About American Apparel

After its experience as a wholesale brand, American Apparel moved into the retail market. The company was ranked 308th in Inc's 2005 list of the 500 fastest growing companies in the United States, with a 440% three-year growth and revenues in 2005 of over US $211 million.

It is also one of the few clothing companies exporting "Made in the USA" goods and in 2007 sold about 125 million dollars of domestically manufactured clothing outside of America. The company promotes labor policies that exclude use of clothing manufactured in sweatshops.

The company depends on environmentally friendly practices and is known for its innovations in sustainability due to vertical integration. American Apparel manufacturing system is designed around the concept of "Creative Reuse"?which converts excess fabric from one garment template into several additional garments such as bathing suit tops, belts, headbands, bows, bras, underwear and children's clothing. This otherwise wasted material reduces the amount of fabric the company needs to produce in addition to expanding its product line and saves approximately 30,000 pounds of cotton per week.