The Industry and Its Markets
You learn who does what to whom in global apparel: the countries, the business models, the buyers, and where a factory can actually win.
After this track you can
You can place your own factory in the global picture, explain what changes commercially between CMT, FOB, and ODM, and argue which buyers and which products you are genuinely positioned to win.
6 courses · 11 h
- 11.1How the Industry is StructuredFoundation6 lessons · 1 h 50 minYou follow one sweatshirt order through every owner between a cotton field and a hanger. You see where the value sits, where the risk sits, and why those are different tiers. And you see what a factory silently takes on the day a tier is removed.
- 11.2Sourcing Countries ComparedPractitioner6 lessons · 1 h 50 minYou build a standing map of why apparel-producing places differ, instead of making a single decision. Twenty-four quotes across four origins show the spread inside one origin is 2.97 times the spread between them. You then build the map row by row: cloth, labour, infrastructure, category, and what each would take to change.
- 11.3Business Models: CMT, FOB, ODM and Private LabelPractitioner6 lessons · 1 h 50 minYou cost one chino four ways in the same factory. Moving from CMT to FOB multiplies the revenue by five and halves the margin percentage, and what that trade is really worth turns out to be 1.13% of the fabric bill. You look at a factory that did everything right, moved up, and lost money for two seasons. The arithmetic said so in advance.
- 11.4Buyers and How They Actually BuyPractitioner6 lessons · 1 h 50 minSeven customers ask one factory for the same polo shirt in one week, and they are not seven versions of the same buyer. Each one commits at a different distance, owns the cloth at a different point, repeats an order in a different way, and fails in a different way. You put a price on those differences, on one order book.
- 11.5Market Outlook and Demand SignalsAdvanced6 lessons · 1 h 50 minA factory two tiers from the consumer cannot see demand. Every proxy it is offered is late, or about someone else, or for sale. You work out what one factory can actually observe, what each observation is worth, and how to act on a signal you cannot verify.
- 11.6Competitive Positioning for a FactoryAdvanced6 lessons · 1 h 50 minYou read one factory's year back as a position it never chose. You see which categories ate the line-days and which returned the money. You work out what a rival would pay, and how long they would wait, to copy each advantage. You see why being second best brings you the worst orders. And you do the arithmetic that says which enquiries to refuse.
Track exam
12 questions drawn from a larger bank, across the courses in this track, passed at 70%. 3 attempts, then it locks for 7 days. It is worth finishing the courses first.
Sit the track exam