California Apparel News

As an apparel brand whose denim products represent 20 percent to 25 percent of its business, Guess? Inc. hopes to reduce the environmental threats that often result from making its jeans.

After calculating its denim water footprint, the company on April 18 announced its partnership with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). The move came as the Los Angeles company developed its sustainable-practices plan based on its 2016–2017 sustainability report.

Guess discovered that the processing of cotton was responsible for 64 percent of the water used during the production of one denim jean, said Victor Herrero, Guess’s chief executive officer.

“The Better Cotton Initiative is a wholistic program that includes water stewardship as part of its production principles but also includes additional environmental and social focus areas for cotton farmers,” he explained. “This is an organization that has shown great results for making true positive impact and scalable, industrywide change.”

In addition to working with BCI to examine its total cotton sourcing use, Guess is exploring other methods of water preservation, such as identifying solutions through innovation in technology and product development for its denim business. A company supported by 14,000 employees globally, Guess’s initiative must include the cooperation of everyone who works in denim development.

The company has educated many of its employees regarding its commitment to support sustainable apparel manufacturing. It has also enrolled some of its designers and patternmakers into a Guess-sponsored class at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, which includes coursework in sustainability through focusing on zero waste and circular design.

“Many of our employees—particularly those in denim production, have been briefed and support this initiative,” Herrero said. “But we need to train all members of our design, sourcing and production team on BCI so that we can work together to increase our sourcing efforts and communicate involvement to our vendors.”

Communicating this message to its vendors is a major part of the Guess pledge to decrease unnecessary water usage during the manufacturing process for its denim. The new challenge lies in examining how its sources processed cotton and working with those suppliers who have not yet adopted best practices.

“Increasing our sourcing of Better Cotton will be an added step to our process where we must determine who in our supply chain is already a member of BCI and, if not, how we can encourage them to become involved,” Herrero explained.

With $2.4 billion in annual revenues for fiscal year 2018 and premium denim that retails at $100, Guess has no plans to increase its price points for goods in this category despite its partnership with BCI, which is good news for consumers. As the new generation of Guess customers becomes increasingly conscientious regarding protecting the environment, Herrero believes the brand’s efforts will be embraced by its clientele.

“Our customers, in general, are millennials and increasingly Gen Z, who are known for caring about social and environmental responsibility,” he said. “We are confident that our customers will be excited about our shift to more-sustainable practices.”