Today’s brands and retailers face myriad challenges that are compounded by legacy systems and operations designed for a bygone era. Long lead times and poor demand signals provide plenty of opportunity for something to go wrong. And these days, it will. Natural disasters, armed conflicts, trade anomalies and worldwide health outbreaks have roiled apparel supply chains for years. The companies that have managed to survive are those with the agility that comes with regional diversification and a model designed to deliver closer to demand.
For global sourcing company Lever Style, the solution, while not exactly simple, is evident.
In a recent conversation for HGI Now with Hertzman Global Intelligence founder Edward Hertzman, Stanley Szeto, executive chairman of Lever Style, explained that despite not having a crystal ball, he’s successfully futureproofed his company by solving the single biggest challenge weighing down so many of his competitors.
“Our advice to clients is to be as versatile as you can. Make things at the very last minute when you have the demand data and then produce in small batches so you don’t have excess inventory and therefore the discounting that’s required to clear that,” he said.
That’s how Szeto works with clients like Vince, John Varvatos and Theory, allowing them to test, iterate and pivot as necessary.
Lever Style’s operations are also distributed across 150 factory partners throughout Asia, with aspirations of potentially pushing into Turkey, Portugal and Latin America to further insulate against regional shocks.
But diversification alone won’t eliminate risk.
Activewear recently became a bigger piece of Lever Style’s portfolio—just as the Iran war is driving up manmade fiber prices and threatening productivity. Szeto is blunt about the fallout that a protracted war could have. “If this thing drags on and the Strait remains closed and people haven’t built pipelines to ship oil, then clothing will become a lot more expensive, as will a lot of other things,” he said.
Activewear recently became a bigger piece of Lever Style’s portfolio—just as the Iran war is driving up manmade fiber prices and threatening productivity. Szeto is blunt about the fallout that a protracted war could have. “If this thing drags on and the Strait remains closed and people haven’t built pipelines to ship oil, then clothing will become a lot more expensive, as will a lot of other things,” he said.
Ultimately though, with memories of the pandemic still fresh, he has perspective. “If polyester fabrics were going to be 20% or 25% higher, it’s not the end of the world. It will [present] a curve ball to operating margins and inflation, but it’s not like COVID when basically people stayed home.”
But even as he remains calm, Szeto admitted that 2026 is the year of uncertainty. A chief area of concern is consumer sentiment, which thus far has been positive despite the U.S. trade war introducing more inflation. But, he said, a recession is still a very real possibility.
“The U.S. has been on a tear. The economy has proven exceptionally resilient even through the tariffs. But a part of that is sustained by stock markets being very high. And people kept on spending,” he said. “But if these things go into reverse… then you’d have the reverse wealth effect, and people will be feeling poor and therefore spending less.”
Watch the video in which Szeto discusses how long production lead times are taking a toll on working capital, how continued uncertainty is impacting orders and why it’s time to take a second look at the fast-fashion playbook.
