“I’m a fireman,” is how Yelena Mogelefsky, SVP of Production and Sourcing at Komar describes her role to her children — a perfect metaphor for the daily crisis management that defines sourcing leadership in fashion. In this captivating episode of Smarter Sourcing, Yelena walks John through how she transformed an entrepreneurial opportunity into a $150+ million division over 14 years.

From navigating the complexities of intimate apparel to managing a global team across Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and the U.S., Yelena reveals how fashion industry sourcing has evolved beyond cost-cutting to become a sophisticated discipline balancing sustainability, transparency, supply chain resilience, and value creation in an increasingly unpredictable geopolitical landscape.

Topics discussed:

• The entrepreneurial journey of building Komar’s intimate apparel division from virtually nothing to a $150+ million business, demonstrating how calculated career risk-taking and strong industry relationships can drive exponential growth.
• Komar’s strategic shift from cost-focused procurement to holistic value creation, measuring success through metrics like cost aversion, chargeback prevention, container optimization, and packaging efficiency rather than simply lowest prices.
• How Komar structures its procurement with a decentralized approach for general sourcing but maintains a centralized team specifically for their nutrition arm, illustrating how manufacturing businesses can tailor their sourcing organization to product-specific needs.
• Implementing robust supplier vetting practices after a crisis situation with a Chinese manufacturer revealed financial instability, showcasing how deep supply chain verification prevents costly production disruptions.
• The critical importance of transparency and traceability in modern sourcing, with Komar developing a proprietary technology platform to track their complete supply chain from raw materials to finished products.
• Tactical strategies for sustainability implementation, including consolidating fabric orders to achieve cost-neutral recycled materials and working collaboratively with factories to improve their environmental practices rather than simply eliminating non-compliant suppliers.
• Practical China sourcing mitigation strategies in response to geopolitical uncertainty and tariff increases, reducing Chinese manufacturing footprint from a majority position to just 20-30% of production through strategic diversification.
• Education gaps in preparing future sourcing professionals, particularly in hands-on technology experience, real-world problem-solving skills, and communication techniques for managing international supplier relationships.

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Guest Quote:

“Technology’s huge. So really, I mean, we can’t talk about technology without talking about transparency. The key word in procurement, to me, is really traceability and transparency. Those are really keys to what I think is the future of procurement and sourcing. To achieve true transparency, you need full disclosure of your supply chain, from raw materials all the way to the finished product. We need factories to disclose their full BOMs and the suppliers that are involved in that supply chain.”