Denim Talks

Kingpins Founder Andrew Olah recently talked with Shannon Mercer, CEO of FibreTrace, to discuss traceability tools to help brands gain insight into where their materials are coming from, as well as the role of consumer influence and compliance with international legislation aimed at ensuring responsible sourcing. 

As consumers, we have the tiniest window into how the products we use are made. Maybe you get a single country of origin or the fiber content, but that hides the many other chemicals, countries, and suppliers that contributed to its production. Andrew Olah has been in the upstream world of denim and clothing production for nearly 50 years and has run the Kingpins Show, one of the biggest markets and informational resources for denim and jeans manufacturers, since 2004. We talk with Andrew about everything from his early days in the denim business, how to run a trade show during a pandemic, and how clothing manufacturing can actually become sustainable in the future.

This week, Denim Talks is proud to introduce to a special project we’ve been working on with Lee. In the first episode, Lee’s Roian Atwood and Kingpins founder, Andrew Olah, explore each step of the denim supply chain, discussing the sustainability challenges and potential opportunities to make denim better for the world, better for the environment and better for you.New Indigood episodes will be available every other Friday. Stream The Indigood Podcast on the kingpinsshow.com website or wherever you get your podcasts.  

Visitors to Kingpins’ Denim Days in New York will remember Studio 189’s bold prints and indigo-dyed textiles. The New York-based company, founded by fashion executive Abrima Erwiah and actress Rosario Dawson, was a regular exhibitor at the consumer-facing denim festival.  We sat down with Erwiah at the festival last year to hear the story behind Studio 189 and to discuss the company’s sustainable mission. 

Sanjeev Bahl, owner of Saitex, has created a denim factory considered the cleanest in the world. Fair Trade-certified, as well as a Benefit Corporation, Saitex is constantly evolving as Bahl works to make the business cleaner, safer and more equitable. Bahl talks to us about the industry's need for a reset and what to consider to move forward. 

Paul Guez talks about the early days of designer denim, how he introduced French-style jeans to the U.S. market and that time he got Elton John to rewrite a song for him. 

For the launch episode of Kingpins podcast series Denim Talks, we sit down with Andrew Olah, the founder of Kingpins, to talk about the history of the denim supply chain trade show, as well as the denim and jeans business' efforts to be more sustainable (and the challenges of defining that term). Plus, Andrew tells us how he got hooked on denim. 

Denim Talks is the podcast by the Kingpins Show, the first-ever denim-only supply chain trade show. We're industry veterans, we're denim lovers, we like stories. Here's a tiny bit of an interview we did with Andrew Olah, founder of Kingpins Show. The full episode and more with really great denim people (Abrima Erwiah of Studio 189, Paul Guez of Sasson Jeans ('member?!), Constance Garvey of Recursive and more) will be available in 2020.Stay tuned!Denim Talks is hosted by:Alison A. Nieder, Fashion JournalistErin Barajas, Director of Communications, Kingpins