Christopher Griffin, President of WWDMAGIC Talks Denim
After writing about jeans for so many years, I must admit that I reached a point where I thought I knew anything and everything there was to know about denim. There was very little that surprised me and I felt confident in my denim-centric world, oftentimes forgetting that there were other sportswear categories like, you know, knits. Then I interviewed Christopher Griffin, President of WWDMAGIC and Sourcing at MAGIC Tradeshow, and discovered what should have been obvious -I don't know everything.
Without quite being aware of it, as I constructed these questions for Mr. Griffin, I already had his responses in mind. I assumed they would be in lock-step with what I thought I already knew. Therefore, I found myself humbled, and rightly so, when they weren't. Case in point, I always considered denim a leader in innovation when it came to eco-friendly processes, but Mr. Griffin pointed out that the adoption of things like organic cotton and vegetable dyes has been in practice long before the denim industry began its own initiatives. It goes to show, being denim-focused is great but having a more well-rounded, comprehensive view of the textile and apparel industry as a whole is better.
Read the rest of the interview below and if you're attending MAGIC, I'll see you there.
Consumers have an undying love of jeans and it’s been over a decade since denim has been considered a premium product. Why do you think it’s still important for tradeshows like MAGIC to promote denim?
Denim is still a staple item in every man, women, and child’s wardrobe, so we have to have a broad offering of it at MAGIC. We actually don’t promote it separately, unless we have some brand celebrating a milestone of some sort. As it turns out, our SOURCING AT MAGIC show has as its focus – ALL ABOUT DENIM. We’ll have denim factories from all over the world, as well as Cotton Inc*. and Jeanologia, both coming to talk about new eco-friendly denim processing techiniques.
Producing denim from post-consumer waste, recycling jeans into insulation for housing or reducing water usage are just a few of the ways in which the denim industry has attempted to reduce its impact on the environment. Have you observed manufacturers of other textiles following suit or even adopting similar technologies?
In my experience the other categories were way ahead of denim when it came to eco-friendly processing – from t-shirts using organic cotton to knit dresses using vegetable dyes – brands like Eileen Fisher and Indigenous have been producing reduced carbon footprint garments for years.
Denim is acclaimed for its heritage and oftentimes denim designers promote vintage techniques. Yet innovation among denim manufacturers can rival that of sports/athleticwear manufacturers? Why the paradox?
The tug of war between old world craftsmanship and new age technology has played out in many ways – most recently with Levi’s Made & Crafted line, which nicely blends old and new – so I think it can be done. Companies like Jeanologia and Pizarro are doing amazing things with hi-tech eco-friendly processes that create a vintage look – it’s a great development to see happening. Consumers don’t want to have to sacrifice one for the other.
Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh recently made headlines for wearing a pair of jeans that he didn’t wash for a year. Has an admission from such a respected person had any lingering effects (consumer or trade) several months later?
I have to admit, I wash my jeans maybe once every couple of months -they hold their color longer! Not sure I’ve noticed anything on a large scale occurring. I’m sure Tide hopes not!
What kind of fancy finishing or technology do you think consumers will be most excited about in the near future?
Clearly wearable tech is on the rise, so I believe once consumers experience its benefits, they will want it on all of their sportswear. Given how much time we spend in blue jeans, why wouldn’t we want a built in pedometer? I also find stretch denim to be very comfortable, I think we will see more use of denim/lycra blends.
