Children's clothing hidden danger lurking the entire industrial chain

Editor's note: “Children’s clothing is more difficult to maintain rights. When consumers buy children’s clothes, it is easy to ignore the safety and quality issues of children’s clothing.” As China’s children’s wear market continues to grow bigger and the children’s wear pattern continues to change, children’s clothing safety issues that have been difficult to solve need to be renewed. Look.

Children's wear is not a "shrinking" adult clothing. The safety of children's clothing also deserves attention. Every year quality sampling, children's wear are inevitably become "the hardest hit", including a series of well-known children's wear such as Adidas, H & M, Li Ying Fang, Bab bean are not spared. According to industry insiders, since nearly 50% of the market is not branded children's wear, consumers need to be vigilant when buying. "On the one hand, children's clothing rights protection is more difficult, especially when it comes to chemical substandard products; on the other hand, when consumers buy children's clothing, children's clothing safety and quality issues are easily overlooked." As the children's clothing market in China continues to be bigger, the children's clothing pattern continues to change, Children's clothing safety problems that have been difficult to solve before have to be re-examined.

Children's clothing "poison" lurking the entire industrial chain According to incomplete statistics, in 2010 China's children's clothing production was about 5 billion (sets), accounting for 11% of the garment industry. China's children's wear manufacturing enterprises have at least about 10,000, mainly in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian, and Guangdong, with a certain number of children's wear manufacturing enterprises around 6,000, and there are less than 200 well-known children's wear enterprises.

In terms of buying clothes for children, many parents are not afraid of spending money, but they are afraid to spend money and buy unqualified products because the problem of children's clothing is too great.

Liu Liangyu of the Children's Rescue Committee of the Chinese Social Work Association pointed out that "children's diseases have occurred, and inferior quality children's products accounted for more than 5%, and formaldehyde in children's wear and infants' clothing has exceeded the standard as the biggest killer, and environmental protection products have not been used. Some of the children's clothing that goes to the market contains toxic substances and constitutes a great deal of physical health for children."

The AQSIQ revealed that the state spends a lot of money each year on supervising and checking the quality of children's wear. Unfortunately, there are a large number of unqualified products in the annual sampling results.

The reason why the quality of children's wear has become a “big trouble” is that the deputy secretary-general of the China National Garment Association Xie Qing pointed out that the safety of children's clothing is not only a problem of production companies, but also a problem of supply chain printing, processing, etc., and the entire supply chain needs strong supervision and Deep reflection.

"We have to control the quality of children's clothing is very difficult to handle, each batch of children's clothing, after sending to the cooperation of manufacturers for processing, every enterprise, every link must be tested to solve this problem. Therefore, pay attention to the needs of children's clothing security Pay attention to the security of the entire industry chain.” Xie Qing further pointed out.

A brand dealer disclosed to the reporter of “Daily Economic News” that “To control the quality of children's clothing, we need to control raw materials. The quality of products often comes from fabrics.”

Due to the unsatisfactory export situation, many factories were converted to domestic sales at the same time. Wu Fangfang, president of Green Box Children's Wear, said, “Now, the profit rate of children's wear in the domestic market is only 5% to 8%, and the factory is naturally in the process of fabric procurement, the lower the price, the better.”

Under this circumstance, Cai Xiaoling, the owner of a children's garment export company in Ningbo, introduced that the factory had to replace the fabric to reduce costs. “A lot of cheap children's clothing flowed into the market through wholesale channels."

Children's clothing safety hidden troubles list No. 1 wanted suspects: Formaldehyde frequency: high injury index: high current use of formaldehyde auxiliaries is more cotton textiles, the use of formaldehyde-containing additives can improve the stiffness of the cotton cloth to achieve pure cotton clothing No ironing and wrinkle-free. Formaldehyde is contained in children's clothing. Formaldehyde will gradually release during the child's wearing process. It will cause harm to the human body through the skin and respiratory tract, especially the skin and respiratory tract of infants and young children.

No. 2 wanted criminals: frequency of toxic aromatic amines: moderate damage index: extremely high due to easy coloring, low prices, aromatic amines will still be used by some printing companies. If these dyes are exposed to the human body, they may decompose carcinogenic aromatic amines. Solids and vapors containing aromatic amine dyes can rapidly enter the body through the skin. These aromatic amines are decomposed and enter the body, where they undergo a reduction reaction to produce carcinogenic aromatic amine compounds.

No. 3 wanted criminal: Decorative string, etc. Frequency of occurrence: Very high Damage index: High A type is a playground. When playing slides, it is strangled by a rope on a hat or a collar; Children's jackets and drawstrings at the hem of the sweatshirt are held by the door. Hang up with bicycles, etc., causing serious injury or even death of children. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has now begun a total ban on the sale of children's clothing with ropes on the market.

No. 4 wanted criminals: buttons, zippers, etc. Appearance frequency: high damage index: high because infants and young children like to pull clothes, bite clothes, accessories in the zipper, buttons, and a variety of plastic decorative parts not enough sewing strength or other causes of loss, It is easy to swallow by children and cause suffocation or other security risks.

Standards and More Blind Spots Are Difficult to Disturb the Quality of Children's Wear

The existence of "toxic" children's clothing is undoubtedly a "time **" for infant and child health. Although the supervision department has continuously increased its investment in capital and manpower every year, there are still many blind spots that allow “toxic” clothing to be available.

Xie Qing, deputy secretary-general of the Garment Association, pointed out: “Our country has comprehensive and strict regulations on children's products. However, there are some problems in the implementation level. Some local inspection agencies have produced problematic inspection reports in order to collect fees.”

Regulatory methods need to be improved "70% of domestic children's clothing enters the market through wholesale, and these products have serious quality problems." Wu Fangfang, president of Green Box Kids, told reporters. A person who did not wish to be named to the inspection agency disclosed to the reporter of “Daily Economic News” that “Quality checks on children’s clothing outside the department stores and supermarkets and other distribution channels are not strict.”

"On the wholesale market, the relevant state agencies will also check, but the intensity is not enough." Wu Fangfang said that there are many ways businesses can escape.

“Actually, supervision by the supervisory authority alone is far from enough,” an industry source told reporters. “Even in foreign countries, it will not rely on the regulatory authorities alone.” According to him, in the European and American countries, the children's wear market circulates. In addition to facing regulatory authorities, the products must also face regulatory power from the private sector. The two regulatory powers that make the children's wear brand most headaches are the NGO who has come from time to time and the corrective personnel dispatched by competitors.

The personage inside the industry also stated that “What is really terrible is the crackdown from competitors. Once competitors find quality and safety issues in branded children’s wear products, they will continue to use this to fight each other.” However, the domestic situation is embarrassing. Businesses will not do such a thing because they know very well that if there is a problem with the product of the other party, it is often difficult for their products to escape the blacklist."

The sales model buries the hidden danger of security "The price that the domestic businessman offers is only foreign, 50%, 60%," the Ningbo children's clothing export enterprise owner Cai Xiaoling points out, but does not have the strict third party examination like the foreign trade. Therefore, although domestic sales do not make foreign trade to make money, but according to their own circumstances and the current market environment, only strengthen the cost control. However, "to make a lot of profit in the domestic market to let profits give channels," Cai Xiaoling said.

According to the above-mentioned industry sources, many factories will choose to lower their standards when purchasing domestic fabrics, which poses a potential safety hazard for children's clothing products that circulate on the market.

According to the aforementioned industry insiders, there are many sales models in the domestic children's wear market, which basically include self-built sales outlets or underwriting by agents. For self-built outlets, most children’s clothing companies do not have this capability and they are time-consuming and laborious. If they are to be underwritten by agents, the circulation links are deducted. This layer of circulation is down, and profits are layered. Deprivation, then the manufacturer's profit margins are inevitable.

Standards, penalties, and licenses must strictly regulate the sales of children's clothing. There are also different standards for domestic and foreign trade companies.

An internal staff member of the Shanghai Quality Supervision Department engaged in clothing testing explained to the reporter that “the testing requirements of 'European Standard' and 'American Standard' are extremely stringent. Take the color detection of children's wear as an example, the detection of each color will cost thousands of yuan. In a batch of clothes, it is often necessary to detect more than 10 colors. However, domestic standards are much looser than those in Europe and the United States. "The national standard only detects the most basic quality problems of garments, and the testing of fabrics is not as strict as in Europe and the United States." ”

The punishing of problem companies is not enough, and it is also an important reason why children's clothing quality is difficult to solve.

Zhang Yan, a lawyer at Beijing Salary Law Firm, pointed out that "in the face of poor quality children's wear, the cost of consumer rights protection is high and the compensation standard is too low." A staff member of the Shanghai Quality Supervision Bureau told reporters that he needs the consumer himself. It is time-consuming and laborious for most consumers to test the problem children's clothing by an authoritative inspection agency on their own.

The above-mentioned insiders of the Shanghai Quality Supervision Department told reporters that the most fundamental reason for the frequent occurrence of quality problems for children's wear is that children's wear does not have a barrier to entry. Therefore, children's wear products should be included in the scope of production license management.

Trend industry shuffles the arrival of quality into a short board "The children's wear market is the last piece of cake left by the Chinese clothing market." Cui Hongbo, CEO of Shanghai Zhengjian Brand Management Consulting Co., Ltd. pointed out that the profits of the adult-wear market have shrunk. Children's wear is There is still a high profit market in the apparel industry.

According to Liu Jia, secretary general of the China Apparel Association Children's Wear Committee, China's children's clothing industry currently has a market size of 100 billion yuan and a production scale of 5 billion pieces.

As major domestic brands have announced their entry into the children's wear market in 2012, the Chinese children's wear industry will officially enter the reshuffle period. A well-known clothing brand manager from Fujian told the reporter of “Daily Economic News” that “the real vitality of a clothing brand is still from the product”. If you pursue the scale while giving up the quality of the product, after reaching a certain scale, the company’s profits will be Facing the ceiling.

The well-known brands at home and abroad grab 100 billion cakes to make famous brands at home and abroad enter the children's clothing market. There have been signs that the competition in the domestic children's wear market will be fiercer this year. Seeing the data provided by brand management, the top three in the domestic children's wear market in 2011 were Adidas, Nike and Balla Bara.

At the end of last year, Metersbonwe announced the official launch of the Smithsonian brand children's wear brand in the spring of 2012. Herald's newly launched children's wear brand was officially launched in the domestic market on New Year's Day in 2012. The Ningbo brand such as Taiping Bird and GXG also invested millions. Yuan prepares to enter the children's wear industry, among which the children's clothing section of Taiping Bird is basically ready to go to market.

The intention of the brand companies to make the above move is obvious, because Barabaala, the first brand in the local children's wear industry, came from Senma. Judging from the performance of Semir Corporation, under the condition of a slight slowdown in its brand growth, the business prospects of its children's wear brand Balabala are still good, and it also continues the rapid growth trend of Semir in recent years. In the first half of 2011, “Summer” casual wear realized operating revenue of 2,193,430,400 yuan, an increase of 32.75% year-on-year; “Balalalan” children’s apparel achieved 756.9337 million yuan, an increase of 57.48% year-on-year.

"The high growth of the children's wear brand will become the next battlefield for the major sports brands." Cui Hongbo pointed out.

The OEM model faced quality supervision and risk control, “the price is higher than the original, but the quality is getting worse.” Ms. Yang told reporters that a cotton T-shirt was only 90 yuan last year, this year has risen to 150 yuan, “Although signage Write 100% cotton content, but at first touch, we know that there is no 100% cotton." Ms. Yang pointed out that "opening the garment, you can see the polyester filament inside the fabric."

In order to quickly expand and seize the market, children's clothing brands generally choose to build products. While enjoying the OEM model to reduce production costs, branded clothing nowadays has to face the risks of the OEM model.

“After product line outsourcing, the biggest problem is that product quality cannot be guaranteed.” Insiders from a brand of sportswear revealed to the reporter of “Daily Economic News” that in order to rapidly expand the scale, production line outsourcing became the only way for brand development. . According to its introduction, the foundry model has a troubling problem, that is, increasing product quality supervision and control risk, brand clothing outsourcing in the production line at the same time, product quality control capacity has begun to decline, "the brand is powerless."