Welcome to Off the Cuff, USFIA’s member newsletter that highlights innovation and creativity from USFIA members and Partners.
Thank you for making the 2022 Apparel Importers Trade & Transportation Conference a success!
We were so excited to return to NYC for our first in-person conference in over 2 years and thank you to everyone who was able to attend. In case you missed it, or have your own memories from a terrific conference, the following is a photo recap of the day (photo credit: Lorenzo Ciniglio Photography).
After an introduction by USFIA President Julie Hughes, FIT Dean Shannon Maher, and Sr. Director & Associate General Counsel for America Eagle Outfitters and USFIA's Board Vice Chair Chris Lucas, we began the day with our perennially popular Policy Outlook panel, featuring USFIA’s Washington Counsel and Barnes & Thornburg Partner, David Spooner, USFIA’s Customs Consultant John Pellegrini, and GDLSK Partner Arthur Bodek, who shared some of his experiences with UFLPA detentions.
Peter Tirschwell, VP of Maritime, Trade, and Supply Chain at S&P Global Market Intelligence, spoke about where supply chains are headed post-COVID, followed by an update from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s Assistant Director Michael Bozza and the Port of Long Beach’s Managing Director Samantha Galltin.
Ron Klein, Principal at PwC Advisory Services, discussed PwC's research on trends in global sourcing, challenges, and capability investments.
Director of International Traffic & Customs Compliance at Golden Touch Imports, Associate FIT Professor, and USFIA Board Secretary Sonja Chapman highlighted current trends in cotton sourcing.
Janet Labuda, Head of Compliance at Maersk Customs Services, discussed the new reality of forced labor enforcement and their partnership with Altana AI.
Executive Assistant Commissioner AnnMarie Highsmith from Customs and Border Protection's Office of Trade keynoted this year's Conference, discussing forced labor enforcement actions in textiles and apparel, CBP's Fiscal Year 2023 priorities, and the need for more pockets in women's blazers.
We had several live polls that the audience could participate in from their phones.
You can see the results below:
Tara Hoffman, Managing Director at Spectra Private Brands and Akiko Inui, fmr. SVP for Value Chain Strategies from PVH Corp., each answered questions about sourcing strategies for the future.
Abby McGill, Program Officer from The Solidarity Center, spoke to the audience about responsible sourcing from Uzbekistan and the new challenges facing the country now that they have eradicated systemic forced labor.
We also heard from Bennett Freeman, co-Founder from the Cotton Campaign, in a pre-recorded video address.
Mr. Haldun Boz, a member of the iHKiB Board and iHKiB's Sustainbility and International Relations committee, told us about sustainable sourcing opportunities in Turkiye.
Our Sustainability panelists (Karla Magruder, Founder and President of Accelerating Circularity and Stewart Sheppard, Director of Sustainability & Training, HIGG) hosted a very interesting discussion about circularity and how to model environmental impacts using tools from the HIGG index.
Mark Messura, SVP of Global Supply Chain Marketing from Cotton Incorporated, and Professor James Pearce from FIT displayed some of the really cool uses for 3D technology in the fashion industry.
We finished off the day hearing from USFIA's 2022 Sponsor and Partners (Robert Chin Quee, SVP, US Customs Brokerage Product, GEODIS, Mark Jaeger, VP of Stakeholder Engagement, WRAP, and Andrea Kennedy, VP of Sustainability, Material Exchange) on how they are transforming the fashion industry.
Member News
Transformers Foundation launched their 2022 annual report, Fashion's Chemical Certification Complex: Needlessly Complicated, Woefully Ineffective, that equips fashion professionals with the actions they can take to reform chemical management in the fashion industry.
Several USFIA members released ESG reports last month that made it into the news, including American Eagle Outfitters, Levi Strauss, and UnderArmour.
Calendar of Events
November 30: What the 2022 Mid-Terms Mean for Trade Policy webinar with Barnes & Thornburg Partner and USFIA Washington Counsel David Spooner.
January 11: Join USFIA for our members-only State of the Industry virtual town hall. Hear from USFIA’s Washington Counsel David Spooner, Customs Consultant John Pellegrini, and USFIA’s 2023 Partners.
February 9: SAVE THE DATE for Fashion Forward 2023 in San Francisco. Our keynote speaker will be Executive Director Eric Choy from CBP's Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate.
Industry Events
The Journal of Commerce is hosting TPM23 February 26-March 1. This year’s theme is “Picking Up the Pieces”. Advance registration rates end November 13th. View more details and register here.
Want to share what your company is doing? Email Stephanie Gauzens (