Although there is no real narrative to the Real Heroes ad campaign by Parisian Gentleman it does signal one thing to me - that well dressed men are fast becoming as rare as Super Heroes. For that reason alone I enjoyed the video although my concern is that it won't sell better quality menswear to the masses or even the aspirational middle class. A short walk around David Jones today in Sydney's Bondi Junction reminded me that so much of what we consume in Australia is reliant on one country, China. Although Vietnam, Turkey, India, Bangladesh and Thailand also featured on some of the garments, the overwhelming majority of clothes was from mainland China.
Whilst making in China does not worry me, our reliance on one country does. Especially when there are potential conflicts brewing between the Phillipines, Japan and the United States in the South China Sea.
My overwhelming thought was this: if a conflict ever arose over disputed territory, how quickly would the majority of these fashion companies survive in terms of trading before they would run out of product? If the Chinese government closed all the ports, how much of what was on the trading floor at David Jones would still be there? My detractors would tell me to stop being negative. They would say I was forecasting an event that would never occur or that businesses would re-route their manufacturing to other countries quickly. In fact, they would say it will be a cold day in hell before I'd be right... and... well... they might be right. And just as well, because I would not be wanting to rely on an army of Parisian Gentleman Super Heroes to fight a trade war against the wave of production that heads to China each and every year and does not seem likely to ever come back.
Whilst making in China does not worry me, our reliance on one country does. Especially when there are potential conflicts brewing between the Phillipines, Japan and the United States in the South China Sea.
My overwhelming thought was this: if a conflict ever arose over disputed territory, how quickly would the majority of these fashion companies survive in terms of trading before they would run out of product? If the Chinese government closed all the ports, how much of what was on the trading floor at David Jones would still be there? My detractors would tell me to stop being negative. They would say I was forecasting an event that would never occur or that businesses would re-route their manufacturing to other countries quickly. In fact, they would say it will be a cold day in hell before I'd be right... and... well... they might be right. And just as well, because I would not be wanting to rely on an army of Parisian Gentleman Super Heroes to fight a trade war against the wave of production that heads to China each and every year and does not seem likely to ever come back.
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