Sourcing Journal Radio

In the mere year and a half since it launched, Reju has already made substantial progress on its path toward scaling recycled polyester production. Last October, the textile-to-textile regeneration firm opened its first operational plant that will start deliveries this year, and it is not stopping there.

With textile industry experts at the helm—including former Under Armour chief executive Patrik Frisk as CEO—and IBM-developed technology underpinning its chemistry, Reju is on a mission to fully redesign fashion systems for circularity. Together with partners such as Goodwill, it is taking a value chain-wide approach to accelerate the textile recycling rate from where it currently stands at 1 percent.

In this episode, Frisk speaks with Sourcing Journal's sourcing and labor editor Jasmin Malik Chua about Reju's focus on textile-to-textile recycling solutions and why collaboration is critical to driving circularity forward.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Change, obstacles and opportunity sum up the state of supply chains in 2025. And while logistics are tumultuous under the best of circumstances—let alone during fiery geopolitics and a new president determined to remake the trade landscape—there's plenty of optimism and energy on many fronts.

Sourcing Journal just released its 2025 Logistics Report, which brings you the latest logistics news, from automation to mergers and acquisitions. In this episode, Lauren Parker, director of Fairchild Studio, chats with Glenn Taylor, SJ's Logistics Editor, on the report's highlights and overall industry insights.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this podcast to discover what the fashion industry is up against in 2025 and how companies can effectively navigate an unpredictable supply chain landscape.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How effectively can you verify your sustainability claims and results? This question is becoming more imperative as the industry is now being held to higher standards to report and communicate their environmental impact.

To meet these demands, companies need data. In 2020, the U.S. Cotton TrustProtocol was developed to collect and share farm-level data on six key metrics, providing participating brands and retailers with more insights into the profile of their cotton. “Those metrics are the overarching umbrella that help explain what's being done at the field level to an industry that's consuming that cotton,” said Daren Abney, executive director of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol.

The other purpose of data collection is measuring progress. Setting goals, gathering baseline figures and then benchmarking against them lets the industry know how far it has come, and what gaps it still must close. “It's not just about collecting data,” said Deepika Mishra, Ph.D., standards and data lead consultant at the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. “It's about using it to drive real, measurable improvements in the sustainability of cotton production.”

Listen to Abney and Mishra in conversation with Jasmin Malik Chua, sourcing and labor editor at Sourcing Journal, to learn how the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol is using traceability to give brands a full picture of the cotton supply chain.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a new administration takes office in the United States, the retail industry is watching what will happen with trade. While tariffs could hike the import price of finished goods, they would also have an impact on the cotton market.

Any trade conflicts with China could disrupt a key export destination for U.S.-grown cotton if China pushes back with its own tariffs, as it did in 2018. “China just didn't take our increases…sitting down,” said Jon Devine, senior economist at Cotton Incorporated. “They did have some retaliation, and one of the first products to be hit in terms of the U.S. trade to China was cotton.”

Listen to this chat between Devine and Alex Harrell, staff writer at Sourcing Journal, to hear more about what to watch for in the next Trump term and whether a recession is likely in the next year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sourcing Journal turned 15 this year, so there was a lot to celebrate at its annual Fall Summit held in New York this November. The event tackled trade issues and industry turmoil, not to mention Trump's proposed tariffs, which were particularly top of mind as the event occurred just days after the election.

In this episode, Lauren Parker, Director of SJ and Fairchild Studios chats with Peter Sadera, Sourcing Journal's editor in chief, about event highlights and its accompanying Companion Report, which recaps the event and also "continues the conversation."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ESPR is one of the most comprehensive sustainability regulations so far in the world. Min Zhu of testing, inspection and certification company SGS chats with Lauren Parker of SJ and Fairchild Studios to offer insights.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this fireside chat, Andre Claudio, staff writer, strategic content at Sourcing Journal, chats with Kendall Becker, fashion and editorial strategy director at Trendalytics, about how the retail intelligence platform is leveraging this technology to help retailers make more profitable, data-driven decisions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this fireside chat, Lauren Parker, director of Sourcing Journal and Fairchild Studios, chats with Kelly West, manager of business development for North America of Trimco Group (based in the U.S.), and Claire Piccinno, sustainability advisor and ProductDNA team leader of Trimco Group (based in France) to get a global perspective on this evolving issue.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast, Glenn Taylor, logistics editor at Sourcing Journal, and Cayce Roy, founder and CEO of Standvast, discuss how the company is shaping the future of order fulfillment through its innovative technology and services.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices