Textile Management Master: Visiting garment factories in Vietnam and China

Hello everyone,

the situation in Hong Kong is a little crazy so forgive me for my long overdue second and third post. In my following third post I will tell you guys a little bit about the protests in Hong Kong.

But first; As part of my internship I had the awesome opportunity to visit garment factories (some already partners of Peak Performance/ some potential partners) in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hanoi and near Shenzhen.

My impression of the facilities was good, let's say the negative expectations that the word 'sweat shop' draws in my head were not met. Still I couldn't keep myself from feeling privileged when walking past the lines of the sewing workers. Some were smiling or even waving, many looked at me with a rather puzzled or curious look. It was loud, hot and humid (Im still in a south east asian country of course) but the workers still wore long sleeves, so I guess it couldn't have been that bad?

I had the possibility to see how sustainable downs (Peak Performance works with the Sustainable Down Standard, which only allows downs as a byproduct of the food and meat industry to be used) are being processed into down jackets and saw how much effort is being put into drying clothes after finishing them (because of the humidity in these countries, clothes often mold in transit).
What I found interesting was the difference in standards depending on who owns the production.
I saw Korean, Chinese and Danish owned companies. There was a danish factory which provided Air Conditioned facilities for their workers. A facility in China had a dormitory, library and a Mensa for their workers.

After talking to the owners it seemed like the factories have to move more and more outside into the country in order to still be lucrative as a work place, because big cities offer a lot of alternatives to working as a seamstress. Finding workforce in the textile industry gets harder and harder. Generally my impression was, that operating garment productions was a un-lucrative business, where the production is still mostly dealt with by hand which hinges the industry on finding cheap skilled workforce, at the same time there are different precautions to be taken into account (certifications and safety/comfort of the workers). There were some production areas in which I could see the first steps in automation, but generally it takes investment into garment technicians to develop new machines which make sewing easier and less dependent on skilled workforce. One danish factory has showed us some newly developed machines, but the industry still seems far from being automated.

My questions about working hours and breaks for the workers were answered satisfactory. Over-time work only seems to be a problem in China, where the workers - often migratory workers - want to work overtime in order to be able to return to their homes with as much money as possible earned. Social Compliance Certifications like BSCI thus often don't grade Chinese factories very well. But the Vietnamese factories did not seek to have problems with social compliance.

My bottom line is actually rather positive. Textile workforce does simple work in a simple environment but what I saw was no exploitation. Of course I can only speak for south-east asian countries in the middle to premium priced sector, I don't know what it looks like in, for instance, Bangladesh.

I can not show you too explicit pictures (because there were products of other clients being sewn) but here are some examples: