By: Stefanie Keto
NIKE, Inc. announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with DyeCoo Textile Systems B.V., a Netherlands-based company that has developed and built the first commercially available waterless textile dyeing machines.
By using recycled carbon dioxide, DyeCoo’s technology eliminates the use of water in the textile dyeing process. The name “DyeCoo” was inspired by the process of “dyeing” with “CO2.” The partnership is illustrative of NIKE, Inc.’s long-term commitment to designing and developing the most superior athletic performance products for athletes and its overall sustainable business and innovation strategy.
“Waterless dyeing is a significant step in our journey to serve both the athlete and the planet, and this partnership reinforces Nike’s long-term strategy and deep commitment to innovation and sustainability,” says Eric Sprunk, Nike’s vice president of merchandising and product. “We believe this technology has the potential to revolutionize textile manufacturing, and we want to collaborate with progressive dye houses, textile manufacturers and consumer apparel brands to scale this technology and push it throughout the industry.”
By: Stefanie Keto
When Kelly Slater stormed to his history-making 11th world surfing title late last year, a team of scientists at Deakin University in Geelong were watching intently and taking notes. And not just because of the 39-year-old’s unrivalled mastery of the surf.
Slater had paddled out for his heat in the 2011 ASP World Tour off the San Francisco coast wearing a prototype, anatomically designed wetsuit that surfing giant Quiksilver is hoping will make big waves in the surfing industry.
By: Stefanie Keto
WASTE NOT: Celebrities, fashion designers and executives joined together to launch the second annual EcoChic Design Award in Hong Kong. The contest aims to raise awareness about Hong Kong’s high textile waste rates. According to Hong Kong’s environment protection department, the garment industry and public discarded an average of 234 tons of textiles into Hong Kong landfills in 2010.
“We decided to focus on waste reduction because it’s a very apparent and obvious way to improve the environment or to lessen the negative impact on the environment,” said Christina Dean, chief executive of Redress. Redress is a Hong Kong-based NGO that started the contest last year.
By: Stefanie Keto
Joseph E. Brooks, a retail executive who doubled the size of the Lord & Taylor chain and made its flagship New York store a showplace of spectacle, including elaborate retail stagecraft and a daily morning rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 84. [...]Mr. Brooks became chairman and chief executive of Lord & Taylor in 1975 during a recession brought on by the 1973 oil embargo, convinced that expansion was the cure for the company’s lagging sales. He added 26 stores to the chain, which had 19 when he began, and by the time he resigned in 1987 had more than quadrupled annual sales, to $825 million from about $200 million.
By: Stefanie Keto
Paris — In just two months, Donatella Versace has gone from touting $39 hot pants to five-figure gowns.
On the heels of a sold-out collection for retail chain H&M last November, the designer returned to the Paris haute couture catwalk this week after an eight-year absence. “After the success with the mass market, I wanted to say, ‘Don’t forget who we are!’” said Ms. Versace.
More than ever, high-end fashion houses are selling to the full spectrum of prices and customers. And, surprisingly, cheap-chic brands may be giving couture — astronomically expensive made-to-measure clothing — a new lease on life.
The more a brand peddles to the mass market, the greater the need to offset it on the high end. It’s the yin and yang of fashion. Couture is “one of the ways of keeping the balance in the middle, of maintaining the epicenter of the brand,” says luxury-goods consultant Armando Branchini.
By: Stefanie Keto
Researchers have “cloaked” a three-dimensional object, making it invisible from all angles, for the first time.
However, the demonstration works only for waves in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
It uses a shell of what are known as plasmonic materials; they present a “photo negative” of the object being cloaked, effectively cancelling it out.
The idea, outlined in New Journal of Physics, could find first application in high-resolution microscopes.
Most of the high-profile invisibility cloaking efforts have focused on the engineering of “metamaterials” – modifying materials to have properties that cannot be found in nature.
The modifications allow metamaterials to guide and channel light in unusual ways – specifically, to make the light rays arrive as if they had not passed over or been reflected by a cloaked object.
By: Stefanie Keto
Macy’s Inc. sued Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. to block a new licensing agreement with rival J.C. Penney Co., saying the agreement violated its own exclusive arrangement with the brand.
The lawsuit, filed under seal in state court in Manhattan, comes about a month after J.C. Penney inked a deal with the company founded by celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart. Under the deal, J.C. Penney will sell its own line of Martha Stewart-branded home and kitchen items and will create Martha Stewart stores within its department stores beginning in February 2013. Penney also paid $38.5 million for a 16.6% stake in Martha Stewart Living.
The move angered Macy’s, which has carried a line of Martha Stewart home and kitchen products since 2007. The line, which includes everything from bedding to dinnerware and furniture, is the department store’s top-selling home brand, a person familiar with the matter has said.
By: Stefanie Keto
J. C. Penney’s new leader has a vision for tomorrow’s shopping experience. But the retailer is still stuck with yesterday’s stores.
Ron Johnson, who oversaw Apple’s retail strategy before starting at Penney this fall, said on Wednesday that his first steps as chief executive would be to get rid of the nonstop promotions at the store and move to three kinds of prices (everyday, monthly specials and clearance). He announced a new designer partnership with Nanette Lepore, and a new spokeswoman and advertising star, Ellen DeGeneres. He also introduced a new logo, and new color-saturated advertisements that barely mention price.
Within four years, he said, the stores would be completely redone, each divided into about 100 small boutiques with a service center that he called “town square” at the center. “We haven’t given the customer enough reasons to love us,” he said in an interview.
