這家日本新創公司專門「抹掉Logo」，卻吸引了超過200家品牌服飾跟它合作？
每個行業幾乎都存在滯銷、過季的商品，如何處理它們也成了一件的令人煩惱的事情。前段時間，超市銷毀臨期食品的事情就曾引發網友熱議，可在從業者看來，這其實是一種最安全且穩妥的解決方式。
服裝業也有著同樣的情況。雖然衣服不像食品有使用期限，就算是真的賣不出去或是過季了，還可以下放到二三級市場，或是拿到OUTLETS這類店鋪降價處理，並非只有銷毀這一種結果。
我們之前也曾報導過一些專門做「以租代售」和衣物捐贈生意的公司，同樣可以避免服裝資源的浪費。H&M、GAP都做起「租衣」生意！快時尚品牌走下坡，靠訂閱服務救得了嗎？
但並不是所有人都喜歡「性價比」，尤其是對一些快時尚或是獨立設計品牌來說，它們往往會拒絕用較大的折扣來處理自己的服裝商品。
即便這些衣服從未上架過，但如果被賤賣，損害的其實是品牌價值；而如果一直放在倉庫，也會持續產生運營費用。
鑑於這樣的原因，部分品牌依舊會選擇直接銷毀那些滯銷和過季的衣服，這和食品業是一樣的。
2018年，知名時尚品牌Burberry便對外宣布，它們一整年共銷毀了價值達2,860萬英鎊（約新台幣11.5億元）的庫存服飾和香水，根本原因還是為了保護品牌資產和設計師們的價值，避免商品被低價處理。
這麼做的也不止Burberry一家，像H&M和Zara，甚至是LV和Nike，也同樣會對那些「賣不掉」的商品採取類似的措施，從而維持產品的稀缺性，並延續品牌價值。
問題是，我們能否能找到一個兩全其美的做法，既可以讓那些滯銷、過季的衣服獲得低價銷售的機會，同時也不影響品牌方的利益？
一家名為Rename的日本新創公司便希望改變現狀。正如它的公司命名含義，它們回收商品後，就會抹掉衣服原本的品牌logo，再掛上「Rename」的標籤進行打折銷售。
該公司的創辦人名叫加藤由香（Yukari Kato），她在2008年和朋友創辦了一家名為Fine的公司，主要從事和CD、DVD租賃相關的生意，但由於營運失誤，某次Fine不小心將一張盜版光碟租借給客戶，對公司信譽造成了毀滅性打擊，銷售額更是大降了三分之二。
主營業務受到挫折，加上串流媒體趨勢的到來，加藤希望在服裝業尋求新的發展機會。
2013年，加藤在大阪批發、採購舊衣服時發現了很多她所熟知的時尚品牌，這些衣服被成堆包紮堆放在貨架上，而且基本都在以成本價進行促銷。
如果它們連打折都賣不出去，大部分只能被運往焚燒廠銷毀。
但在和服裝批發商商討二手定價時，一些品牌公司的代表告訴加藤，如果她能「抹掉」衣服上的品牌，公司可以考慮將庫存商品低價賣給她。
畢竟只有這樣，消費者才不會因產品定價差異，而對品牌本身的價值產生質疑；而服裝廠也能從折扣、低價領域脫身而出，繼續在一手市場維持自己的定價體系。
按照官網的說法，去掉品牌logo後，Rename往往能以30%-80%左右的折扣來銷售這些原本沒人買的衣服。
可這又涉及到另一個新問題——消費者是否會購買一件沒有品牌logo的衣服？
最開始，加藤嘗試在雅虎拍賣上用「109」的品牌來銷售這些衣服，主要是為了借日本澀谷的「109百貨」名義來吸引年輕人，後者被視為是澀谷的潮流象徵地。
但考慮到這樣的命名可能無法獲得年齡較大的老用戶認可，她最後選擇直接把品牌隱去，反而把衣服賣出去了。
2016年，加藤決定以「Rename」的名義來銷售這些來自不同品牌方的商品，她說這並不代表品牌的變更，僅僅是告知消費者「這個產品來自另一個品牌」的事實，並讓他們可以將關注點放在衣服本身的設計和款式上。
目前，Rename累計售出的服裝已經超過30萬件，與加藤合作的服裝品牌也超過了200家。
Rename並非是業內唯一一個採用「抹掉原品牌」的方式來銷售庫存服裝的公司。在日本大阪，同樣有一家專職幫廠商淨空庫存的公司「Shoichi」。根據朝日新聞的報導，它們會以定價1成左右的價位從原品牌手中收購服裝，取下商標後重新在自家網站或一些折扣活動場地進行二次銷售，這些衣服最終會以原定價17%-18%左右的價位賣出。
「你可以選擇按需求生產，自然不會有庫存積壓，也不會浪費，但那樣的話，消費者也要承擔成本上升的代價。」Shoichi公司的總裁山本正一（Shoichi Yamamoto）說道，他認為短期內，服裝行業仍很難解決庫存過剩的問題，但這也意味著它的業務能持續開展下去。
新聞來源：數位時代
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》優衣庫為何能捲土重來? - 品牌研究
Japanese startup weaves gold from unsold apparel
Nagoya company sells brand-name clothing under new labelEach year in Japan, more than 1.5 billion items of clothing are left to languish in stockrooms and the warehouses after failing to catch the eye of the country's legions of discerning fashionistas.
Many designer labels refuse to sell the leftover clothes at a deep discount to avoid giving a cheap image to their brand. Instead, they opt to destroy the inventory.
But Yukari Kato, the 36-year-old CEO and co-founder of Nagoya-based apparel seller Fine, has flipped the script on this wasteful practice with a simple solution: rip out the labels and sell the clothes under her company's brand.
"I wanted to resolve in some way the waste that was happening before my eyes," Kato said. "I ran with that singular thought in mind, and before I knew it I arrived at this business."
Unsold clothing from various designers pack row upon row of racks at a Fine factory in Nara, a city close to Osaka. But calling the facility a factory is a bit of a misnomer since no clothes are altered or made from scratch.
Workers instead remove brand labels from the original clothing, along with the wash care tags, and sew on labels bearing the company's own in-house brand: Rename.
The clothes are sold at a discount in retail outlets nationwide and online. By anonymizing the original brands, designer labels get to maintain their exclusivity and value.
Kato ended up in the apparel industry almost completely by happenstance. "I was originally a normal girl who liked fashion," she said.
After graduating college, Kato worked in sales at a home seller. That changed in 2008 when a friend invited her to be the co-founder of Fine.
At first, the company had nothing to do with clothes. It sold CDs and DVDs at a time when auction sites such as Yahoo Auctions were thriving. The company grew steadily and eventually opened physical branches in the Tokyo area and in the Kyushu region further south.
However, in 2011, Fine unknowingly procured pirated versions of discs and sold them to a client. It turned out to be a costly error since trust is paramount in the secondhand industry.
Immediately following that misstep, sales plunged by two-thirds. Kato's partner departed Fine, leaving her and the company saddled with debt.
"All I could think about day and night were the finances," Kato recalled.
With CDs and DVDs no longer viable revenue sources, Fine dabbled in a wide range of alternative secondhand products, with disappointing results. After several misses, Kato finally hit upon reselling unsold apparel.
"I think it was around 2013," said Kato, recalling her first visit to a wholesale shop in Osaka to procure inventory. Brands that she admired as a college student were found in bargain bins priced at the equivalent of a few dollars each.
There is little retailers can do with unsold brand-name apparel that has gone out of fashion. First there are standard sales. If that doesn't work, the leftovers are sent to outlet stores where the price is marked down further.
If clothes still fail to sell, retailers have little choice but to sell them at rock-bottom rates to discounters or destroy them. A total of 2.9 billion items of clothing went on store shelves last year, data from Kojima Fashion Marketing shows. Just 1.36 billion were purchased, leaving more than 1.5 billion unsold items of dead stock.
Kato began to wonder whether something could be done to reduce the amount of clothing waste -- whether the leftovers could find a second life with some fresh marketing.
As she searched for a supplier, a representative at an apparel company told her: "If you remove the tags and treat them as secondhand, we can sell to you."
If a company's clothing is put on the market elsewhere for cheap -- even if it failed to sell in-store in the first place -- its brand risks being devalued. But if consumers believe that the lower price is because the item has been used, then the legitimacy of the original price is preserved.
At first, Kato questioned whether customers would buy clothes without a brand name attached.
She tried listing items on Yahoo Auctions as "a 109 brand," referring to Shibuya 109, a trendy Tokyo department store catering to teenage and 20-something women. She got few takers.
Figuring that 109 might not have resonated with the relatively older Yahoo Auctions user base, Kato tried hiding the brand. The clothes sold.
Kato came to believe that some people shun certain clothes simply because of the brand, and that consumers often look at brands with a bias that blinds them to the innate value of the clothing itself. That led her to launch Rename.
Three years later, the company has sold more than 300,000 items.
When Kato launched the business in 2016, nearly all the manufacturers and department stores she contacted about buying their unsold inventory refused. But "lately they have started to contact me," she said.
For the year through September, Rename's purchases jumped 170% on the year by value, spanning more than 200 brands.
Last year, British brand Burberry touched off a firestorm of controversy when it was reported that it had burned $38 million worth of unsold stock, including clothing and accessories, to protect its brand.
At a time when companies face mounting questions about social responsibility and ethical consumption is gaining more followers, one might think that the apparel industry's views on dead stock, long shrugged off as a necessary evil, are changing.
Yet President Shoichi Yamamoto of Shoichi, an Osaka-based pioneer in the inventory liquidation business, says his business will "never go away."
"That's why I started [the company], and my thinking hasn't changed," he said.
Shoichi handles 10 million articles of clothing a year. "We have the top market share," Yamamoto said.
About 300,000 items are piled high at the company's warehouse in Osaka, located at a former ironworks. Another three to four trucks' worth of clothing is delivered there each day.
"Isn't it a wonderful thing to be able to choose clothes based on how you feel or what you like?" Yamamoto said. But he added that whenever there are multiple options, some inevitably do not get picked.
He believes it is more realistic to find a good use for unsold clothes than to reduce the leftovers. "If you don't want inventory, you need to make everything to order," he said. "But that would be prohibitively expensive. No one will be able to buy any clothes."
Yamamoto wants apparel makers to continue making fashionable products, so he always buys his own clothes at full price. "I truly respect the people who develop products at clothing brands," he said.
As an extension of this respect, he does not want designers to worry about unsold inventory. He considers it his duty to take care of the problem. Over the years, he has collected calling cards of executives from all corners of the clothing industry, from manufacturers to department stores.
Both Kato and Yamamoto have created a growing business out of leftover clothing. But their very existence is also a sign of the tough environment faced by the Japan's apparel industry.
Original Article: Asien Review
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