartoon character.
Crocs—the comfortable foam clogs of dubious aesthetic value—had started to accrue a subversive sort of cool among teens even before Covid-19 came around. But in the pandemic, the shoes have also become the footwear of choice for millions of workers and students prioritizing comfort while they’re homebound.
Fast Retailing, the Japanese clothing group that owns Uniqlo, toppled a giant last week.
With the wages she earned as a garment worker at Yi Da Manufacturer, a factory in Cambodia, Douk Sovann says she would normally spend about $10 a day on food. That amount would feed her and her three daughters, who range in age from 10 to 17.
Not so long ago, Gucci was the shining star in the constellation of brands owned by Kering, the French luxury group. Sales had gone up like a rocket after Alessandro Michele introduced his frenetically geeky look to the brand when he took over as creative chief in 2015.
About a month ago, Selz, an Australian tech company, quietly announced it was being acquired by Amazon. Selz helps businesses set up and manage online stores without needing much technical expertise. In that regard its similar to Shopify, the fast-growing platform powering the e-commerce of an increasing number of small and large companies.
A decade after founder Hugh Hefner took Playboy from public to private again, the company returned to the stock market yesterday.
It was big news in 2019 when LVMH announced it was teaming with Rihanna to create a full-fledged fashion line called Fenty. A clear sign of the times, it was the first instance of the luxury powerhouse partnering with a celebrity, or a woman of color, to launch a brand from scratch. Rihanna, of course, would bring her megawatt style and stardom. LVMH would provide the know-how it accumulated from decades of building brands such as Louis Vuitton and Dior.
Amid the upheavals of Brexit, the UK government has not forgotten the country’s seafood industry. In the debates over how Britain should handle its departure from the EU, fishing morphed into a symbol of Britain’s potential independence. In January, the government pledged up to £23 million ($31.7 million) in support of fishing businesses, aiming the funds toward those whose exports suffered under the import regulations imposed by the EU following Brexit.
TikTok says it believes in “diversity, inclusion, and authenticity.” The language comes from the company’s community guidelines, where it lays out what is and isn’t acceptable to post on its fast-growing platform.
Amazon might seem an unstoppable force in the US, but the picture has often looked different overseas. For years, the company’s international expansion has lagged behind its growth in North America—that is until this most recent quarter.
Toward the end of the year, Jeff Bezos will step down from his role as CEO of Amazon, the company he founded and built into the dominant force in US e-commerce.
If you’re a European or US company trying to get your goods shipped from China, good luck.
