Of all the collections KidSuper founder Colm Dillane has designed, the one he’s been most anxious about is his new collaboration releasing Friday with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.

It’s the inaugural showing by the Nets’ new in-house label Bero, which launched earlier this year. Not only does it mark one of the clearest examples to date of the growing affinity between sport and fashion, but for Dillane, who teased the tie up in January at his Autumn/Winter 2024 Paris Fashion Week show, it’s highly personal: The Nets are his local team and play not far from where he went to high school.

“Sometimes these sports and fashion collabs really aren’t great,” he told The Business of Fashion. “I was trying to make product that I think people would actually want to wear outside of the arena and make pieces that felt like Brooklyn.”

The collection includes letterman jackets, bombers and accessories like bucket hats. It also allowed Dillane to work with new materials like leather. The accompanying campaign features fellow Brooklyn locals like Nets centre Nic Claxton and his teammate Jalen Wilson, as well as borough president Antonio Reynoso.

The Nets are one of many sports organisations putting increasing time and resources into making clothing that goes beyond basic low-quality merch in a bid to drive cultural clout and also boost retail sales. At London Fashion Week in June, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium hosted the runway show of menswear brand Labrum London — who also designed the team’s away kit for this season — with players like Declan Rice modelling the collection on the pitchside catwalk. This week, Rhude founder Rhuigi Villaseñor was named chief brand officer of Italian football team Como, in a role that will encompass transforming the brand’s approach to fashion and creative partnerships, hospitality and fan experience.

Dillane has been at the forefront of fashion’s recent convergence with sports. He designed the 2023/24 season jerseys for English football team Barnsley FC and will soon release a collection with all-time football great Ronaldinho, who starred in his January runway show.

With his Nets collaboration, he said he felt encouraged after getting the all-important buy-in from the team’s players, many of whom — like Claxton, who wore a leather jacket from the collection in a pre-game tunnel walk last season — were clamouring to get their hands on pieces ahead of this week’s general release.

For Claxton, it was important the team partnered with a designer who understood Brooklyn’s style codes.

“This collection really reflects the energy of Brooklyn and the new style that’s driving things forward right now,” he said.

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While China’s luxury market is slowing, population trends in Southeast Asia (SEA) are a significant opportunity to the fashion industry at large. By 2030, when 70 percent of ASEAN’s population — which currently stands at over 670 million — is expected to have attained middle-class income levels, the consumer market could reach $4 trillion, according to McKinsey & Company.

What’s more, according to a joint report by Temasek and Google, among others, the digital economy in the six largest economies of the region — Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines — was worth an estimated $218 billion in gross merchandise value in 2023 and is on track to reach $600 billion by 2030.

In addition to its proximity to these newly significant markets, Singapore is uniquely positioned between the two superpowers of our age. Almost all of East Asia’s energy imports flow through the Strait of Malacca, and much of its manufacturing trade flows the other way. China is not only Singapore’s largest source of imports, as it is for most countries in the world, but its largest source of exports too.

At the same time, America remains by far the largest single investor in Singapore, with S$574 billion ($428 billion) invested in the country at the end of 2022, compared with 156bn from mainland China, according to The Economist.

So what structure of regional supply will enable apparel and contemporary businesses to capitalise on the SEA growth trends and respond to the shape of that demand? And what positions a supply network as best in class in today’s market?

In a recent BoF Live event, Sian Nee Ho, regional director of the Americas for the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Tony Pelli, practice director of supply chain security and resilience at BSI Consulting, discussed this opportunity and discovered best practices in minimising supply chain risk and optimising distribution to meet Asian and Southeast Asian demand.

Below, BoF shares condensed insights from the conversation.

Aligning Supply Chains to Growth Markets

SNH: There is really no one-size-fits-all approach. Companies will ultimately have to review their overall customer supplier base in Asia to identify their optimal supply chain strategy that allows them to best manage their costs, while also ensuring speed to market and overall resiliency amidst their supply chain disruptions.

What we are seeing is that consumers are increasing their expectations around accelerated delivery. Now, more brands are moving away from centralised distribution centres and adopting smaller, but more regionalised distribution centres to improve time to market. This could also be done through partnerships with various logistics players. Indeed, brands are increasing investments in supply chain management capabilities, including stronger data analytics to help with inventory optimisation across various distribution channels and countries.

In Singapore — because of our given proximity to major manufacturers, raw material suppliers and the growing Asian market — what we’re starting to see is that more brands anchor sourcing and distribution hubs here, and that’s happened over the course of a couple years.

More brands are moving away from centralised distribution centres and adopting smaller, but more regionalised distribution centres to improve time to market.

The supply chain function as a whole is becoming a lot more strategic, and companies are actively thinking about how to expand those teams. I think most companies today have it as a global function. Those that are a bit more forward-thinking look to these regional supply chains as well — not just in the US, or wherever they are headquartered, but to have that across major regions where they operate as well, so that they can deal with unexpected circumstances or situations that come up.

TP: What we’re seeing is a more forward deployment of distribution centres that are closer to consumers, allowing companies to have more of those routes to market, through traditional stores, direct-to-consumer — enabling more of that sort of omnichannel distribution.

That was a huge buzz word four to six years ago; but it’s actually here now. We’re still seeing lots of sea freight, moving goods around, that’s not changing anytime soon. But, I think the way that companies are thinking about their supply chains — how they can get more SKUs, how they can get different products faster to their consumers, in that forward-deployed way I was speaking about — it ultimately requires changes throughout the supply chain, impacting your sourcing and buying and purchasing strategies, in addition to distribution.

We’re also seeing faster changes in consumer demand — something that was popular a month ago is no longer popular. That really started to accelerate during the pandemic and hasn’t slowed. That increased importance of speed to market can be a bit of a double-edged sword though — as it requires you keeping less inventory on hand, which means that you have less resilience throughout the supply chain. It’s all about finding the right balance — which is what companies are grappling with now.

Best Practices and Global Standards

SNH: There are two aspects — diversification and disruption. Diversification — because I think we’re all familiar that geopolitical tensions are here to stay. When it comes to disruption, we do live in a troubled world today where there are two ongoing wars in both Europe and the Middle East — I don’t think anyone could have imagined it five years ago. The Red Sea attacks have led to sea freight costs increasing three to five times since the start of 2024 and potential terrorism against China has led to inventory stock-ups as well, resulting in bottlenecks in port.

While China has served the interest of US companies for the last two decades, many companies now recognise the need to diversify their manufacturing and supply chain footprint to new growth frontiers. We have seen tremendous growth in Southeast Asia as an alternative from consumer products, semiconductors, industrial and even headquarter investments. So, the growth in Southeast Asia has also translated into an increase in inter-regional trade within Asia, with a larger proportion of Asian exports now destined for other Asian countries compared to the previous decades, where trade was more focused on exports to Western countries.

As a critical supply chain hub in Southeast Asia that facilitates trade flows, Singapore seeks to be that pressure relief valve for companies by providing some flexibility, certainty and efficiency. We are heartened to see the expansion of global leaders such as FedEx in Singapore, because we see them as the bellwethers of supply chain shifts, and these recent expansions provide validation on the opportunities in Southeast Asia.

Sustainability, Disruption and Mitigating Risk

TP: If you look at companies like Apple — they have used their supply chain strategy as a competitive advantage, by being in places before their competitors are. We saw that during the pandemic, when there were lockdowns in Shanghai, for example, they were able to quickly pivot to new areas of operation, new areas of sourcing and manufacturing. In the luxury industry, more broadly or in higher-cost goods, you’re able to use that as a competitive advantage, rather than just as a risk mitigation measure.

Of course, it’s not just them, but other businesses that are needing to be closer to consumers in places like Southeast Asia. You may see a large hub in a place like Singapore, and then smaller satellite hubs in places like Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, that are more on the distribution end — essentially creating that central hub and spoke strategy rather than trying to distribute all from China directly. That’s the sort of scale of the investment we’re seeing.

Thailand’s another one where people may be investing as well, but on the supplier side, and it’s really being led by Vietnam. You’re seeing a lot of the supply chain management companies that were based in Taiwan, South Korea and China — they’re expanding into Vietnam now, but of course, they’re using that to either avoid or mitigate certain risks. Certainly, when you’re looking at Vietnam or places like Cambodia, we want to make sure that these companies are sensitive to other risks that may develop, making sure that they’re doing proper on-the-ground risk assessment of those suppliers from the beginning.

Innovating Supply Chain Technology and Predictive Analytics

TP: Companies really appreciate putting the analytics software in place that is able to feed them valuable data, but the issue is that they are unsure about how to then react when that data is presented to them. We see a lot of the time that companies are building systems or ways of working with that data in silos — buying and procurement using it for one thing, supply chain management using it for another.

We advise that companies should assess themselves internally before looking at any kind of software. Really thinking about how they are going to manage all of this new data, how are they going to react and how they are going to feed the data into their decision-making processes.

In terms of mitigating risk, the mapping out of your supply chains is the most important first step to act on, before even putting software in place.

In terms of mitigating risk, the mapping out of your supply chains is the most important first step to act on, before even putting software in place. Understanding where the raw materials are coming from initially is something that can be very messy — there’s lots of manual data to sort through, many moving parts in terms of figuring out the provenance of those products and then overlaying digital solutions on top that make sure you can get a more real-time viewpoint. That makes it critical to have that static view of your supply chain first. From there, you can move to push and get more real-time visibility, and add the tools as needed to have that sort of second and third tier visibility.

Emerging Markets and Manufacturing Hubs

SNH: China will continue to be an important market for many companies, so it’s about finding out the level of presence that companies require in China to be able to adequately serve the needs of that population, while also finding an alternative when companies could then diversify some of their manufacturing and supply chain operations to ensure that is neutral and well connected.

The alternatives I mentioned: we’re seeing Mexico and Canada for more nearshoring of manufacturing and tech investments; and then India, for sectors such as more generic drugs and consumer electronics; not forgetting Southeast Asia for more consumer products, semiconductors and headquarter investments.

What we’re seeing with Singapore is that it’s a place that’s committed to growing its air and sea connectivity through the airport and port expansion. And this will enable Singapore to remain plugged into and serve as a critical node in global trade and supply chain networks.

TP: If you look at it from a country-by-country basis, Indonesia and Vietnam certainly have large populations, with Vietnam being fairly well connected with China on one end and Singapore on the other.

I’m not going to pretend that the sorts of issues in apparel supply chains or fashion supply chains don’t exist in those countries, but that’s why we encourage people to look at that through the entire process — from sourcing all the way through to business-as-usual management of their suppliers.

Don’t just treat it as something that you only need to deal with when something goes wrong. Make sure that you’re building that in from the beginning — I think that’s where we’ll see fashion, especially in a place like Vietnam, have the greatest impact. Thailand and Malaysia may be a little less relevant for fashion, but they can add higher value manufacturing that some of the other regions cannot — again, all centred around Singapore as a hub for distribution through Southeast Asia, through the rest of East Asia and then onto the rest of the world.

We may see East Africa emerge in the longer term as well as a hub for manufacturing. Again, a lot of the freight that comes out of there is going to pass through Singapore as well. That’s my overall take on what’s developing in the region where you’re seeing the strengths and weaknesses of individual countries.

If companies are smart about it, they can manage those weaknesses, as well as actually turning them into a competitive advantage for being able to quickly shift and change their supply chains as needed.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by EBD Singapore as part of a BoF partnership.

EBay Inc. dropped in extended trading after projecting holiday season sales that fell short of analysts’ estimates, suggesting the e-commerce company continues to struggle against larger rivals.

Revenue will be $2.53 billion to $2.59 billion in the period ending in December, the company said Wednesday in a statement. Profit, excluding some items, will be as much as $1.22 a share. Analysts, on average, estimated sales of $2.64 billion and earnings of $1.23 a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In an effort to stem its eroding market share, eBay has been focusing on narrow categories such as car parts, luxury goods, collectibles and refurbished appliances. The San Jose, California-based company is investing in authentication services to appeal to luxury shoppers wary of online fakes and offers guarantees on vehicle parts and refurbished goods to reassure those focused on thrift. Bill Nash, chief executive officer of used car retailer CarMax, was added to the board of directors in September.

The presidential election, a shorter number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the devastating hurricane season were among the significant factors that affected the holiday sales forecast, CEO Jamie Iannone said in an interview.

“Consumers get distracted because of what’s happening with the election,” he said. “We factored that into our guidance based on what we’ve seen historically.”

Before Wednesday’s results, eBay’s efforts this year had found favour with investors. The stock had gained 44 percent in 2024 to $62.63 at the close. The shares dropped about 8.5 percent after the results.

In the third quarter, revenue increased 3 percent to $2.58 billion, while adjusted profit was $1.19 a share. Analysts, on average, estimated sales of $2.55 billion and earnings of $1.18 a share.

Gross merchandise volume, the value of all goods sold on eBay, increased 2 percent to $18.3 billion during the quarter, beating the average estimate of $18.1 billion.

By Spencer Soper

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If you have a design in mind for a piece of jewellery, generative AI now lets you create a realistic rendering of it.

The start-up Arcade wants to take it a step further and let you buy a physical version.

The company launched its AI product creation platform in September with the promise to “turn your thoughts into things.” Customers are able to generate jewellery designs as if they were using an AI tool like Midjourney or Dall-E — except in this case they can choose different options for sizing and materials, such as sterling silver or 14k yellow gold, get a price for their item and actually have it made. Depending on the piece, it takes about two weeks, according to co-founder Mariam Naficy.

Naficy is a familiar name in entrepreneurial circles. She founded the early online cosmetics retailer Eve.com, which she sold in 2000, and then tapped into the burgeoning creator economy in 2007 with Minted, a design marketplace where users can buy items like holiday cards and art prints from independent makers. AI-generated products are her next big bet.

“Once I started seeing Midjourney and Dall-E images come out, I thought people are going to want to own those things,” she said.

She recruited her co-founder, Will Zhuk, from OpenAI to lead the technical side, and with her venture studio Heretic, they began creating products with AI and sending the images to manufacturers to see if they could produce faithful reproductions. They could, and Arcade was born. The company has raised $17 million from investors including Reid Hoffman and Brit Morin of Offline Ventures, Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, Karlie Kloss, Colin Kaepernick and others.

If Arcade’s premise sounds simple, making it work wasn’t. It shows both the potential in AI-generated products and how much labour is required behind the scenes to build an AI platform shoppers can use.

A strength of generative AI is that it can allow anyone to easily produce realistic imagery, for example, but that imagery might also defy the laws of reality. That’s not ideal if your aim is to create manufacturable products. Anyone who has played around with AI image generators also knows how difficult it can be to write prompts that yield the results you want. Shoppers, however, probably won’t spend a lot of time figuring out what to type in to create the clasp that attaches a charm to a chain (called a bail) and get it to look modern rather than like an antique.

Arcade had to train its AI — a mix of open-source models including Midjourney and Stable Diffusion — specifically to deal with these sorts of issues. When users type their ideas into Arcade, it also runs their text through a “prompt layer” that translates it into language that will yield the best output while blocking other outcomes. Arcade only wants the AI to generate images of jewellery, and doesn’t want it reproducing brand trademarks or sexually explicit content — some of the first things people tried to create, according to Naficy. Similarly, if a user uploads an image, Arcade will create AI-generated variations but not an exact recreation.

“The hardest part to build was the detection models that size the product,” Naficy said. “The volumetric model decides how big it is, how much it weighs and then applies pricing algorithms that we design.”

Those prices, which vary based on the design and materials, had to be negotiated with Arcade’s supply chain. Its supplier network consists of a dozen producers, ranging from individual artisans to small workshops, and spans locations from the US to India, with more producers to come. The platform uses an automatic routing mechanism to choose which supplier will make each item, based on the team’s ratings of who it deems best at that type of work. One might excel with enamel pieces; another could be a master with gems.

Each time a shopper places an order, the chosen supplier will get the AI-generated design and recreate it in physical form from the image alone. Users’ designs are available for others to buy as well, letting Arcade double as a marketplace where creators can earn a commission.

“From first impressions, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m in love with this platform,’” said Karine Hsu, founder of creative firm Slope Agency, who ended up spending a couple of hours on Arcade when it launched coming up with designs, including a pair of earrings based on celebrity hippo Moo Deng.

Hsu, a self-proclaimed jewellery lover who said she regularly plays with new AI tools, liked that she could generate jewellery with nothing more than a text prompt and that it would actually look nice. Though she ultimately didn’t buy anything, she said, because she was moving between cities and didn’t know where to have the items shipped. Her main criticism of Arcade was that, in her experience, prices were either around $150 for cheaper pieces or jumped straight to $500, with few options in between.

The generative-AI boom has spawned several companies trying to wrestle the technology into different types of user-friendly creative tools. A number of start-ups are using it to build design platforms for fashion, and Arcade isn’t the only one thinking about letting consumers turn AI designs into physical goods. The app Off/Script, which launched last year, allows users to mock up products from clothing to home decor. But they only go into production if they meet certain conditions: A design needs to collect 100 likes to be considered, and then the team assigns a sales price and order quantity. If the item then gets enough pre-orders, Off/Script will produce it.

Arcade wants to create a scenario where shoppers can see their AI designs and turn them into reality with a credit card and the click of a button.

“There’s something very shocking about that experience,” Naficy said. “I feel like it can be very addictive actually.”

The company is already thinking of how to expand. It’s branching into materials including platinum and lab-grown diamonds, and plans to launch engagement rings with diamond certification. It’s also working on upgraded features for customers and suppliers, like an editing tool so shoppers can tweak their designs. Eventually it could offer additional manufacturing techniques, too, like 3D printing.

Could the company one day apply the idea to fashion?

“I just really think that would be the very last thing we would do,” Naficy said. Producing one-off pieces of individually sized apparel isn’t easy or cost-effective.

Arcade chose to sell jewellery because it “would be more viral,” according to Naficy. People would go out wearing statement pieces they created themselves. “Also, you could bring it to life on TikTok and other social media platforms,” she added, “and critically, we thought Gen-Zers would be interested.”