Crazytown, Italy

This morning I woke up and went to the airport to board my fligth home after this long journey. When I arrived at the check-in counter, the gate attendant directed me to the self-service kiosk, insisting that she couldn't help me. So, I tried to check in, but failed. Returning to the attendant, I sort of gave attitude when I told her that the kiosk refused to help me check in. It turns out I was at the wrong airport! Fortunately, I was able to get myself on another flight to Paris that will arrive well in time for me to make my connection to Boston.

So now I'm in the airport lounge, killing time on the ultra-slow internet. An older lady with a tacky pink sweatshirt tucked into her high-waisted jeans (like just under her boobs) and a floral-print bucket hat walked into the lounge seemingly to scream at the lounge receptionist. She's asked for someone to take her to her gate "Now! Now! Now!" The helpful receptionist arranged someone to pick her up, but couldn't confirm when he would arrive, so bucket-hat lady responded, "Thanks for nothing!"

Promptly thereafter, she ran over to the bar area and screamed, "I need a drink so bad! So bad!" and poured herself some Johnny Walker Black Label" in the largest glass available (no ice). It is just after 9:00 in the morning.

Wool work

After a few days in Jordan, I traveled to Italy with our Chief Supply Chain Officer yesterday. The 1am wake up call was brutal, but not as horrible as trying to sleep on our 4:30am flight from Jordan to Rome, then Rome to Verona.

Upon arriving at Verona yesterday, we were whisked away to a wool textile mill to discuss how we might be able to work better with a particular wool suiting fabric supplier. Our Chief Supply Chain Officer handled all the commercial details and I basically stuck around, taking notes and tried to stay awake. For me, the most interesting part was touring the factory and watching how thread is made into huge sheets of very beautiful suiting fabric.

I'd never been in a textile mill before and I was struck by how dusty everything was. There are huge, automated weaving machines that literally spit out beautiful yards of fabric. Pinstripes, plaids, a few weird swirly patterns. Very impressive stuff.

And today, we traveled three hours from Verona to Biella, where we went to a yarn spinning mill. Again, this was a process I'd never seen so I was pretty fascinated by all the machines, especially the dyeing machine that was fully computerized. It uses far less water and less dyestuff than a traditional dye house and requires only one person to place the hanks of wool onto the machine itself, thereby reducing the likelihood of people being poisoned by the toxic dyes.

I also got to see some very beautiful fabric that was knit from super, super fine merino wool that costs approximately $600 per kg and is limited to only a few hundred of kg per year. I guess I'm becoming a textile nerd.

I could get used to this

I just arrived in Milan and am eating chocolates and drinking champagne, courtesy of one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. Too bad my stay is for all of 12 hours!

Dust to dust

In a few short hours, I'll be getting on a plane and leaving dusty Jordan. Throughout our travels the past two days, I've noticed that everything here is very monochromatic. It's all the color of sand and dust - not so interesting.

Jordan has been an interesting experience because the garment industry relies heavily on migrant labor for workers. Companies like mine need to be careful of cases where factory managers refuse workers their fair wages or keep their passports locked up, thereby rendering them indentured servants.

This country is full of challenges from a sourcing perspective, and I feel like my visit has answered a few questions, but opened up a heck of a lot more. We met with representatives from an ILO-sponsored program that seems promising as a means to help mitigate our risk as a brand that's sourcing here, but it's tough to let go of another layer of control. That said, the ILO could definitely give us some credible cover should anything go awry here.

I'm glad I had the chance to visit a few factories here. Some good ones will be added to our supply base, but there were a few that I definitely don't feel comfortable working in. Fortunately, my Sourcing team agreed and we won't be doing business with the poorer factories.

I didn't get to do any sightseeing, but on the way back to the hotel this evening, I saw some camels on the roadside!

How do you google in Arabic?

Arabic google really confused me at first!

Amman arrival

It took roughly 15 hours to travel from Casablanca, Morocco to our hotel in Amman, Jordan yesterday. It's not really a long distance, but with all the transits, the waiting at the airports and the delays, we didn't arrive at the hotel until nearly 4am.

I'm pretty much over the travel, but I have four factories, three yarn mills and one more country to visit. Hopefully, we'll get a little flavor of Jordan while in this country. Is this where Jordan Almonds come from?

Return on education

One of my undergraduate majors was French literature, a topic that was fun to study but not at all useful in my post-college life. In this part of Morocco, however, French is widely spoken and I've had the chance to use my (now limited) French with drivers and factory managers.

And since none of the co-workers I'm traveling with speak French, I feel moderately useful when I can help translate the "private" conversations our factory managers have!