How REI, Wayfair and Tailored Brands are staying nimble amid supply chain disruption
From inventory constraints and halted shipments, to tariffs whiplash and waterway obstructions, brands and retailers have been battling supply chain disruption for years.
But companies are able to handle the chaos, conflicts and uncertainty a little bit better now, executives said in panels during Shoptalk Fall in Chicago last week. They’ve gotten used to having to pivot, whether there’s an issue locally or internationally. And artificial intelligence has made adapting somewhat easier than five years ago, thanks to tools that flag delays, help optimize inventory and automate tasks.
Today, agility with supply chains is really about having options, remarked Derek Geiss, chief supply chain officer and evp of international at Nutrabolt, which oversees C4 and Cellucor. The company has enjoyed explosive growth over the last six years, he said during a panel on Wednesday. “Being agile went from, ‘How do we make all of this?’ to ‘How do we have options of where to make it?'” he shared.
Still, multi-brand retailers have numerous challenges when it comes to staying nimble with their supply chains — mainly that, while they have their own supply chain teams, so do their individual brands. Each one may have a different policy when it comes to preferred vendors, packaging or shipment times. That can spring additional obstacles in retailers’ paths.
Here’s how three retailers are navigating these challenges in 2025 — and what they recommend others do, too.
Tailored Brands
Tailored Brands is the parent of menswear retailers Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank and Moores, as well as K&G Fashion Superstore. The company is no stranger to disruption, Jamie Bragg, chief supply chain officer and evp of Tailored Brands, said during a Shoptalk Fall session on Wednesday. In fact, he said, the impact has gotten “louder and louder, particularly since Covid.”
“I can’t recall a time where we didn’t see disruptions happening on a more frequent basis,” he said. “So, [it’s] very important to be able to react, have agility, [and] have a plan B, C or even D.”
Tariffs, especially, have affected the company, Bragg said. During Donald Trump’s first administration, Tailored Brands largely manufactured in China, and it reduced its manufacturing there to avoid certain tariffs. By Trump’s second term, Tailored Brands had a “fair amount” of manufacturing coming out of Mexico, Bragg said.
However, come February, Trump enacted a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico. Tailored Brands moved manufacturing to India, something that seemed like a “great decision at the time,” Bragg said. And yet, in August, the U.S. slapped a 50% tariff on goods coming in from India.
The whiplash has been challenging, Bragg conceded. But, he said, “There’s really nowhere to hide from tariffs. It’s about understanding how you mitigate what the effects of those tariffs could look like.” He mentioned that Tailored Brands has tried to stay afloat by developing “deep partnerships” with vendors, better managing inventory and re-evaluating logistics providers.
What’s also been key to navigating uncertainty has been figuring out a “base plan” and communicating across departments, Bragg said. “The more cross-functional your reaction can be, the more effective you’re going to be,” he said. “Your organization has to evolve to a point where planning and sourcing and allocation and logistics and distribution all have to be on the same sheet of music. Otherwise, the downstream consequences won’t necessarily net you what you’re trying to gain as a reaction to the disruption.”
Tailored Brands, like other companies, is dealing with a lot of unknowns, Bragg said. But, he explained, decisions have to be made — and “you have to live with those kinds of decisions.” “Not making them, in the long run, [or] standing still, is not going to help you either,” he said.
Wayfair
Wayfair, which largely sells furniture, “experienced an enormous amount of change” in the last five years, Kate Gulliver, the retailer’s CFO, said in a Shoptalk Fall session on Wednesday.
“[In the] Covid period, we had really significant demand pull forward,” Gulliver said. “Then, we had inventory challenges in our category because so much was purchased. Then, we had the category fall off. And now, we have tariffs.” The situation could get more complicated, as Trump has vowed to enact additional tariffs on the furniture industry.
One of the ways Wayfair has tried to weather the storm has been through its supplier relationships, Gulliver explained. Wayfair operates on a marketplace model and works with thousands of suppliers worldwide. It collects a large trove of data and shares that with suppliers — and “that competitive process has helped keep prices efficient during so much complexity over the last five years,” Gulliver said.
For instance, Wayfair is using data to understand “efficiency curves” within all of its categories, including appliances and pet goods. Gulliver explained that Wayfair can assist its suppliers by telling them, “We know that we have to be roughly here on the curve, regardless of where the tariffs are. Let’s help you understand how to make that price more efficient. Is it value engineering? Is it sourcing from other geographies?”
“It’s really helping them with that information and talking them through it,” Gulliver added.
REI
REI is home to many brands across the outdoors, footwear and apparel categories. Coming out of Covid, REI was “constantly trying to be agile,” Jennifer Kobus, dvp of global supply chain, acknowledged during a Shoptalk Fall panel on Wednesday. “You’re trying to do your best to keep everything afloat,” she said. She even mentioned the “pivot, pivot” scene from “Friends,” saying it stayed in her head “for years.”
Now, in 2025, Kobus thinks about agility differently. She, and REI, are “really more focused on a continuous improvement mindset,” she said.
Still, one of the complications with REI’s supply chain, Kobus acknowledged, is that the company sells all types of SKUs, “from a shoebox to a boat.” And, like Wayfair and Tailored Brands, REI is dealing with a lot of different supply chain partners. Constant communication among these is important, Kobus stressed. “Are our supply chain folks at REI talking to brands and their supply chain folks?” she asked. “How are you making sure you’re connecting the dots, but also [having a] bigger-picture understanding?”
Throughout it all, REI has stayed laser-focused on “making sure that product is in the right place, at the right time,” Kobus said. She explained that REI works with its logistics partners to make sure customers have various delivery options and that providers are “reliable and accountable.”
“We want to have a successful experience every single time, and we need to manage that throughout our variety of SKUs, as well as the variety of our supply chain model, and then just ensure that we’re constantly driving what the guests want,” Kobus said.