Apparel - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 Aug 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Learning From Japan’s Remarkable Disaster Recovery

Clinic, a provider of medical services; Fast Retailing Group, which owns a chain of apparel stores; and Lawson's, which operates more than 40,000 convenience stores. The cases underscore disaster recovery challenges that are both... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Utilities; Retail

11 Dec 2014
News

Fashion's Retail Revolution

making entrepreneurship in fashion retail more possible and more attractive: globalization and the digital disruption of the shopping experience,” says Khaire, who studies entrepreneurship in creative industries. In the United States last year alone, View Details

Keywords: April White; fashion; Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Finance

01 Dec 2017
News

Yoga Inc.

an estimated 36.7 million US practitioners purchasing classes, gear, and accessories—an increase of 80 percent in four years. It has also spawned a number of lucrative business models: Vancouver-based apparel company Lululemon Athletica... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Halber

12 Feb 2016
News

Creating Common Ground in Communities of Conflict

catch up,” she says. Questioning the status quo has also inspired Mendhro to launch VIDA, a venture-based ecommerce platform based in San Francisco that connects designers across the globe with producers, to manufacture original apparel... View Details

Keywords: Jill Radsken

Robert T. B. Stevens

In response to the changing nature of the textile industry and to the growing inefficiencies in the company, Stevens merged the manufacturing and selling sides of the business and took the new entity public to raise much needed funds. The new structural change was... View Details

Keywords: Fabric & Apparel

William Rosenthal

After discovering a need for the product in their dress making business, William and Ida Rosenthal created the “first modern uplift brassiere” in 1923. After the success of that item, business was expanded into lingerie, swimwear and other products, growing Maidenform... View Details

Keywords: Fabric & Apparel

Walter A. Haas, Jr.

Walter A. Haas Jr. was responsible for Levi’s concentration on blue jeans production. He targeted the marketing strategy to teenagers and as blue jeans became the symbol of nonconformity, Levi’s rapidly multiplied its sales and net profit. In 1970, Haas took the... View Details

Keywords: Fabric & Apparel

Paul Fireman

By successfully tapping the market for women’s “fashionable” athletic shoes during the nation’s aerobics craze, Fireman took Reebok from $13 million in sales in 1983 to $1.4 billion in sales just five years later. In 1986, Reebok overtook Nike as the top-selling maker... View Details

Keywords: Fabric & Apparel

Elisabeth Claiborne

Founded in 1976, Liz Claiborne joined the Fortune 500 list of the largest industrial companies only a decade later, one of the youngest companies ever to achieve this mark. In 1987, Liz Claiborne had sales in excess of $1 billion. All this success was a result of... View Details

Keywords: Fabric & Apparel

Charles A. Cannon

Cannon pioneered a number of industry advances in cloth towel manufacturing including national consumer advertising, the Cannon trademark sewn into each towel, pastel colors, the wrapping of products in clear plastic, style shows, and matching towel ensembles. Cannon... View Details

Keywords: Fabric & Apparel

01 Dec 2010
News

A Smooth Stretch

HANNA: A yoga business and foundation. Photo courtesy Zobha A dedicated runner until motherhood stood everything on its head, Jamie Hanna (MBA ’98) told Chicago’s examiner.com (September 20, 2010) that by the time she had her second child, “Running didn’t feel good to... View Details

Keywords: Yoga; Apparel Manufacturing; Apparel Manufacturing

30 Jan 2017
Working Paper Summaries

The Environmental Legacies of The North Face's Doug Tompkins and Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones and Ben Gettinger; Apparel & Accessories; Apparel & Accessories

February 2023
Supplement

Coats Dyehouse Management

By: Willy C. Shih

Coats, the largest thread maker in the world, transformed its business to digital colour measurement so that it could respond better to customer demand in the garment industry for rapid product cycles and more fragmented colour choices. Its embrace of digital colour... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Management; Supply Chain; Inventory; Supply Chain Management; Operations; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Asia

Citation

Purchase

December 2014 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Dhamani Jewels: Becoming a Global Luxury Brand

By: Lynda Applegate and Lisa C. Mazzanti

Dhamani started as a loose gemstone dealer in 1969 in Jaipur, India. By the 2000s, it was headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and had expanded into diamonds and retail. The family business was now in its second generation of leadership and aimed to become a... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Retail; Jewelry; Luxury Goods; UAE; Retail; Brands and Branding; Family Business; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Dubai; India

Citation

Educators

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November 1994
Case

Electrical Distributors, Inc.

By: David F. Hawkins

The owner of a small electrical supply firm has grown beyond his ability to fund growth with internally generated funds. He seeks a bank loan, which falls short of his needs. View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Corporate Finance; Apparel and Accessories Industry

Citation

Find at Harvard

March 2012 (Revised September 2014)
Supplement

Clarks at a Crossroads (C)

By: John A. Davis and Suzanne Stroh

Clarks (C) describes the turnaround of C&J Clarks Ltd., 1993-2002. It describes the roles of family chairman Roger Pedder, and CEO Timothy Parker, in this successful effort. View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Apparel and Accessories Industry

Citation

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