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Short supply chains are designed to minimize intermediaries and create direct connections between local suppliers and consumers, offering a more efficient and sustainable alternative to conventional longer supply chains. Embracing and implementing shorter supply chains is an essential step in reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing processes.
What is a short supply chain?
Over the past few years, there has been a growing awareness of the vital role of short supply chains in the food industry. Locally produced food is celebrated for its freshness, health benefits, and superior quality. Shouldn’t this same appreciation extend to other sectors, like fashion?
In today’s world, supply chains are often complex and global, involving various intermediaries, contractors, and subcontractors that can be difficult to trace and unknown to final manufacturers. Manufacturing processes are typically located in countries with low production costs, often far from the areas where products will be consumed. This setup is a result of our industrial economy, which prioritizes profit, large scale, standardization, and concentration of production and logistics.
In contrast, short supply chains aim to minimize the number of actors involved and reduce the distance between suppliers, manufacturers, and consumers. This proximity in short supply chains can take three different forms: geographical, where producers and consumers are physically close to each other; social, where there is a direct or close social relation between producer and consumer; and organizational, which entails limiting the number of intermediaries.
Short supply chains are primarily characterized by local sourcing, which emphasizes sourcing materials and products locally to reduce transportation time and costs; fewer intermediaries, which streamlines processes and enhances communication and cooperation by cutting go-betweens; and speed and responsiveness, allowing for quicker responses to market demand and changes in consumers’ preferences.
Benefits of short supply chains
While there are some challenges, such as limited scalability and supplier dependence, the advantages of short supply chains outweigh the potential disadvantages, making them an excellent solution to some of the most pressing issues in the fashion industry.
The most noticeable benefit of a short supply chain is the reduction of its environmental impact, as it decreases the carbon footprint by minimizing transportation emissions. Considering that the fashion industry is responsible for approximately 10% of global greenhouse emissions, which is more than the emissions from international maritime shipping and flights combined, it becomes even more crucial to take advantage of this insight. Shorter distances and fewer intermediaries also result in lower transportation costs.
Furthermore, shorter supply chains ensure better traceability and transparency due to closer proximity and fewer suppliers, leading to improved oversight and quality assurance. Finally, short supply chains offer increased agility, allowing for quick adaptation to market changes or disruptions, and improve local economic development.
Candiani’s commitment to short supply chains
We are dedicated to establishing short supply chains with trusted local partners. Over the past few years, we have been actively developing diverse projects and programs to provide an alternative to traditional denim manufacturing and to minimize its environmental impact.
PCR
We have launched the Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) program in partnership with Humana People to People Italia and Filatura Astro. Recycling is currently one of our main focus areas because the amount of discarded textiles, including jeans and other denim garments, is staggering. According to official EU data, in 2020, each citizen discarded an average of 16 kg of clothing and footwear. Still, only 4.4 kg were collected separately and reused or recycled.
In our PCR program, Humana People to People Italia collects and processes jeans that cannot be reused by removing buttons, zips, patches, and other hardware. Filatura Astro then returns these jeans to the fiber stage to produce recycled yarns. Finally, we use these recycled yarns to manufacture denim fabrics.
The proximity of our factories, located in Pregnana Milanese, Vigliano Biellese, and Robecchetto con Induno, creates a short supply chain of only 60 km between the areas of Milan and Biella.
Proximity is one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) we have identified to set our PCR denim apart. The other three indicators are traceability, as there’s complete oversight over the entire supply chain; circularity, as textile waste is turned into new fabrics; and quality, as we blend recycled yarns with Blue Seed cotton, our proprietary variety distinguished by superior strength, durability, and hand-feel.
Candiani Custom
Candiani Custom offers a unique experience in the heart of Milan. It is the first urban micro-factory to produce custom jeans using a direct manufacturer-to-consumer model that reduces unnecessary steps and intermediaries.
At Candiani Custom, the customer takes on the role of designer, selecting all the features of their jeans, starting with the fabric. The denim fabrics used in the micro-factory are exclusively produced at the nearby Candiani mill, just 40 km away. Customers can customize every detail, from the color of the threads, buttons, rivets, and back patch to having their name or a design laser-engraved on the back patch or their name sewn in the desired color.
Candiani Custom was made possible by ten trusted Italian partners who supplied the necessary equipment, technologies, and hardware: Manifattura Italiana Cucirini, Tonello, Nearchimica, FK Group, Cervotessile, Riri Group, Okinawa Operations, Rotondi Group, Cadica Group, and SIP Italy Sewing. All of these partners are located within a 238 km radius, enabling Candiani Custom to deliver short supply chain denim.
Geographical proximity helps minimize the carbon footprint of Candiani Custom’s jeans. The carbon footprint is the total amount of CO2 emissions produced to create, transport, and use a product. With a limited number of suppliers and short distances, the supply chain is also easily traceable.
Candiani Custom’s garments are manufactured and sold in the same location, which helps reduce the carbon footprint. They are produced in compliance with EU and Italian regulations, which are known for being among the strictest standards globally for labor, human rights, and work safety. Italy is rated 1 in the 2020 Global Rights Index, indicating a high level of respect for these rights, in contrast to the common situation in many countries with concentrated textile factories. According to a study by Deloitte Access Economics, only 4% of the price of a garment goes to the people who produce it. Additionally, research by the ABLE and Nisolo brands revealed that only 2% of workers in the fashion industry receive a salary that covers their most basic needs.
GRAPHITO
GRAPHITO is our antibacterial and antiviral denim fabric created in partnership with Directa Plus. This innovative fabric is the result of combining two patented technologies: Directa Plus’ G+® Graphene Plus, which imbues the fabric with antimicrobial properties, odor-neutralizing action, and enhanced thermal comfort, and our Kitotex®, which amplifies the bacteriostatic properties of G+®, provides binding and film-forming action, and enhances color saturation.
Thanks to its numerous exceptional properties, GRAPHITO allows for a drastic reduction in the number of domestic washes, as the denim fabric stays clean for a longer time compared to conventional jeans. Additionally, the thermoregulatory action of G+® makes it a fabric that can be worn in any season.
Directa Plus stands as one of the global leaders in producing and supplying graphene-based products for both consumer and industrial markets. Their G+® is chemical-free, solvent-free, skin-friendly, non-toxic, and non-cytotoxic. Located in Lomazzo, just 50 km from our mill, Directa Plus ensures that its products are entirely made in Italy in the most sustainable manner possible.
