003. Meet Factory Owner Piet Holten

Do you own a pair of designer glasses? Have you ever thought about who makes the handy little cleaning cloth that comes with your glasses? Our episode today is an interview with Piet Holten, founder of Pactics, and the maker of so many of these little cloths.

If you stick with us until the end, we’ll debrief a bit about some of the important themes that come up. For example, what lessons can sustainable fashion advocates draw from Piet’s decision to build his factory in the provinces instead of the city?

And how does the common practice of designating supply chain partners risks or liabilities to be minimized instead of assets in which to invest pose a challenge to equal partnership?

Piet shares some of his experiences dealing with highly specialized decision making within brands and the tension between purchasing and sustainability departments. We’ll share some of our own experiences with this as well, and try to find a constructive frame for talking about the problem.

Piet also shares quite a bit about his role in financing the cost of production for his customers. Even going so far as to call himself a bank. We’ll unpack in a little more detail what this means, and how it ties into a potential shift in perspective from supply chain partners as liabilities to supply chain partners as potential assets.

Piet’s story certainly gave us a lot to think about, and we hope you enjoy it too.

Photo Kim van der Weerd

Want to dig deeper ?

• Learn more about Luxottica from John Oliver

• Learn more about how apparel brand purchasing practices drive labor abuses from Human Rights Watch
• Check out this great investigative piece on social compliance audits by Maria Hengeveld
• Read more about Pactics in the New York Times and the Guardian, or on their website
• Check out Kim's piece about how the drive to reduce risks within brands poses barriers to sustainability

   

Photo Kim van der Weerd