The Role of an Advocate in Innovating the Adaptive Apparel Market: A Case Study

The apparel global supply chain is fragmented and globalized, making it challenging to satisfy consumers’ wants and needs. Thus, to satisfy the consumer's wants and needs, global supply chain management is critical to a brand's success in the marketplace. The goal of this study was to gain an in-depth, holistic, and contextualized understanding of the experience and knowledge Mindy Scheier, an adaptive apparel advocate, gained by managing and negotiating the existing supply chain functions during her collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger® to launch the first mainstream children's adaptive apparel line. To achieve this goal, a case study was deployed. The authors found that supply chain networks required unique adaptations to their existing manufacturing processes to ensure the adaptive design innovations were viable; however, those supply chain adaptations were not significant. Further, the authors found that a collaborative partnership with an advocate seemingly provided a competitive advantage in the marketplace.