Customer Reviews

Birnbaums Global Guide to Winning the Great Garment War

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David Birnbaum is one unique man. He started his apparel career in New York, in the Garment District, then left it for a 30 year career living in China. Now he is consulting all over the world, opening plants, changing strategies, and speaking at industry meetings.
His book breaks new ground by redefining costing in a global way, using actual examples and taking into account every imaginable cost - especially those overlooked by those who only seek 'the low cost needle' and forget the basic arithmetic of full costing.
Like a text book, he defines; like a business book, he explains; and like an autobiography, he embellishes - but what he does mostly is hit you hard with 'nothing but the facts'.
To many in the apparel industry who say they are 'global', what they really mean is they are 'local' or 'regional'. David is global and therefore his book - whether you agree with his personal views or not - is a 'must read' for anyone who supplies to, works within, sources from or retails clothing of the global apparel industry.
While he does address Europe, NAFTA, the CBI and emerging regions, his experience is in that mysterious part of the world referred to as the 'Far East' or simply 'China' and is the core of the value of the study of his book.

This insightful and humorous book takes the reader on a step by step guide through the production of apparel with a focus on the cost analysis of each process. Birnbaum has frequent fictitious examples and true stories explaining the practical application of each of the ideas behind his full value cost analysis, making the book easy to read and understand.

Birnbaum's focus is to point out to the reader the folly of chasing the lowest labor rate by fully explaining the other cost variables involved in garment production. He begins with basic macro economic factors, which should be familiar to anyone who has ever taken an intermediate economics class, and illustrates the impact of country policies and conditions on product cost. He moves through indirect costs before discussing the impact of direct labor costs. The concluding chapters of the book examine the future competitive positions of the garment industry in the EU, NAFTA, and Indonesia, before finishing with a very interesting comment on the WTO and globalization.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone in the apparel industry. To anyone who is easily offended by caricatures and stereotypes, you will need to hold your nose. Birnbaum is not politically correct and uses both devices to humorous effect.

The book is good to understand the process; but information/statistics used in the book is very much outdated and misleading. If someone use the book as a guideline to select the potential supplier definitely will be in problem. Author stated that it takes two days to get a fax from a third world country. This is definitely not the case anymore as every country has access to internet. Another place the author stated that only the garments in a developed country (i.e. Italy) have the pattern and sample making facilities. This is not the case anymore. He must be talking about the situation at least 20 years ago. The author needs to visit the countries he used as examples/reference and correct the data/information to make the book useful again.

I have learned more from this 285 page book than all my years in this exciting industry working as a fabric designer, pattern maker, CAD instructor, independant consultant, and finally, business owner and manufacturer. David Birnbaum writes with wit, humor and dead-on accuracy. He makes learning about macro costs, direct costs, and indirect costs a fascinating study that is easy to wrap your head around. His observations and forecasts about China, NAFTA,the EU, CBI and Turkey to Indonesia are so insightful. This book is like talking to an Oracle.

Amazing book even with being slightly out of date. Not that big of an issue since many of the assumptions made in 2000 have developed exactly as predicted. Realistic view of the global garment market and real strategies you can use everyday.