Recently I went to a store called American Apparel” (AA). It’s a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor and retailer of clothing. No logos, no sweatshops. All of the clothes are produced in a manufacturing plant in L.A.

The basic premise of the company is to prove that you can be both profitable and socially responsible in the apparel industry. AA is demonstrating the profitability in Corporate Social Resopnsibility (CSR) practices and this will be the way of the future.

This reminds me of a Consumer Behaviour class I took in 4th year university. I worked with a group on CSR practices and customer value. We found that CSR was quite an aspirational factor, however price, quality, and availability were rated as much more important.

One insight from the research detailed how a correlation between trend and social responsibility may be a means to generate the critical mass required help increase its value rating.

What am I saying? Well, make Socially Responsible “cool” and “fashionable” and may be you can get more and more people purchasing these goods. Once you get enough demand for it, you can achieve enough scale to increase availability and lower price (as supply increases).

It’s not the best way to get the masses to become socially responsible, but it’s better than getting people to wear random sweatshop brand names on the their shirts! Look at the organic trend. It started as a small movement and now has exploded into an entire industry. Sure, there’s a lot of shit out there since “organic” means nothing, however an educated consumer will have the knowledge and wherewithal to looking for “certified organic” sources and support more local producers.

Anyway, it looks like AA is using this approach. If you go to one of their retail stores, you’ll realize how trendy it is. It’s not some converted semi-detached house with creaking wooden floors, incense and a woman in a brown shall and beads up the wazoo (don’t get me wrong, I still love those places!). This place totally fit into the Toronto Queen St. vibe, with funky sales people and electronic beats in the background. It’s much more inviting to the average yuppie consumer rather than fringe culture.

AA is starting to get the 20-something- year-old generation to think about the issue and support the cause. That's a refershing change from CK and GAP ads. I’m finally starting to see business-minded people taking CSR seriously. They’re using their manufacturing process as a point of differentiation rather than a skeleton in the closet. You can find profitability in the apparel industry and still pay your workers a decent salary and provide liveable working conditions. What a concept.

I would love to work for these guys, are at least take a look at how they’ve been so successful (they’re also in Europe as well). But alas, their Canadian head office is in Montreal, so it’s not looking good for me. We’ll see, I know that more and more places will be opening up and slowly changing our way of consumption! Let’s hope this is here to stay... !!

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"