16 February 2026

Speed is celebrated in fashion. Faster drops. Faster sampling. Faster deliveries. Faster trend reactions. The industry calls it agility.

I call it addiction.

After decades in this business, I’ve seen how the obsession with speed quietly destroys quality, relationships, and long-term thinking. When timelines shrink, pressure rises. Decisions become rushed. Corners get cut—not because people are careless, but because they are cornered.

Factories are asked to sample in days instead of weeks. Production lines are rearranged overnight. Air freight replaces sea freight. Costs rise. Stress rises. Mistakes rise.

And for what? A collection that will feel “old” in two weeks?

Speed does not build strong brands. It builds fragile ones. When everything is urgent, nothing is strategic. Planning disappears. Development becomes reactive. Waste increases—extra samples, last-minute changes, cancelled orders.

True strength in sourcing is not about who moves fastest. It’s about who plans smartest. It’s about realistic calendars, stable partnerships, and disciplined launches.

Globally, the fashion industry produces well over 100 billion garments per year.

This scale of production has more than doubled since 2000 and reflects both fast fashion cycles and mass manufacturing systems.

Out of 100 billion garments:

~30 billion may never be sold.

A large portion of the remaining 70 billion is discarded quickly.

Only a tiny fraction is recycled into new clothing.
If you think we only have planet earth. Why do we need 100 billion clothes for 8.2 B people??