ICYMI: This time last year. Plus, news and freebies
Hello Friends,
How is everyone doing?
Today is the day that our team should be hopping on planes en route to Amsterdam for our Kingpins Amsterdam show. Instead, we are full-steam-ahead on Kingpins24, the new online event we dreamt up and executed in about a month. Life is weird but we feel like the lucky ones right now.
Kingpins24 launches on Wednesday (April 22/23) and we could not be more excited to connect with our denim community. We’ve packed it with as much information, inspiration and education as we could. And, much to our delight, so many of our industry friends and partners worked super hard to join us. The result is more than 135 presentations (including videos and PDFs) and more than 35 seminars, webinars and interviews.
The program for Kingpins24 was released late this week and you can see it HERE.
Anchored by the daily live stream, Kingpins24 will also feature a robust offering of on-demand content, featuring a mix of presentations, videos and Kingpins24-exclusive content from Denim Dudes, United Nations Office for Partnerships, Conscious Fashion Campaign, NPD Group, Vintage Showroom, Ravensbourne University, Simply Suzette, PVH, Kingpins MSP x Piero Turk, HTNK Fashion Recruitment + Consultancy, Mohsin Sajid and many more. So if you see something tasty on the program but can’t catch it during the livestream – watch it on-demand. Easy peasy, lemon-squeezy.
Register HERE for Kingpins24.
Kingpins Trend x Denim Dudes will be screening an hour-long video during Kingpins24 where they will run through the complete F/W 2021 Denim Trend Forecast. It costs $35 to attend. It’s the ONLY part of Kingpins24 that isn’t free. Plus, because they are truly lovely, Amy and Sam have made three additional and really great videos that tie in with their trend forecast and these are available for free on demand.
Anyway, what we’re saying is that you should join us. We hope you will.
Thanks for reading. Stay safe out there.
-The Kingpins Team
Links to keep you informed and inspired:
Uzbekistan seeks end of cotton boycott as virus weighs on economy
The boycott of Uzbekistan’s cotton has in place since 2006 over rights abuses and the Uzbek government is claiming that it has deepened unemployment and economic weakness. Now, as the coronavirus threatens to weaken Uzbekistan’s economy, the country is calling for a boycott of its cotton to be lifted.
Some background: “Since the Soviet period, Uzbekistan had used forced and child labour in its vast cotton fields. Every harvest season, school pupils, university students as well as public administration workers – including doctors, teachers and military staff – were obliged to spend weeks picking cotton on state-owned fields without financial compensation.”
Read More: Uzbekistan seeks end of cotton boycott as virus weighs on economy
Cotton demand plummets during coronavirus pandemic
Stores are closed and consumers aren’t buying, meanwhile brands and retailers are cancelling orders. One outcome of this nightmare scenario is that demand for cotton is so low that even though prices hit their lowest levels in more than a decade, retailers and manufacturing facilities around the world are cancelling orders. Plus, farmers are about to start planting and the price of cotton is below the cost of production, so some may have to pivot to a different crop. But those that don’t may find that they’ve got nowhere to store their 2020 crops because exports and demand are down by so much that overall stocks of stored cotton in the US are hitting record highs. So there’s a chance that there won’t be sufficient storage for this fall’s harvest.
Read More: Cotton demand plummets during coronavirus pandemic
Our friends at Sportswear Int’l and Rivet have released their denim-centric issues. Normally we would have proudly distributed these magazines next week at Kingpins Amsterdam (😭😭😭) but since we can’t do that this season, we’re distributing them here. Click the links below to get your copies. ALSO, WeAr Magazine is giving their new denim issue to attendees of Kingpins24 next week for FREE. So be sure to join us and snag that magazine as well.
Read More:
Sportswear International Releases Denim Sourcing Issue
Rivet Celebrates LA’s Denim Scene
Apparently, people are hating on jeans during quarantine. AS IF THINGS AREN’T BIZARRE AND TERRIBLE ENOUGH ALREADY. #distancingindenim #indigoinisolation
Read More:
I’ve Worn Denim Every Day of Quarantine and No, I’m Not a Sociopath
