99. Crossover Moments: Kim van der Weerd on Her Complex Relationship with Factory Floor Staff

In the final episode of the Crossover Moments mini series, Kim reflects on the key themes that emerged throughout the series. What were the beliefs guests held prior to their “crossover moment”? Why did they decide to let go of these beliefs? What did they replace them with?   Her personal experience, and the one […]

In this episode, Kim and Jessie are in conversation with Ebru Debbag, the Executive Director of Global Sales and Marketing at Soorty Enterprises Pvt.Ltd. As the daughter of a cotton farmer, Ebru spent most of her childhood running around fields. From a small atelier making doll dresses to a successful career spanning 27 years at […]

In celebration of Manufactured’s 100th episode, hosts Kim and Jessie sit down with Bergson Wang, a social and environmental compliance auditor (among many other roles) from China. As someone with a diverse career spanning over two decades, Bergson shares his journey and aspirations in sustainable fashion. He discusses how and why he began to question […]

In this episode, Kim reflects on the complexity of her relationship with production staff during her time as a garment factory manager. She addresses how integral the prevailing narrative of good workers versus bad factory managers was in shaping the way she engaged with her staff, and how it fails to capture the real, multi-dimensional […]

In this episode, Dr. Divya Jyoti and Kim sit down with Ken Pucker, former Timberland COO turned sustainable fashion critic, who now works as a Professor of Practice at the Fletcher School. Fun fact: Ken’s career began in manufacturing, and at the time he joined Timberland, they were still producing much of their footwear. Though […]

In this episode of the Crossover Moments mini-series, Kim and her co-host, Dr. Divya Jyoti, are in conversation with Saqib Sohail, a mill leader in Responsible Business Projects from Pakistan. Saqib, who has an academic background, discusses his journey from perceiving sustainability as a global positive to raising questions about its actual beneficiaries. An encounter […]

In this episode, Kim reads an article she wrote and published in July 2020 titled, ‘How Racism Shapes Fashion’s Approach to Sustainability’ where she talks about her personal relationship with the title ‘Garment Factory Manager.’ From feeling the need to qualify her role to a straightforward self-introduction, Kim’s transformation emerges from the shadows of racism […]

In this episode, Kim and her co-founder, Jessie Li, talk to researcher Dr. Divya Jyoti about her crossover moments. Divya is currently a lecturer at Lancaster University, but once envisioned a path in factory management. As a close collaborator of Manufactured for several years, Divya once saw supply chain challenges as mere technical puzzles—codes of […]

In this episode, Kim and her guest co-host, Dr.Divya Jyoti, talk to Manufactured co-founder Jessie Li about her crossover moment. She reflects on her time working for a buying office in China, and on realising that so much of the work she and her team were doing was invisible – their stresses and challenges overlooked and ignored. She shares how this realisation made her rethink everything - including how she understands the term “sustainable fashion.” This episode is part of the "Crossover Moments” miniseries, where we explore key moments of personal transformation that led people to question and ultimately reject conventional approaches to sustainable fashion.

After quietly challenging the status quo and peeling away the invisible assumptions that cloak mainstream sustainable fashion, we are now delving into personal stories. In this series, our host and former garment factory manager Kim van der Weerd shares her personal journey and, along with her co-hosts Divya Jyoti and Jessie Li, talks to industry experts about the key pivotal moments that led to them questioning and ultimately rejecting conventional approaches to sustainable fashion. This mini-series, called Crossover Moments, explores an awakening that goes behind the story, reveals more choices beyond the defaults, and explores how we can break habits to embrace alternatives. This is a journey into the heart of change. Join us in reimagining the very fabric of sustainable fashion.