Apparel, Fashion and Footwear

Apparel profit depends on full-price sell-through, because a season's markdowns take back the margin on everything that did sell, so buying accuracy, fit and speed to shelf matter more than manufacturing, which the brands outsource. Zara built an advantage out of a design-to-shelf cycle measured in weeks against a wholesale calendar planned a year ahead, and Nike turned athlete contracts and advertising into pricing power over shoes made by contractors in Asia. The cycle is seasonal, fashion risk is high, and the industry keeps relocating production toward cheaper labour. The literature covers founder accounts from Knight, Chouinard and Bean, the Adidas and Puma rivalry, the collapse of designer-led fashion into brand licensing, and the cotton and garment supply chain from the nineteenth-century mills to today's factories.