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Timeline
Brand Timeline
American Apparel was founded in 1989 by Canadian Dov Charney. In 1997, after a variety of iterations, including a period of manufacturing in South Carolina, the company moved to Los Angeles. Charney began to sub-contract sewing with Sam Lim who, at the time, had a shop with 50 workers under the Interstate 10 freeway in east LA. Months later the two became partners. In 2000 American Apparel moved into its current factory in downtown Los Angeles where it continued to grow primarily as a wholesale business, selling blank T-shirts to screenprinters, uniform companies and fashion brands. In late 2006, American Apparel went through a reverse merger and became listed on the American Stock Exchange.
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1989 1997 2000 2006
It is 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. In December 2014, American Apparel announced the official termination of CEO Dov Charney and the promotion of fashion executive Paula Schneider to that position. The clothes retailer warned investors in August 2015 that it would not have enough cash to “sustain operations for the next twelve months” which raises “substantial doubt that we may be able to continue as a going concern”. The firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In January 2017, American Apparel was acquired at auction for $88 million by Gildan Activewear, a Canadian sportswear company. Montreal-based company Gildan Activewear Inc. bought American Apparel but not its physical stores.
