As a rabbit myself, I have a positive feeling towards the coming year of the rabbit. It seems that during the past few years the clothing industry in China has taken steps that can offer new opportunities for such a small and specific market as Finland.
Though China has suffered from increasing labor costs and fluctuation of raw material costs in the recent year, they have been able to adapt new ways to compete against the lower cost countries. Despite the world recession, China’s clothing exports grew notably last year. China has indeed put more emphasis on design, features and overall quality, in which case the contribution margin can get higher than in cheap bulk production. You may get products cheaper some place else, but can the quality meet the requirements of the end-customers?
I have always said that everything is possible in China. And I still believe it. The consumers in Finland have sneakingly become more considerate buyers. They need to be ensured that their products were made by following the social and green ethics. China has not always been on the top favourites when talking about countries of origin of the clothing and apparels. However, the conditions of the factories and labor in China have improved significantly. There has been a struggle where the strong factories won, the small ones died and the clever ones were standing alongside the battle field.
Now the clever ones have taken a totally new course. They provide things that you can not find in the traditionally considered “cheap production cost” countries. They acquire talents for designing and use carefully selected materials. And yet, everything is still possible at a considerably inexpensive price. Nowadays you may find fabrics made out of soya, hemp and bamboo or even recycled fabrics such as yarn from discarded mineral water bottles and cola bottles (Recycled PET fabric). Chinese have also adapted the expertise in high-tech clothing. The major sportswear brands manufacture activewear made out of innovative fabrics. You may purchase heat-generating jeans, electrical protective clothing, or even environmentally friendly fire protection clothing made of algae.
So what, if you pay 3 € per T-shirt in China instead of 1 € in Bangladesh if you can have it made ethically, environmentally friendly and even for most demanding use. My not-so-secret-anymore dream is that I could collect a bunch of talented and open-minded Finnish fashion designers under one brand name and produce their designs in China for global market. Who knows, maybe I take a jump into new opportunities during the coming year of the rabbit.
