This week, I descended on a beautiful spring day in London to participate, for the second time, in a round table discussion on sustainability hosted by the giant Japanese apparel brand Uniqlo. This event comes just two weeks after their competitor H&M did a similar thing in Stockholm, as referenced in this column.
The two events had similar ambitions but completely different outcomes. The industry as a whole can learn a lot from how both companies are handling transparency and communication regarding the big and difficult topic of transforming the fashion business model into something more sustainable.
First, I want to state the positive. In an era where sustainability is losing momentum as a priority in the fashion industry, as noted in the latest State of Fashion report, it is commendable that these giants, who both are responsible for churning out enormous amounts of textiles into the world, much of it from oil-based polyester materials, actually display a desire to be more open, to include some of the harshest critics and commentators on fashion and sustainability, and engages in conversation.
But the comparisons end after that.
Where H&M failed to provide concrete numbers on their sustainability efforts (referring to an upcoming report out on March 27), Uniqlo started their session with a thorough run-through of their sustainability work. Where H&M was vague on its use of data, Uniqlo gave a detailed report on how it uses real-time consumer feedback and RFID tracking for precision inventory management (more on this later). Where Uniqlo could specify precisely how much recycled polyester is used in their production (47.4%), H&M provided no such specificity. And where H&M kept calling the upcoming EU legislation “complex” without providing a clear roadmap, Uniqlo gave a much more rigorous answer on how they are monitoring ESPR, CSRD, CSDD, and practively trying to integrate the demands. They are also increasing their footprint of people in Brussels to stay closer to the legislative bodies.
The internal name for Uniqlo’s sustainability efforts is the project “Ariake”, dating back to 2017, and revolves around three pillars: People, Planet, and Society. They pride themselves on working long-term with their suppliers, where some 90% of production comes from 40 long-term suppliers, and 45% have been with them for 20 years or more. This is crucial for their ability to implement change, they say.
The looming problem in the fashion industry is its inherent over production, something we’ve written and talked about extensively in Scadnainvian MIND and our annual Transformation Conference. The amount of garments produced from the industry remains a mystery. Estimates range from 100-150 billion garments every year, and overproduction is estimated to be around 30%. These are guesstimates at best since there is no actual data, which kind of underscores the problem. We don’t know how much is being produced, and neither H&M nor Uniqlo provided data on their overall production valumes.
What Uniqlo did provide was the following numbers, which they understandably were very proud of sharing:
Despite growing their business by 70% in the past 7 years, their production volume has only increased by 20%.
This is a significant figure, and here is where I found the session highly interesting—much more so than the obligatory pilot project of producing some fringe part of their collection using textile-to-textile recycled polyester without providing any information on how this is being done or when we can see it being used in the broader collection. Here, we must celebrate H&M, which has shown strong leadership with its various investments in recycling operations, including the large-scale polyester manufacturer Syre.
But back to Uniqlo and its increased efficiency and reduced waste. The company credits its focus on timeless essentials in its so-called “LifeWear” collections as a strong enabler of this. While the rest of the industry is chasing trends—H&M recently stated that it needs to be “faster” to respond to market trends—Uniqlo has increased the part of its collection that is permanent to +50 garments that sell year-round.
This, combined with dedicated data-driven programs to analyse and predict the market needs, is where Uniqlo is showing leadership in the industry and is testifying to a way of working that the industry as a whole needs to adapt.
Through our work with Scandinavian MIND and Transformation Conference, we interact with various data companies that want to help the fashion industry reduce waste and overproduction using prediction software, product tracking tools, supply chain transparency, and more. This is important because a large part of the overproduction comes from brands and retailers failing to align the needs of the consumer with the production of their collections. They either produce too much of stuff people don’t want, and too little of stuff that needs to be in store more often. And the root of the problem is a lack of data throughout the industry. “Brands are operating in the dark”, as David Thunmarker from Impulso put in one of our live talks last year.
Judging by the answers we got from the panel at the Uniqlo round table, it certainly seems like the company is way ahead of the industry in this area.
For example, the company collects over 30 million data points every year, which they use to create demand forecasting on a weekly basis. Dai Tanaka, Group Senior Executive Officer, called this data “The voice or the market”, which he explained came from three different sources:
- Direct Consumer Feedback – From e-commerce purchases, customer service interactions, online reviews, and even in-store conversations (e.g., fitting room feedback logged by staff).
- Store-Level Inventory Tracking – Using RFID technology, they monitor product location and stock levels in real-time, ensuring efficient replenishment and distribution.
- Market & Industry Insights – External market data helps them track broader consumer trends beyond their stores.
One concrete example: they recently realised the rapidly changing weather of northern Britain required them to stock more cashmere during late spring, a time when many fashion companies start stocking up on summer collections.
It might be a bit unfair to compare Uniqlo and H&M, as their approach to fashion and clothing ar fundamentally different. Neither of them claim that they are being “fast fashion”, something that rings more true when comeing from Uniqlo (despite their company being literaly named Fast Retailing). I will allow some levity to H&M until their report comes out end of march, for which I already have an interview scheduled with Marcus Hartman, Regional Head of Sustainability & Public Affairs, H&M Nordic.
But comparing these to recent round tables, which had similar ambitions and formats, it is clear that Uniqlo outperformed H&M in transparency, data utilisation, and demand-driven production strategies. Many practices they talked about are things the industry as a whole should take after, and I encouraged them to be more helpful in sharing their practices with other brands (perhaps by participating in the upcoming Transformation Conference). After all, it’s companies like Uniqlo and H&M that have the resources to tackle our biggest challenges, and it would be appropriate if they allocated some of their efforts to help educate and support the 80% of the industry that is made up of small and medium-sized businesses.
After all, clothing brands should compete on the design and quality of their garments, not on the state of their data practices.
