Ann Cantrell
Education
BA, Denison University
MBA, Green Mountain College
2019–20 FIT Faculty Excellence Award
Biography
Ann Cantrell is both an entrepreneur and an academic. She has owned a modern general store in Brooklyn, NY for the past 18+ years and has been a full-time FBM faculty member for more than 15 years. She is an advocate for small, independent businesses, often being highlighted through American Express’s Small Business Saturday program and has been interviewed and quoted in several worldwide publications including The New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, BBC World News, NBC News, MSNBC, ABC Nightly News, Associated Press, and more.
Cantrell earned an MBA with a concentration in sustainability and is a proponent of the triple bottom line in all facets of business, believing in environmentally sustainability as well as economic sustainability. At FIT, she recently was honored with the President's Council on Sustainability's Changemakers Award which honors a member of the FIT community for their long-term contributions to the mission of sustainability at the college, through community engagement, educational advancement, and reduction of the campus carbon footprint.
Cantrell's most recent paper on FLOW Fashion is being published as a chapter in De Gruyter's international Handbook of Fashion Supply Chains and Operations in 2026. She is re-writing the 4th edition of the text Fashion Entrepreneurship through Bloomsbury, out in 2027.
Selected Publications
Fashion Entrepreneurship: Retail Business Planning. Bloomsbury, 2018 3rd edition, 4th edition 2027.
Flow Fashion. De Gruyter Handbook of Fashion Supply Chains and Operations. 2026
How a Brooklyn general store became a beloved general store. American Express Small Business Spotlight. 2025.
Real Deal: Local Gem for Annie’s Blue Ribbon General Store, Brooklyn, NY. RetailMeNot. 2025.
From ‘greenwashing’ to ‘green hushing’, can retail really promote a circular economy? Retail Me. 2023.
NYC small business lobbies Congress for pandemic shut down insurance coverage. ABC News5 Cleveland. 2020.
Conferences and Presentations
Reframing Fast Fashion and the Introduction of FLOW Fashion, IFFTI International Conference, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London (UAL), United Kingdom, March 2025
Long- term Goals vs. Short-term ROI: Navigating Sustainability and Profit Now, Sustainable Fashion Forum, April 2024
Key Fashion Trends for 2024 & beyond, The Association of Golf Merchandisers Conference, Orlando Florida, January 2024
The Innovation Collective, American Express, New York, NY, November 2023
Sustainability begins with sourcing: Leveraging the procurement process to meet sustainability goals, NRF SUpply Chain 360, Cleveland, OH, June 2022
Planet & Responsibility, The Robin Report, Virtual, November 2020
Award
Changemaker Award, President’s Council on Sustainability, FIT, 2024
Courses
- FM 109 The First Year Experience
- FM 245 Fashion Forecasting for Merchandisers
- FM 326 Circular Economy for Sustainable Fashion Business
- FM 361 Leadership Development for Retailing