Blue Cast: Andrew Olah on Building a More Sustainable Denim Business
Blue Cast is a podcast series from the TENCEL™ Denim team. Each episode features a conversation with a special guest from within the industry or the fringes of the denim community. The following is a recap of Episode 514.
Within the denim business, Kingpins founder Andrew Olah is something of an industry celebrity. His origin story began in the 1970s, as he joined and then took over his family’s textile agency business in Canada, following in his father’s footsteps. A few years after relocating the company to New York in 1998, he launched Kingpins as a party to meet more customers, and by 2008 it had blossomed into a commercial event. The rest is history, and today Kingpins spans shows in New York, Amsterdam, China and Hong Kong.
After passing the CEO torch at Kingpins to Vivian Wang earlier this year, Andrew has entered a new era of his career. As he explained to Lenzing’s Tuncay Kilickan in the latest episode of our Blue Cast podcast, his goal is to put commercial pursuits aside and focus on nonprofit work. Two of these nonprofit endeavors are Transformers Foundation—founded in 2020—and the Ethical Denim Council—launched in 2022.
The driving motivation behind Andrew’s work is to make the industry more environmentally and socially responsible.
Transformers Foundation was designed to be a resource for the industry—including students—to learn about better denim production, with initiatives including live events, digital classes and reports.
On the social side, Andrew mentioned that ironically, as “partnership” became a term in sourcing, the relationships between buyers and suppliers became less equitable. “The vendor relationships in the ‘80s and ‘90s were much more partnerships than what are called partnerships today,” he said.
The Ethical Denim Council provides a path for companies to investigate and address allegations of wrongdoing through arbitration or council hearings. Manufacturers can remain anonymous through the process, making them feel more comfortable coming forward with issues like cancelled orders or unfair delays.
History has shown that the way to drive better business practices is to call companies out. Andrew brought up the example of Nike, which faced bad press about abuse at its factories in the 1990s. After backlash escalated to boycotts, Nike decided to own up to the issues and become a leader in social responsibility. “The way to make change in our industry is to call it out publicly and to go after the stock price,” he said.
Another lever is legislation. Andrew would like to see laws compel companies to disclose information about products such as the materials and components, place of production and environmental impact. The concept already exists in food, where shoppers know exactly how much trans-fat or sugar is in a food. Having this level of transparency for other categories—including fashion—would help consumers make “proper choices.”
“The brand/retailer segment is not necessarily going to do what the laws want them to do without a law,” said Andrew. “It would be really great if everybody has a rule book…because it helps everybody, not just the supply chain. It helps all the industry altogether.”
In general, there is a need for more data about sustainability to drive change, including climate action. “Until there’s data, there’s no way that anyone can actually make a decision about anything—the governments, the consumer, nobody,” Andrew said.
Although there is much he would like to see change about the industry, Andrew has a deep affection for the business. His new podcast project, Jeansland, is a love letter to denim. “I had the best life ever. This is an amazing business if you can get into it, especially if you’re good at it and you can find a way to be good at it,” he said. “I think the podcast is a celebration of the beauty in our industry.”
Listen to the episode here.