As a service provider to many apparel retailers and wholesalers, we did not know how or if the Suez Canal disaster would affect us and in what way.
There were certainly many scenarios going through our minds. First, would our customers’ goods be so delayed that they could miss their launch dates for their new merchandise? Second, if there are issues with their goods when they arrive at their distribution centers, will they have time to remediate or re-work with the issue with us and get it online or in the stores on time?
Once the canal was re-opened, it was a race to get all the US bound ships here and unloaded. As it turns out, two of our customers had a significant number of units on one of these ships. Unfortunately, one of the containers on the ship had a few holes on the top of it and caused the rainwater to get in. The garments inside the cartons were soaked upon arrival in the US.
This retailer desperately needed these goods online and, in the stores, as they were a big part of a spring launch. Their first inclination was to call the insurance company and trash the goods as they looked totally ruined, but someone suggested that they call the Darn It Apparel Repair Team and see what we could do to help.
Time being of the essence, the goods arrived at Darn It within 2 days of them arriving at our customer’s door. We immediately removed the 22,000 pants from the soaked cartons and hung them up to dry. Some of the pants had some visible mold and a musty smell to them and some were just wet. Once dry, our Apparel Inspection Team moved all the units to our two Ozone Chambers for mold remediation and to rid of the musty smell. After that process was completed, all the units had to be inspected, re-ticketed with new price tickets, folded and bagged. For those with visible mold, they had to be spot cleaned and re-inspected.
Most of the 22,000 garments were salvaged and looked like they had never been touched. Our customer was able to get them to the stores one day before the big launch.
How were you affected by the Suez Canal mess? Email us your story at jeff@darnit.com and we will send you out a $10 Starbucks gift card!! Happy Spring to everyone!
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