If you work in sportswear, chances are you have heard of Eusebio Sporting Goods. They were basically the first sportswear manufacture to be based in Bangladesh at a time they only seemed to export cottons, and are now known around the world. As the name would suggest, they are not Bangladeshi, but Chinese.

Today they push the boundaries of what is possible in sportswear by investing in new technologies, such as chemical recycling for blended fibres; which is now possible through their vertical operation.

But this isn’t a sales pitch for them.

I came across them again as they were listed on a website as a partner of a Swiss chemical recycling machinery provider and I remembered meeting Eusebio when I was 11 or 12. My Dad had started working with him a year or 2 before after he came across his tiny stand at Ispo, to this day my Dad’s resounding takeaway from that first day was how clever Eusebio is. I remember doing my A-levels and Dad telling me about Eusebio’s plan for Bangladesh. I don’t think either of us thought that it would lead to him to become one of the largest suppliers globally.

That got me thinking about how we (and by we, I mean buyers, procurement managers, sourcing directors etc) source our products.

It’s changed a lot since 1996 when my Dad met Eusebio.

Trade shows are still important to see physical products, but there’s a lot of skepticism stemming from the diminishing levels of trust we have within our own supply chain. Recently I learnt that 80% of new B2B relationships are now done through LinkedIn, which I can imagine will only increase now we are stuck at home.

So what advise do we have for sourcing through all the noise?

Firstly, LinkedIn is your friend. Because a company is only as good as they people they hire and if they treat them well, they stay.

Secondly, import documents are a legal requirement around the world, there are plenty of websites that list import documents into the US (here in the UK you have to request them from HMRC and you have to meet the legal criteria before you receive them). This can help you verify your supply chain.

Google maps holds a wealth of information, on the area they are in, the size of the building as well as what other suppliers and fabric mills are around there.

It’s going to be interesting to see how sourcing, developing and manufacturing is going to work now we’re less likely to travel. We’re going to be learning in the open along with everyone else, so let us know how it’s going. We can all learn from each other.

Who really knows how to source something anyway?

In The Green Room for October.

What to do about a problem like Leicester?