The Supply Chain Is the Product

Your brand isn’t just your logo or your tagline. It’s your supply chain. 

In this solo episode, Blythe breaks down her recent BBC appearance and expands on a bold new thesis: your supply chain isn’t just a backend function. 

It’s the product. From viral TikToks to luxury handbag knockoffs, this episode explores why today’s buyers are more concerned than ever with the “how” behind their favorite stuff. And why that curiosity is your best marketing tool. 

Key takeaways: 

• Transparency isn’t just ethical. It’s profitable. 
• Gen Z and Millennials are fueling resale and sustainability trends. 
• The rise of TikTok creators is exposing global supply chain truths. 
• Brands that share sourcing stories earn long-term loyalty.

LINKS:

• Appearance on BBC's What in the World
• Tanner Leatherstein on TikTok
• Sheep Inc.
• Good on You
• Trashie

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HERE

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Chapters

• 3:11 From TikTok to the BBC
• 8:55 The Truth Behind Fast Fashion
• 14:32 Resale is on the Rise
• 22:10 Transparency as a Strategy
• 27:54 The Influence of Creator Education
• 32:41 The Supply Chain Is the Marketing

Transcript

Blythe Brumleve: 0:30

Welcome into another episode of Everything is Logistics, a podcast for the thinkers and afraid. I am your host, void Milligan, and we are proudly presented by SPI logistics. And in this episode, I want to talk about a recent appearance that I had on the BBC called a show called What in the World? Now, this is an audio based podcast that they sometimes turn into video format, but it's available over on YouTube. I will list it in the show notes, in case you want to check out the full episode. But it was about 30 minute discussion, discussion centered around how the global supply chain kind of works. I think for a lot of folks, obviously not in our industry, but for a lot of outsiders, there are a few moments over the last, say, handful of years, that the supply chain becomes top of news for them, the ever given getting stuck in the Suez Canal was One of the bigger pivotal moments this whole tariff conversation was another pivotal moment. And then there was also, whenever the tariff conversation happened, there were a lot of Chinese manufacturers and a lot of Chinese sellers that were taking it directly to Tiktok to go direct to consumer and to basically tell and inform the American people and really the world on where the overwhelming majority of stuff is manufactured. How much is the cost for each of these things? And then it trying to essentially get you to buy direct from these Chinese manufacturers, or to take it a step further, and just from what I understand and from some of the videos that I that I watched and that I gathered, is that they no longer wanted to be seen as a country that manufactures the the cheapest goods. They wanted their their manufacturers and their artisans to be known as people who do very quality work. And that, I think there's, there's definitely a hint of truth on that end. And then there's definitely a hint of truth on just, you know, a bunch of, frankly, you know, plastic junk that's, you know, been manufactured because China is the center of the world when it comes to manufacturing processes. So they manufacture a variety of different goods from the lower end, sort of the cheap crap that you know is maybe they're trying to get around that image and get around that perception and shine a light on where they're really their craftsmanship is really taking a foothold, and that's in the designer bag market. So a lot of these videos went viral. They started out on Tiktok, showing exactly how the processes is made from all kinds of different products, but I was mainly talking about the videos that were on designer handba handbags for this particular episode, it basically it formed a new thesis for myself, that the supply chain is really the product. Because for the first time in human civilization, we are seeing the global trade re be reorganized right in front of our eyes. You know the over hundreds, sometimes 1000s of years. You know global trade and ports and shipping, and you know where those goods are shipped and who buys them, and why, you know, has all been decided by a very small amount of people in all over the world. And in this particular case, in 2025 we are able to see these discussions take place in a public format, which I think is just like as a side note, is so fascinating. But then on the flip side, we are now able to see the hows and the whys of these discussions being made. And I want to bring it back to a quote that I heard years ago where Elon Musk talks about how the factory is the product and that you can't have. And basically what he was saying is that you can't have a good product that's affordable and trustworthy and dependable, and you know, all the things that you want out of a product that's being made, you can't have that unless you have the factory. I would take it a step further and say the supply chain is the factory. Because the the thesis of of what, and the the point I wanted to really hammer home during this BBC appearance is that you have to think about it's not just, let's use the designer handbag example for a second, because you can't just think about where the leather is. Maybe the leather is brought in, or the threads that is sewing the leather together, the metal that's on the bag. Where is that metal sourced? It's not necessarily the factory that puts it all together. It's the source of the source of the products, of where you're getting all over the world, and then how you're bringing those. All under in house, or whether you're using different manufacturing partners or assembly partners or packaging partners. There's lots of different structures for many different kinds of businesses all over the globe. But my thesis is that the supply chain is the product, and so it's basically talking about, you know, the machinery that also is involved, and not just the human craftsmanship, but the machinery. And so this discussion really led to sort of a larger these viral videos, rather, led to a larger discussion around where our stuff comes from, how we, you know, think about national security and also realizing, I think, some larger trends that are going on in the world. And I think, you know, the point of a lot of those viral videos that we saw, which have since been deleted. You know, a lot of those videos have been deleted for what reasons? I do not know. I can only assume, but there is a message behind some of those videos, and that is, you know, there's, there's only really one country in the world that knows the buying habits of, you know, American consumers, and that's the Chinese. They want you to buy more from them. A content creator, James Lee over on YouTube. He's done some fantastic investigative journalism, and one of the topics that he covered was this exact point was being these videos are having the goal of, even though there's this moment of time where everybody is talking about, you know, switching their manufacturing. Is it near shoring is it offshoring? Is it trying to build it in America? Is it trying to build it in a friendly country? Maybe a friendly right now country, but the Chinese are trying to get you to still buy from them over the long haul. So I think it's important for and I want to read off some of these numbers that I put together for this BBC appearance, and it's essentially China's dominance and control over a very large portion of a lot of things that are made in the world. Listen to this, that 30 to 40% of global electronics come from China. 40 to 50% of pharmaceuticals. Side note that's not included in my notes, but a side note is from map human intent over on x. He essentially said, he says that for the overwhelming majority of our livestock in the United States, they depend on a vital supplement that comes from China. And I think over 90% of our livestock in the United States is so is reliant on this one supplement, that if these, if this livestock, does not have access to that supplement, then they will die. And it's something like they have to have it every, every single day. But then if they go for a few days without it, then they are at risk of of not living, of not surviving. So that's a very scary statistic to know that individually, 40% 40 to 50% of pharmaceuticals are controlled by China. But the fact that the our in, you know, entire livestock population, damn near an entire livestock population, is dependent on a supplement that comes from China as well. Over 40% of textiles come from China. 50% of robotics, the refining of rare earths, machinery to make the machine, etc. All of these things are part of the supply chain process, and they're mostly being done in China. So another larger trend that I wanted to bring up, so that's that's one sort of larger, large trend that has been trending, frankly, for the the last couple of decades. Another trend that I think that these videos are really, that have really hinted at, is the morality dilemma, and that for many of us this, this tariff conversation, these global trade conversations, this could be a much needed wake up call on our own consumerism habits. Few more stats that that James Lee had in his video, and he said us, household debt has tripled over the last three over the years, per Forbes, less than 1% of urban Chinese citizens use consumer loans to purchase consumer goods, while 47% of all US families have installment loans and 46% carry a credit card balance. Remember what my point about? Nobody knows the consumer. Nobody knows the US consumer, like China does, and they know that we are big spenders. They know that we are willing to go into debt over some of these consumerism practices. And so the morality dilemma comes into play whenever you think about, you know, some of the, I guess, over the last handful of years, the. Lack of trust in institutions, especially elite high fashion ones. There's a lot of, you know, a growing concern about where products are made, where, you know, fabrics are sourced. It's sort of a, I think, a lifting of the veil moment for some viewers over on Tiktok, whenever these videos were released. And I mean, I had known that, you know, China has manufactured, you know, a good majority of our products, but I didn't know it was to that extent. And I think it's, I even work in this industry, and I didn't know it was that many industries to that level of extent. And I think that this is sort of lifting of the veil and of our morality of like, what we should be doing, what we should be buying, maybe what we should not be buying. It really is shocking how much of the world China controls through controlling the their supply chain and treating the supply chain as a product. Now, on the flip side, I do think that for a lot of these designer bags, you know, a good move or a good, I would say, not, not a good response, but it was a response for many folks, is that they're just going to go buy direct instead of, you know, going into a Hermes store and hoping that you can get put on a waiting list to be able to have the honor, I guess, of spending 1000s of dollars for a designer purse. You know, maybe you would be able to do something else with that money, and be able to, you know, buy direct from a Chinese manufacturer, instead of going directly into the the Hermes shop. I do think, though, that there is a certain level of people that for the rest of their lives, they're always in for really future generations, they're always going to look for a way to signal wealth, and I think designer handbags and designer clothes and things like that. Some of the quality can still be questioned. The quality, plus the price could absolutely be questioned. And then some of the standards around what some of these companies, they're, I guess, their own morality as well, is that something that you would want to support with your own money. And I think what we're seeing is a greater rise in in different consumerism paths, and there's a few trends that I kind of want to pull on here. So if you're not part of that wealth group that wants to signal that you're wealthy, and a designer handbag is a perfect way to do that. There are lots of in many other ways. Cars are one of them. Houses are one of them. There is a few different trends that are happening in the United States in particular. And I think that this will will help resonate, or maybe it might, you might resonate with some of these different stats. And the one of the points is that rise in vintage shops, in flea markets. And one of the stats was, consumer behavior is a key driver. 70% of global consumers are planning to buy used goods this year, and 86% having bought or sold pre loved items in the last 12 months. This trend is particularly strong among millennials and Gen Z, who value sustainability, with over 1 million Instagram posts tagged sustainable fashion in 2023 now there's another aspect to this trend, and that is the thrill of the hunt. So think about it, from the vintage flea market. Or vintage vintage flea market is kind of an oxymoron, but the vintage markets a flea market, these are place and even to the point of like home goods or TJ Maxx, these are side note retailers that are surviving and thriving in an era where, you know, online shopping has, you know, sort of dominated the landscape over the last, say, five years. But then you think about it from the in person people searching for community type angle, and that's where thrift stores come into play, and that's where, you know, being able to find something that noone else has is very key. It's very pivotal. And sometimes people use this as a communication method. You know, fashion is very much a communication style of who you can communicate to and why of your own personal interests. And so it just kind of naturally makes sense that in a world where things are so especially clothing, especially fast fashion, so copy paste that people are looking to stand out a little bit more, and finding something that is a little bit older, it's probably made better. It's better quality. You can get it for much cheaper. And then you can also have that sort of feel good vibe that you're going to wear, something that probably no one else has, none of your friend group, or, you know, people out are going to be wearing. And then you can also have the, I guess, the moral compass of you know, your. Cycling something instead of going and buying a t shirt from Shein, that's going to last, you know, five seconds, and you're you're going to wash it, and it's going to fall apart. So there's a little bit of that morality at play, too. Now, if we switch gears a little bit, wait, first, I did want to mention this stat, because there's also the popularity of online resale platforms, and that's where I kind of wanted to switch gears a little bit, is to go into the online aspect of some of these different, you know, vintage style or resale type markets. But the popularity of online resale platforms, while not directly vintage shops or flea markets, they also support the broader market with eBay's pre loved apparel sales growing over 400% globally from March 2023 to march 2024 That's an insane stat, 400% globally from March 2023, to march 2024 now what does that look like online? It's what you know, kind of the going back to the the viral videos, it's also a level of information war, where if you can win the PR and the information battle, then you you have a chance to sort of change the trajectory of how some of these policies are being made, what the conversation stems from, who's having the conversations. And so I think that that is the information war is, is a very key part of this trade war as well, or hopefully the trade war is ending. We don't know it's depending on when you're listening to this. Who knows? I'm recording this on May 14. We do tentatively have a trade deal with China right now, so it's not essentially a trade war anymore. Will that change in the future? Nobody knows. I'm recording this at night on May 14, just in case it changes within the next hour or so, which is sometimes has happened when I've been recording over the last few weeks during all of this T word drama, and that is a tariff drama. Okay, so what does that look like online? Now? What this looks like online, and where we've covered in some previous episodes, is how companies are starting to be more forward with how they talk about their supply chain online. There are some websites that can't that give out that list out their entire supply chain, where your supply chain can become your competitive advantage. And so one, okay, one of the stats that this one company, and I'll mention the company here in just a minute, but they talk about one of those competitive advantages in that one dump truck of clothing is burned every minute of every day, and the average person buys a new piece of clothing every five days. Now these are all the all of these numbers are before, sort of the the tariff drama, which we've seen purchasing fall off of a cliff for sites like temu and Shein, because that you know, you're only really buying these products because you can get them quick and you can get them cheap. You don't really care about sort of the quality, because you're kind of rolling the dice anyways. And so that that's kind of stems back to the morality dilemma that I think for a lot of folks, we are kind of starting to alter how we spend money. I mean, at least I know for myself, like I had zero problem ordering, you know, 100 bucks worth of Shein clothing, getting 30 outfits and sending 20 of them back. And I would do this probably once or twice a year, just in order to have maybe, like a summer hall or like a winter haul of outfits. I'm a Floridian. I don't really have, you know, a lot of, like, winter clothes. So I bought a ton of winter clothes. Wasn't sure which ones I was going to wear, but then I just ended up shipping and returning back the rest of them. Now, not so much. I'm not going to do that now, and that is a morality thing that I should have recognized before. But it took all of this sort of global trade drama to really break myself of just instantly, like buying things and just because it's on my phone. You know, social media ads have got me pretty good, especially on Tiktok. Those at the way that they can target content and ads is unlike no other Instagram is also very good when it comes to targeting as well. But Tiktok will get me so much more than any other platform and but since all of this drama has started, it has really, I would say, cut my spending on social media, I think, has been cut by 80% and that is a dramatic amount of savings. So I don't know if that's happening for a lot of other people, but based on the sales that she in and Timu, I would be confident in saying that that definitely has been happening. And we're, you know, we, before all of this tariff drama, we were living in a world where we were just buying more and more and more and not really caring about the environment. But an average person buys a new piece of clothing or. Five days in one dump truck of clothing is burned every minute of every day. That is insane with how much we're purchasing. Remember, a lot of this stuff, it doesn't last. And so that's where you see the trends, and sort of the rising of the vintage marts and the flea markets and things like and the online resellers and things like that. So my my thesis around the supply chain being the product evolves into brands need to really own their supply chain and really use it as a marketing competitive advantage, because people are becoming more aware also of greenwashing. Creators have also made this their marketing strategy. If you've checked out the tanner leather Stein, he tests leather goods and highlights the small brands doing it right. He is a creator over on Tiktok, and you might have seen him taking like these designer bags and destroying them and testing them. He'll cut them up. He'll, he'll, you know, rub the leather. He'll do all these different quality tests to see if it's actually worth it to purchase these high, expensive brands. He was doing all of the storytelling as a hobby, and then when all of the tariff drama and global supply chain drama starts dropping, it was kind of a cool moment to watch him know exactly where all of these materials come from. He's he's been shining a light on the brands that have been doing it right, even smaller brands that are less famous and also less expensive, but have better quality and better artisans that are putting together these different bags. He's been shining a light on them now, because of all this drama, he has now been able to take his storytelling to another level, where he's building his own products. He's building his own quality, designer looking bags, and he's doing it all himself. His name is Tanner leatherstein over on Tiktok. So if you have a chance to follow him, highly, highly recommend it, because he he's he's one of those creators that I felt, that I feel, has been doing things the right way and building an audience and building great storytelling in order to help his audience become more educated, and then, in the process, now he has a, you know, he's able to develop a product of his own. So I just think that's super cool, and it's, it's super interesting. And really, you want to, I want to support people like that, so check them out. I'll list them in the show notes. Let me make a note to myself. Now, there's another aspect of this, where consumers are also becoming more knowledgeable about the fibers in the products that they're buying. And so for a lot of folks, I never knew to look at like thread counts. I never knew to look at the different materials of what house stuff is made. I would look at it too. I would see like, you know, polyester, for example. I frankly like the way polyester feels. It's soft, it's comfortable. It's in a lot of my workout clothes, but it's also trying to kill me as well. And so knowing that fact, I adjust my purchasing habits accordingly, and then also knowing that fact, I can better investigate things that maybe I want to spend a little bit extra money on, but I also don't want to spend a little bit of extra money just for the sake of a name, so being able to look at, you know, really, I wedding season is upon us. And so looking for dresses online. If a dress is $200 and it's made out of polyester, I don't think so. But if it's a workout shirt and it's $20 and it's polyester, I might think so. And so just not having that different educational awareness that is really sort of stirred up over the last couple of years, I would say now it's in really in the mainstream of where your stuff comes from and the types of products that are being used. That's an educational gap that we are filling. Now, there's another company that I did want to mention that, I think, and I've mentioned on a previous show with Grace Sharky freight Friends episode, but fibers like cotton and wool having the longest shelf life. Like, I mean, I knew about like cotton and I knew like wool. Like, I'm a Floridian, so I don't have much wool stuff. I don't necessarily need it all that much, but there was one company called sheep Inc, where they have transparency and traceability on all of their clothing that they sell. And the way that they do this is that with their they talk about sheep ink DNA, and the transparency and traceability are the pieces of that DNA, and they complete the picture of a responsible label. Now, how do they do this? Every piece of of clothing, or maybe a coat or something that you buy from sheep ink, it comes with a tag that's on the code itself, and you can scan that. That tag has a QR code on it. You can scan it, and then you can go to their site and you can see the exact. Sheep that it came from that's still alive. It's still alive sheep, but you can see where the wool was taken from that sheep to make your product. And I think that that is so cool. It's obviously sustainability and being an environmentally friendly brand, and all of those good things, you can say all of those things, and a lot of companies try to say those things, but this sheep, Inc, takes it a step further, where you can actually see the sheep that your product was coming from, and you can do it, and it's built right into the label, and it's built right into the ethos of the company. So they not only are practicing what they preach, but they're teaching their consumers in the process of where their product is coming from, the supply chain is the product. And that's the point I really want to hammer home, is that this can be a competitive advantage. I don't think that sheep Inc is going to be the last company that ever does this. I think that the companies who are more forthcoming with their supply chain and how their products get to you, how they they charge money, and each step of that process, I think that transparency is what people are craving, because they want to know how stuff works. They want to know where their stuff is coming from, and they also want to know that you're not scamming them, and that's another side of the coin where you have a lot of brands who are a little fake about their environmentalism. They're a little fake about their sustainability goals. They talk a good game, but they don't exactly live up to it. And so if you are curious about, you know, any company, there are a couple different sites that can or there's one site in particular, it's called Good on you dot eco. So good on you dot eco, where you can see companies that are true or kind of fibbing about their supply chain and how environmentally friendly they are. So you can use use that site is kind of like a cross reference in order to make sure that you know you or not to make sure, but to maybe support a brand with your money that are doing things the right way. So check out that site. Then there's another site called trashy.io where, if you're going through, you know, this sort of springtime right now, you I do this in the fall as well, but you're cleaning out your entire closet, and you're making room for new stuff to go buy, or maybe, you know, not buy as much. Yeah, it's neither here nor there. But if you're looking to get rid of some items, there's a company called trashy.io where you pay for a bag. So you pay for, like a giant bag, a shipping bag. Essentially, they send it to you. You're typically are paying like 10 bucks for a few different bags. They do this for electronics as well. And so they send it back to you. You fill it up, you send it back. And then they tell they give you a certain amount of money in partner money that you could spend on their partner sites. So let's use different retailers. For example, we'll partner with trashy to say that, hey, if you're going to clean out room in your closet by donating a bunch of goods, then you're going to get a little bit of cash back, and then you can use it to spend at our different retail partners. I love that they do it with consumer electronics as well. I can't tell you how many damn USB cords I have just everywhere. The fact that a USB cord is shipped with every single product when we all have more than enough of what we need. As far as USB cords are concerned, I sustainability idea is give people the option to ship with or without the USB cord so we don't have to keep going through this constantly. I cannot imagine how much waste is being created every single day based on USB cords that noone is going to use. So trashy does that as well, where they have an electronics component bag that you can send in all of your spare electronic components, so you don't have to, you know, throw them in the nearest landfill or littered or whatever, or maybe they just sit in a drawer somewhere. So put them to good use. So I'll put both of those links in the show notes, just to make it easy. But just the last few points I want to wrap up here based on that BBC appearance, is that the supply chain is now the product. You can use this as your marketing advantage, and then you can also just use it as a morality advantage. So transparency, open, I think that that will lead to greater gains in the future for both brands and just the planet in general. So the supply chain is now the product. Every business owner should be aware of it, but you can only focus on what you can control. So prioritizing diversity of sources income and maintaining optionality is key to a lot of phases in life, but especially your supply chain. So I will also link to that BBC. Interview. In case you wanted to take a listen, we'll put all of those links in the show notes, just to make things easy. But I just kind of wanted to spread this thesis far and wide, that your supply chain is now the product, and you could benefit massively by showcasing if you're doing things the right way, and if you're not doing things the right way, or you want to support companies that are doing things the right way. There are also additional resources as well. So hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see in the next one. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of everything is logistics, where we talk all things supply chain for the thinkers in freight, if you liked this episode, there's plenty more where that came from. Be sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you never miss a conversation. The show is also available in video format over on YouTube, just by searching everything is logistics, and if you're working in freight logistics or supply chain marketing, check out my company, digital dispatch, we help you build smarter websites and marketing systems that actually drive results, not just vanity metrics. Additionally, if you're trying to find the right freight tech tools or partners without getting buried in buzzwords, head on over to cargorex.io where we're building the largest database of logistics services and solutions. All the links you need are in the show notes. I'll catch you in the Next episode in Go Jags