“Such cuts on costs come from a series of different operations that don’t simply operate on prices, compliance audits, fabric R&D, sustainability certifications, worker welfare programs, production flexibility, and institutional knowledge built over decades,” explained Umer Farooq Qureshi.

“These aren’t soft values. They are real capital investments that simply don’t show up in a bid sheet,” he commented.

As Levi Strauss operates with many other countries, including Bangladesh and Vietnam, such cost-cutting measures have been operated in different sourcing countries and in different product categories. 

“The hypothesis builds itself: most, if not all, of Levi’s publicly reported bottom-line gains may be sitting on the backs of their suppliers, not earned through operational excellence or innovation,” he added, underscoring that such changes occurred despite the fact that companies had to also absorb high energy costs, rising minimum wages, and unprofitable exchange rates with the dollar, freight disruptions from Red Sea instability, and Iran-US tensions.

Other examples come from an alarm launched in the market, as H&M, the Swedish fast fashion giant group, has apparently started to reduce its orders from Bangladesh after many years of working with many specialized manufacturers from this country.

“For two decades I have watched global fashion brands speak the language of responsible business conduct based upon human rights due diligence, living wages, supplier partnerships, climate transition, social compliance, along with transparency and shared responsibility,” said Mostafiz Uddin, owner of the jeans manufacturing company Denim Expert, a specialized garment manufacturer from Bangladesh.

“As a Bangladeshi garment manufacturer, I behave as most serious manufacturers in my country. But the contradiction at the heart of the global garment industry is that responsible business cannot be built on irresponsible purchasing. It is now 2026, and we are still seeing brands asking suppliers to work miracles by doing more with less. Brands ask suppliers to invest, document, audit, decarbonize, trace, report, and comply with more. At the same time, commercial teams continue to demand lower prices, shorter lead times, longer payment terms, and greater flexibility. How can that be called a partnership?”

A recent Public Eye and Clean Clothes Campaign report, revealed some numbers in line with what many Bangladeshi manufacturers have experienced for years. Major buyers continue to source standard cotton T-shirts at around US$2-3 per piece, with unit prices below US$1 still found in parts of the market. It also found out that in 2025, the average EU import price for cotton T-shirts was US$16 per kg, while imports from Bangladesh averaged about US$13 per kg.

According to the report, EU buyers now pay roughly a quarter more in nominal terms for imported cotton T-shirts than they did 25 years ago. But after adjusting for inflation, they are actually paying around 30% less, Uddin explains. 

“Bangladesh has become central to this model. The same report says 61% of T-shirts imported into the EU in 2025 were sewn in Bangladesh. This business has brought jobs, foreign exchange, and industrial growth—which we are proud of. Bangladesh’s garment industry has changed millions of lives. But concentration around the lowest-cost production base also creates dependency,” continues Uddin.

“Manufacturers do not want charity from brands. We are asking buyers to recognise that a factory is more than a production unit at the end of a spreadsheet. It is a workplace that employs people, pays wages, and carries bank loans. It pays utility bills, invests in fire safety, wastewater treatment, certification, audits, training, energy efficiency, and compliance systems. If the price paid for the garment does not reflect those realities, then all the language of responsible business conduct goes out the window,” he continues.Unfortunately the market dictates the law. Costs are growing everywhere–mostly for electricity, but also for raw materials, manpower and transportation–from fabric and accessory to garment manufacturing.

“Sourcing companies from Pakistan and Bangladesh are able to offer different quality products–from basic quality other top-end precision and elaborate ones–, as they can easily answer most varied requests from the market,” commented Giovanni Petrin, expert denim insider and owner of the Blue Hands consulting company.

“Though competition is becoming harder than ever as many other productive hubs are now recalling attention from the market for their competitive prices and increasingly skilled manufacturing ability,” he adds underscoring how, for instance, Vietnam, Cambodia and Mexico have started earning market quotas, too, while offering always better quality products.

Not less important is the role of Egypt. The country is becoming another must-go destination as manpower is more affordable thanin other countries and slowly recalling business from all over the world. Among appreciated denim fabric manufacturers there are, for instance, Sharabati and DNM, as they can offer top quality materials, and, not less important, Lotus has been producing significant quality garments for the last 24 years. Along with that we can’t forget the success of Denimandjeans Egypt that on 13 and January 2027 will hold its third edition in Cairo. It’s a proof that the country wants to compete with many other jeanswear sourcing countries. Though, when it comes to the cost of its workforce is its winning ace, unfortunately for its workers, much more affordable–especially when compared with other more expensive Northern African countries like Tunisia or Morocco.

“Many countries are starting to recall attention from the market as they can count on century-long expertise in textile and apparel manufacturing. Among them there are India and China. Similarly, also Brazil is highly skilled in order to answer market’s demands,” commented Fabio Adami Dalla Val, show director, Denim Premiere Vision. 

“Until now they had mostly been busy meeting their highly populated national markets’ requests, and only a few are starting to look around and offer significant products, also looking at Europe. And gradually, but effectively, they are learning how to adapt to the European market’s standard requests,” he adds.

In a moment when the market is going through a deep transformation, and the overall dynamics are changing, companies have to take decisions in-between global resilience and new approaches to consumption. Therefore most of them are involved in new market allocations and repositioning. Though, unfortunately, they are often lead by price-driven choices only.

Looking at the luxury business is interesting, despite its rules and targets are different. International designers and maisons have recently increased prices notably to face slowed-down consumption rhythms from Asian markets with retail prices doubled or tripled when compared with the past. Despite such significant increase, the product–and hopefully the quality–have generally remained the same. This has brought to an enormous difficulty in the segment as the consumer sees no reason for spending more and has started opting for accessible luxury.

Looking back at more affordable brands, Levi’s and H&M seem to be revising their strategy in terms of suppliers, while they maintain their market segment and price point. Zara, instead, is repositioning itself by raising its prices, but also by improving the quality of its products.

Offering true value has to always guide a brand. Differently, for a great majority squeezing profits and make balance sheets profitable seems to be the only target, but this is not a winning game as the market–very soon–will give its judgement by simply looking for fairer products and more balanced value-for-money purchases.