Word: apparel
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Amid low traffic and raunchy behavior, American Apparel and Starwood Hotels are a couple of the big brands that have pulled out of Second Life recently. Linden wants to keep others from jumping ship, since it makes money selling plots of land for as much as $1,675 apiece and charging owners $295 monthly usage fees. Some corporate outposts have figured out how to engage users and get valuable feedback. One of Second Life's big selling points, says Cory Ondreijka, Linden's chief technology officer, is "this porousness with information flowing in both directions." The site's financial success...
...experiment in self-expression. And companies are drawn to these techno-savvy trendsetters who spent 22 million hours on the site last month. But some devotees are so upset by increasing commercialization that a group called the Second Life Liberation Army last year gunned down virtual shoppers at American Apparel. So-called griefing, or on-site harassment, is on the rise. Says Gartner research chief Steve Prentice: "Second Life is moving into a phase of disillusionment...
Still, even a start-up that blows up can be rewarding, so long as the risks are appropriate. Martin Lehman was 61 when he finally opened the doors to his first women's-apparel store in 1984, realizing a lifelong dream. After a long career as a retail executive ended when he lost his job in a merger, Lehman invested a quarter of his $1 million nest egg in his new venture. His business did fine, growing to six stores in six years. Then, he says, a nasty falling out with his partner forced them to sell at a loss...
After rising steadily for a month, apparel sales surprised retailers with a 1.4% drop...
Large global corporations have, for the most part, assumed that responsibility. Nike, the athletic-apparel company, sources 78 million shoes from contract manufacturers in China and requires them, in writing, to meet Nike's standards, says spokesman Alan Marks. When the company recently decided to reduce its environmental impact by using a water-based adhesive in its shoes, Nike added layers of checks to make sure its contractors followed the new specs. Nike's product specialists developed a list of banned substances; there is systematic monitoring in the factory and quality control of the finished products. In some industries, like...