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American Apparel

 
Hoover's Profile: American Apparel, Inc.
 
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(NYSE Alternext:APP)
Company Financials
Income Statement
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow Statement

Contact Information
American Apparel, Inc.
747 Warehouse St.
Los Angeles, CA 90021
CA Tel. 213-488-0226
Fax 213-488-0334

Type: Public
On the web: http://www.americanapparel.net
 Employees: 9,700
Employee growth: 42.6%

American Apparel wants you to be comfortable inside and out. It designs and makes logo-free T-shirts, tank tops, yoga pants, and other items for men, women, and children -- and does it all from its California-based factory, rather than exporting labor overseas. The company's brands include Classic Girl, Standard American, Classic Baby, and Sustainable Edition, among others. American Apparel boasts more than 260 retail stores located in about 20 countries. Riding the casual loungewear trend, the company is known for its no-sweat factory and the fair treatment of its workers, including up to $19 an hour pay for manufacturers. Sometimes-controversial Dov Charney founded American Apparel in 1997.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2008:
Sales: $545.0M
One year growth: 40.8%
Net income: $14.1M
Income growth: (8.8%)

Officers:
Chairman, President, and CEO: Dov Charney
EVP, CFO, and Director: Adrian Kowalewski
Content Advisor: Alexandra Spunt

Competitors:
Fruit of the Loom
Hanesbrands
Urban Outfitters

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Stock Chart: American Apparel
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Company History: American Apparel, Inc.
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Incorporated: 1997
NAIC: 315223 Men's and Boys' Cut and Sew Shirt (Except Work Shirt) Manufacturing; 315232 Women's and Girls' Cut and Sew Blouse and Shirt Manufacturing
SIC: 2321 Men's/Boys' Shirts; 2331 Women's/Misses' Blouses & Shirts

Based in Los Angeles, California, American Apparel, Inc., is one of the few apparel companies that in recent years has succeeded by maintaining domestic manufacturing operations. The company gained recognition for running a non-sweatshop operation, paying wages well above the garment industry norm. It also developed a reputation for sexual exploitation, as reflected by the nature of its print ads and vintage pornography that once adorned the walls of its shops. Moreover, founder and chief executive officer Dov Charney has admitted to having sex with employees (drawing the line at garment workers because he maintains such behavior would be exploitive), and has settled several sexual harassment lawsuits. American Apparel made its mark by producing stylish T-shirts for the wholesale imprinted T-shirt market. It expanded to include a wide variety of women's, men's, and children's apparel, and became involved in retail through the launch of a chain of boutiques, which in short order spread to dozens of locations in the United States, Canada, and more than a dozen other countries. In 2007 Charney said he planned to open about 800 shops in the next few years. Products are also available for purchase through the company's web site.

Apparel for men includes underwear, socks, sleepwear, shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, and accessories such as neckties, wallets, sunglasses, and gym bags. Apparel for women includes T-shirts, tops, sleepwear, shorts, dresses, skirts, swimwear, and workout and dance wear. American Apparel also offers shirts, pants, skirts, and dresses for children as well as items for babies. American Apparel is a private company, acquired by Endeavor Acquisition Corporation in a maneuver to take the company public, gain a stock market listing, and raise funds to support continued growth.

Founder, Montreal-Born: 1969

According to Dov Charney, via the New York Times, he was "born in the brisket" of Montreal's Jewish community in 1969. He attended prep school in Connecticut and became aware that items such as T-shirts were priced much higher in Canada than in the United States because of the Canadian distribution system. In addition, American-made T-shirts, in particular Hanes, were higher-quality and better made. He began buying them in the United States for his friends in Canada, which led to bus or train trips to the United States to stock up for sale on the streets of Montreal. He continued this sideline after enrolling at Tufts University in Boston. According to Inc., "he quit school and fell in with a guy who proposed they make T-shirts for wholesale." Thus Charney left Tufts in his senior year to move to Columbia, South Carolina, to learn the apparel trade and start his own T-shirt company under the American Apparel name. In 1991 Charney moved beyond importing to become involved in manufacturing by way of subcontracting, mostly wholesaling his shirts to screen printers. The business was successful for a while, but his timing did not prove fortuitous. Inexpensive imported goods began flooding the market, crippling the U.S. textile industry. According to Apparel News, "Small companies merged with larger ones or went out of business. Large companies began looking offshore for joint venture opportunities. Charney saw his East Coast contracting base shrinking as his West Coast sales grew." He held on as long as he could, but finally one of his contractors went out of business in the middle of an order, leaving him with a shipment of fabric, which he decided to have shipped to Los Angeles where he planned to reestablish himself; first he placed his South Carolina business in bankruptcy.

By this time Charney was fashioning T-shirts with a tighter cut and better fit. "We used to make 18 heavyweight T-shirts at $23 a dozen, then the price went to $20 a dozen," he told Wearables Business about his business in 1995. He continued, "I was broke but had a beautiful girlfriend in Miami who was from Argentina. And the T-shirt she was wearing was doing something for me." Charney began experimenting with a new line of form-fitting T-shirts to counter the standard oversized American version. It proved successful enough to serve as the focus of his next venture.

Move to Los Angeles: 1997

In 1997 Charney moved to Los Angeles and, while looking for a contractor, met Sang Ho Lim, who operated a sewing shop. The two men became partners along with a man named Sam Kim. Charney also received funding from his family in Montreal. They launched a contracting business under the fanciful name "Two Koreans and a Jew." Kim would soon sell out to Charney and Lim and the business assumed Charney's old American Apparel name. It was a shoestring operation but Charney was convinced that he could make a go of it with a higher-priced niche product like fitted T-shirts using higher quality materials--lightweight combed cotton in fine-gauge jersey and baby rib. He was also a tireless promoter, willing to travel to trade shows to pitch his T-shirts to his target market: screen printers, promotional T-shirt makers, embroiderers, and distributors.

American Apparel took over a factory in Ensenada, Mexico, owned by Lim, but Charney preferred to produce his wares domestically in Los Angeles, part of a strategy to promote a "Los Angeleno" image. In 2000 he told Apparel News, "Our T-shirts are designed in California, the fabric is made in California, all the colorization decisions, our advertising, our photography, our print work, all of our graphic designs as far as our image is concern is designed here in Los Angeles. The company's image is a Los Angeleno image, which we are taking to drive this image internationally and be creative in an industry that has been stagnant for a decade." Charney did bring the production work to Los Angeles, but soon stopped pitching the Los Angeleno theme in favor of positioning American Apparel as the non-sweatshop company because the company paid its sewers high wages by industry standards, between $10 and $15 an hour, and provided such benefits as healthcare, immigration assistance, English lessons, and free massages. Charney became something of a champion for the cause of human rights in apparel manufacturing, which was notorious for being especially abusive around the world. How sincerely held were these beliefs could not be easily determined. Paying higher wages to keep production within the company provided tangible financial benefits due to the shortening of the supply line, as well as increasing turnaround times, and no dollar amount could be ascribed to the positive press Charney and American Apparel received from this policy. Charney did, however, resist attempts to unionize the Los Angeles factory, maintaining that the union would simply prevent a direct relationship with his workers. In time the company de-emphasized the anti-sweatshop stance, which Charney called tiresome. Instead he pursued a more timeless strategy: sex sells.

Consumer Sales Added: 2002

American Apparel's wholesale T-shirt business enjoyed strong growth. In 2001 sales reached $20 million. Early in 2002 the company expanded into consumer sales. Yet while sales were booming, the factory was inefficient and having a difficult time keeping up with orders. The future of the business was in jeopardy, prompting Charney to turn to an industry friend and ask for the name of the best person available to organize a factory. Marty Bailey, a 15-year veteran at Fruit of the Loom, was the recommendation. Charney called Bailey on a Saturday and reportedly said, "Dude, my name's Dov and I need help." Two days later Bailey took over as vice-president of operations and in short order created a finely tuned, vertically integrated operation, one that could produce a high volume of garments with the flexibility to turn a shirt design into a product ready to ship within a matter of days.

With a strong manufacturing operation in place, American Apparel could move into consumer sales and expand beyond T-shirts to other items of women's, men's, and children's apparel. Sales doubled to $40 million in 2002 and continued to grow in 2003, spurred further by the opening of the first American Apparel stores. The first two units were laboratories of sorts, opening in October 2003 far from the usual locales for boutiques: Echo Park in Los Angeles and near New York University in Manhattan. However, they served the important purpose of allowing the company to learn how to best sell to the public. American Apparel revenues reached $75 million for the year.

More store openings followed in 2004 and 2005 as American Apparel developed its own edgy decor, relying a great deal on pornographic pictures from magazines of the 1970s and 1980s as well as promotional pictures of employees in provocative poses, many of them taken by Charney himself, an amateur photographer since childhood. The accompanying print ad copy often read like personal ads, such as "Meet Glen. He's a 25-year-old New Jersey native living in New York. Glen's a bright guy and works as a tutor, but he has shown off some other features in Sweet Action magazine, a porn mag created by ladies for ladies." The use of pornography, actual and implied, was clearly meant to draw a reaction from some people, generally older, while playing to sensibilities of a younger generation that took a more casual approach to sexuality. For his part, Charney adopted the mutton-chop mustache look of a 1970s porn star, and his personal conduct received some attention, although it was not clear if he considered the unsolicited publicity a blemish or a mere bonus. It was one thing to boast in an interview with Jane magazine that he had sex with employees, but it was another to be the subject of a pair of sexual harassment suits filed in 2005. According to the New York Times, the allegations of the four former employees involved in the suits included "using crude language and gestures, conducting job interviews in his underwear, ordering the hiring of women in whom he had a sexual interest and giving one of the plaintiffs a vibrator." Charney denied the charges and eventually three of the claims were either settled or dismissed, while the fourth lingered on in the courts.

Regardless of the controversy surrounding Charney, American Apparel continued to grow sales and add stores. By the end of 2005 the company had about 60 stores, half located in the United States, and posted revenues of more than $275 million. Less than a year later there were nearly 150 stores. The units that had been in business for at least a year, however, experienced declining growth. In 2004 American Apparel stores enjoyed a robust 74 percent increase in sales over the previous year. The number fell to 45 percent in 2005, and in 2006 American Apparel stores improved sales by just 7 percent. Nevertheless, Charney continued to roll out new stores and look for additional sources of capital to support a strategy of opening 800 stores within the next few years.

Rather than go through the expensive and lengthy process of making an initial public offering of stock, and deal with the close scrutiny that went with it, American Apparel chose a less conventional route to becoming a public company. In late 2006 American Apparel was sold to Endeavor Acquisition Corp., a specified purpose acquisition company (SPAC), for about 32 million shares of Endeavor stock valued at approximately $288 million plus the assumption of $110 million in debt. Public companies, SPACs were often called "blank-check" firms because investors were not entirely certain what they were buying into when the SPAC went public, basing their investment in large part on the person behind the company. In the case of Endeavor it was Jonathan J. Ledecky, the 1994 founder of U.S. Office Products, which he expanded quickly through more than 250 acquisitions. After he left, however, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001. He established Endeavor in December 2005, went public, and gained a listing on the American Stock Exchange.

American Apparel completed 2006 with sales of about $300 million and net income of $30 million. It entered 2007 with ambitious plans to expand its retail chain and to use the corporate shell created by Endeavor to become a public company under its own name and make offerings of stock to fund that growth. The deal with Endeavor brought $120 million in cash, half of which Charney used to buy out his longtime silent partner, Sang Ho Lim. Charney would be left with a 50 percent stake in the business, as would Endeavor, and both parties would be able to appoint four directors. A ninth, essentially a tie breaker, would be mutually agreed upon.

Principal Competitors

Fruit of the Loom; VF Corporation; Gildan Activewear Inc.; Hanesbrands Inc.

Further Reading

Cox, Dan, "Revved Charney Plans a Massive Global Rollout," Los Angeles Business Journal, January 1, 2007, p. 1.

Dean, Josh, "Dov Charney, Like It or Not," Inc., September 2005, p. 124.

"The Fashion Tee Statement," Wearables Business, November 2000.

"The Hustler: Face Value," Economist, January 6, 2007, p. 56.

Kang, Stephanie, "American Apparel Seeks Growth Through Unusual Deal," Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2006, p. B1.

Kuczynski, Alex, "Part Cotton, Part Virtue, Part Come-On," New York Times, June 2, 2005, p. G4.

la Ferla, Ruth, "Build a Brand by Not Being a Brand," New York Times, November 23, 2004, p. B11.

Navarro, Mireya, "His Way Meets a Highway Called Court," New York Times, July 10, 2005, p. 9.

Nideler, Alison A., "Angeleno Style," Apparel News, August 2000.

Palmeri, Christopher, "Living on the Edge at American Apparel," Business Week, June 27, 2005, p. 88.

Sorkin, Andrew Ross, and Michael Barbaro, New York Times, December 19, 2006, p. C1.

Tschorn, Adam, "American Apparel Deal Highlights 'SPACS,'" Daily News Record, January 1, 2007, p.6.

— Ed Dinger


 
Wikipedia: American Apparel
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American Apparel, Inc.
Type Public (AMEX: APP)
Founded Los Angeles, California
Headquarters Los Angeles, California
Area served  United States
 United Kingdom
 Ireland
 Mexico
 Canada
 Australia
 Netherlands
 Sweden
 Belgium
 China
 France
 Germany
 Brazil
 South Korea
 Italy
 Israel
Key people Dov Charney, President and CEO
Marty Bailey, President of Manufacturing
Adrian Kowalewski, CFO
Glenn Weinman, General Counsel[1]
Industry Garments manufacturer
Products Clothing
Revenue US$387 million (net sales, 2007)[2]
Employees 10,000 (2008)[3]
Website www.americanapparel.net

American Apparel (AMEX: APP) is the largest clothing manufacturer in the United States.[4] It is a vertically-integrated clothing manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer that also performs its own design, advertising, and marketing. It is best-known for making basic cotton knitwear such as t-shirts and underwear, but in recent years has expanded to include tank tops, vintage clothing, dresses, pants, denim, bedding and accessories for men, women, children, babies and dogs.

Contents

Company formation and growth

Shopper at a Los Angeles store

In 1997, company founder and CEO Dov Charney, who had run several related clothing enterprises, moved his manufacturing to Los Angeles and began to sub-contract sewing with Sam Lim who, at the time, had a shop with 50 workers under the Interstate 10 freeway in Los Angeles. Months later the two became partners.[5] In 2000 American Apparel moved into its current factory in downtown Los Angeles. The company also operates a dye house and knitting facility located in Los Angeles.[6]

After its success as a wholesale brand, the company 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.[7]

In late 2006 American Apparel announced a reverse merger, in which Endeavor Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company founded in July 2005, bought the company for $360 million.[8][9] The merger closed in December 2007, at which point American Apparel became a publicly traded company.[10] As a result, Charney became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the publicly traded company known as American Apparel, Inc. He remained the majority shareholder, and PR reps have told the media that all employees of American Apparel were given 500 shares of stock in the new company -- though as of April 2009 the stock has yet to be distributed as agreed.[11][12]

It is also one of the few companies exporting 'Made in the USA' goods and in 2007 sold about $125 million dollars of domestically manufactured clothing outside of America.[13] The company also promotes a number of progressive policies including immigrant rights and labor policies the company dubs "sweatshop free."[14]

Production

American Apparel's headquarters and factory in Los Angeles

American Apparel bases its manufacturing in an 800,000-square-foot (74,000 m2) factory in downtown Los Angeles, California. The company also owns and operates its own fabric dye house, garment dye house, and knitting facility, all based in Los Angeles.[15][16] American Apparel has decided not to outsource its labor, paying factory workers an average of over $12 dollars an hour.[14] Garment workers for similar American companies in China, earn approximately 40 cents per hour.[17] It claims to have the 'highest earning apparel workers in the world'.[18]

The company uses "team manufacturing" which pools the strongest workers towards priority orders.[19] Each team functions autonomously and determines its own daily production schedule, giving them control over their own hourly wages.[20]After its implementation, garment production tripled and required a less than 20% staff increase.[19] The factory claims to have the capacity to produce 1 million shirts per week[21] and manufacture 275,000 pieces a day.[13][22] According to The New York Times it is the largest single garment factory in the United States and employs over 4,000 people across two buildings.[23][24]

A banner on top of the downtown factory states "American Apparel is an Industrial Revolution."[25] As of December 2008, banners on top of the factories state "Legalize LA" and "Immigration Reform Now!"

Vertical integration

American Apparel is a vertically-integrated company.[26] The integration extends to 185 retail storefronts, all of which are owned by the company.[27] By integrating all aspects of production and avoiding outsourcing, the company achieves a fast turn-around time from design concept to finished product.[6] On Charlie Rose, founder Dov Charney discussed the process of developing new merchandise in their unique retail system, saying that it took just a "couple of weeks" for a bathing suit to go from idea to the retail floor. He claimed that a garment could be designed on Monday and be sold in London the following week.[28][29]

Retail

Retail storefront

The company's expansion into retail was the fastest retail roll out in American history.[30] In 2003 American Apparel opened company stores in Los Angeles, Montreal, and New York to nearly $80 million dollars in sales[31] As of 2008 the company has more than 200 stores worldwide and continues rapid retail growth, with new stores in the United States, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Switzerland, China, Germany, Canada, France, Sweden, Mexico, United Kingdom, Brazil and Australia. Stores are planned or under development for Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, [23], China[32], and Hawaii.[33]

American Apparel retail stores are marketed and designed individually rather than homogeneously.[34] Store designs are sparse and typically cost between $100,000 and $400,000 to develop.[34] The company tends to reject midtown, high rent locations and generally avoids in-mall stores.[34] The stores are often hubs for urban renewal since the company looks for low-rent but high traffic locations like Houston, Little Tokyo, New Orleans, college towns and most recently across from the Apollo Theater on 125th in Harlem.[35][34] In some stores, the decor features Penthouse covers from 1970s and 1980s - a style that has been controversial.[36] When scouting for locations, it considers urban areas that can be revitalized.[37] After opening on Southwest Stark Street in Portland, Oregon American Apparel was joined by a vintage clothing store, sushi restaurant, shoe shop and modern-styled hotel.[37] In some cases, the company sublets parts of retail locations to other businesses of the same demographic, bringing additional retailers to previously unoccupied space.[37] The bulk of American Apparel retail venues are in New York City and California.[38][34]

AmericanApparelStore.com[39] is the company's e-commerce sales hub.[40] It carries an online inventory of roughly 250,000 SKUs and receives 1.5 million visitors per month.[41] Online sales grew from $13.3 million in 2006 to $29.3 million in 2007.[41] The company site runs on the Yahoo Stores platform and is included in the Internet Retailer 500 Index.[41][42]

In late 2007, American Apparel opened a retail location for vintage clothing called California Select in Echo Park, a district of Los Angeles [43] Shortly afterward, the company began selling vintage clothing through an eBay store of the same name.[7][44] In 2008, the company was named "Retailer of the Year", following Calvin Klein and Oscar de la Renta.[45][46]

Wholesale

American Apparel began by selling high-quality t-shirts to screen-printers and boutiques in 1990 underneath the American HEAVY label.[47] Although it has made its transition into a primarily retail brand, the company is still one of the largest wholesalers in the country. American Apparel shirts are used as band merchandise and concert t-shirts for the bands Van Halen, Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, Metric, and Flogging Molly as well as websites like Busted Tees and the I Can Has Cheezburger? store.[48] All shirts sold on Shirt.Woot are printed on American Apparel tees.[49] People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights advocacy group, prints its merchandise on American Apparel clothes because they are made domestically and animal-free.[50]

Branding and advertising

American Apparel designs, creates and prints its own advertisements.[51][52] The company is known for its provocative and controversial advertising campaigns, which is largely the inspiration of the company CEO Dov Charney. According to Adage, American Apparel's advertising 'telegraphs the brand' from person to person[53] Their print campaigns are widely considered to be some of the best in the industry[54] The sexually charged advertising has been criticized, but has also been lauded for honesty and lack of airbrushing.[55][56] American Apparel images often display subjects with their blemishes, imperfections and asymmetrical features highlighted and attached with brief, personal descriptions.[23] Many of models in American Apparel's sexual advertising are recruited by Charney and his colleagues on the street, or company stores; others are selected after sending their photos directly to the company website.[23]

For a time, Charney promoted a branding strategy that spotlighted his treatment of workers as a selling point for the company's merchandise, promoting American Apparel's goods as "sweatshop free."[26] In 2008, the company took out a series of political ads featuring the corporate logo that called current immigration laws an "apartheid system."[57] In regards to the company's image overseas, advisor Harry Parnass stated that the brand is about aspiration and that they are "selling the American dream."[58]He dismissed competitors who do the same but refuse to manufacture in America.[59]

The company has also used adult actresses in some of its ads including Lauren Phoenix, Charlotte Stokely, Sasha Grey[60] and Faye Reagan.[61][62]

In 2005 the company was named "Marketer of the Year" at the first-ever LA Fashion Awards.[63] Women's Wear Daily published a survey in April 2007 from Outlaw Consulting, a creative research firm tracking the habits of 21-to 27-year olds, which ranked American Apparel as the 8th most trusted brand, ahead of such clothing brands as H&M and Levi's.[64] In January 2008 the Intelligence Group, a trend and market research firm, listed American Apparel as their number two Top Trendsetting Brand, behind only Nike.[65] In 2008, The Guardian named American Apparel "Label of the Year".[66]

American Apparel also briefly experimented with advertising in Second Life with a virtual store on the an island named Lerappa but shuttered the operation in the fourth quarter of 2007[67][68]

Woody Allen billboard and lawsuit

In 2007, American Apparel put up two billboards, one in New York and one in Los Angeles, featuring an image of Woody Allen's character dressed as a Rabbi from the movie Annie Hall and Yiddish text, for a period of one week.[69] According to Charney, the billboards were a satire and allegory alluding to both the scene in the movie and the similar controversy experienced by both individuals.[70] Allen strongly objected to this use of his image and sued the company for $10 million dollars.[71] Allen testified at a December 2008 deposition that he considered the company's advertising to be "sleazy" and "infantile."[72]

Although the company said as early as May 2008 that the billboards were meant "strictly as social parody"[71], there was much debate over whether American Apparel's lawyers would unfairly use Allen's personal life, namely his affair with Soon-Yi Previn as their defense at the trial.[73] Charney claimed that these rumors were outright false and that his speech was protected by the First Amendment.[74] In May of 2009, the case was settled by the insurance company for $5 million dollars, half of Allen's initial demand.[69]

Legalize LA and Legalize Gay

Main article: Legalize LA

In addition to participating in a variety of immigration protests, the company launched an advertising and advocacy campaign called "Legalize LA"[75]. The campaign featured advertisements in national papers like The New York Times as well as billboards, t-shirts, bus ads and posters.[57] The company also maintains a Legalize LA portion of their website that features news articles relating to immigration reform, the brand and information on the history of the issue.[76]

After the passing of Prop 8 (which makes same sex marriage illegal in the state) in California in November 2008, American Apparel launched the Legalize Gay campaign.[77] It is similar to the Legalize LA campaign, and shirts with "Legalize Gay" and "Repeal Prop 8" printed on them in the same style as the shirts of Legalize LA are sold by the company.

Corporate culture and employment

The production system of American Apparel centralizes most of its employees in a single location. By not outsourcing, Charney believes that he knows his workers better and that it ties them directly to the brand.[78] A banner on top of the downtown factory states "American Apparel is an Industrial Revolution." [79]

Charney has stated that American Apparel hires its creatives by their sense of culture and fashion, not their resume.[80] Conversely, the company has also been accused of focusing on personal style and outward appearance in its hiring practices for retail positions.[81] American Apparel has been subject to several sexual harassment lawsuits, three were dismissed or settled while another remanded to arbitration[82][83] A fifth was recently filed, premiering on the front page of TMZ.com.[84] In an attempt to resolve one of the cases in which the plaintiff confessed that she had not been subjected to sexual harassment, American Apparel was reprimanded in an opinion by the Second Appellate District for then attempting to issue a press release about the case mentioning an arbitration hearing that had, in fact, never taken place. [85][86] The company and others have publicly accused a lawyer representing a majority of the suits against American Apparel of extortion and of "shaking the company down."[87][88]

According to Charney, the unconventional corporate culture at American Apparel is responsible for the company's creativity and rapid growth.[89] He's stated that the company is open about sexuality and its culture because "young people like honesty."[90]

Labor

Legalize LA banner displayed at company headquarters

As of 2008 the company employs over 10,000 people and operates over 200 retail locations in 18 countries.[13][91] The company pays its manufacturing employees an average of US$12 per hour[14]. According to the San Francisco Chronicle the average factory worker at the company makes $80-120 per day, or roughly $500 per week compared to the $30-40 made daily at most other Los Angeles-based garment factories.[92] Employees also receive benefits such as paid time off, health care, company-subsidized lunches, bus passes, free English as an additional language classes, on-site massage therapists, free bicycles and on-site bike mechanics, free parking in addition to the proper lighting and ventilation.[93]. Every floor of the factory includes free telephones where workers can take and receive long distance phone calls.[94] The company's employees in foreign countries do not receive the same hourly wages as their Los Angeles counterparts.[32] However, employees in China will earn US Federal minimum wage.[32] After going public, the company offered employees as much as $40 million in stock shares.[33] The plan grants employees roughly 1 share of stock for every workday they'd spent at the company.[95] Approximately 4,000 of the company's employees are eligible for the program.[95] The waiting list for employment at American Apparel has over 2,000 names on it.[96]

The company's employees are not unionized. In 2003, the UNITE launched a union drive at the factory.[97][98] American Apparel countered that the union was "trying to politically force American Apparel into embracing it, regardless of worker interest."[99] In a letter to The Nation, Charney claimed that workers organized a grassroots protest of the union demonstration itself and used it as evidence of the union's unpopularity.[99] The organization reported American Apparel to the National Labor Relations Board for interference with the drive.[100] However, American Apparel was not charged as a result of the claims.[101] Additionally, the nonprofit Garment Worker Center, which usually supports UNITE, did not sanction or back their efforts against American Apparel.[102]As part of the settlement, the company posted a document stating that it would not interfere with worker's rights to unionize.[103]

New York Times reporter Rob Walker wrote about the controversy in his book Buying In and revealed that since the unionization drive, the company Sweat X which was held up as the example for what American Apparel should be, had since gone out of business. He quotes Charney saying more explicitly that "[Sweat X]... fucking failed."[104]

Support for immigration reform

As early as 2001, American Apparel has been a vocal advocate for reform of U.S. immigration laws.[105] On May 1, 2002 American Apparel shut down its factory to allow the company's workers, many of whom are immigrants, to participate in a pro-immigration rally in downtown Los Angeles. Dov Charney, a Canadian immigrant, also marched alongside the workers.[106] American Apparel participates annually in the May 1st Immigration March and Rally in downtown Los Angeles. In 2008, they added a route from their factory that eventually connected with other supporters near the city hall.[107] The company's politics were eventually spun off into the Legalize LA advertising campaign.

In 2009, the results of an ICE audit of American Apparel revealed that over 1,800 American Apparel workers had improper documentation, meaning that they were illegal immigrants.[108] ICE did not accuse the company of knowingly hiring undocumented workers but fined them at least $150,000.[109]

Environmental policies

Solar panels on the roof of American Apparel's downtown factory

The company promotes environmentally friendly practices and is known for its innovations in sustainability due to vertical integration.[110][111]

American Apparel maintains a bicycle lending program for its employees[112] and according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals it is a vegan-friendly clothing company.[113] As of 2007 the company planned to increase its use of organic cotton within the next four years from over 20% to 80%. American Apparel also sells a line of shirts under the "Sustainable" label that are 100% USDA organic cotton.[114][115] In 2008, American Apparel purchased over 30,000 pounds of organic cotton known as B.A.S.I.C cotton.[116]

American Apparel installed a 146 kilowatt solar electric system on its factory roof, designed to reduce power costs by at least 20%.[117] These panels power as much as 30% of the factory.[118]The company also recycles its fabric scraps.[119] Much of the company's underwear line is made from these recycled fabric scraps that would have otherwise been wasted.[118] According to estimates, it saves about 30,000 pounds of cotton per week.[118][120] However, the company has been criticized for leaving its store doors open with the air conditioner running.[121]

Philanthropy

In 2005, the company hosted a bikini car wash benefit with the American Red Cross to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.[122][123] Two employees of the company packaged and delivered 80,000 shirts to the relief effort.[124] As an underwriter of Farm Aid, American Apparel donates the blank shirts that the organization prints and sells as merchandise.[125][126]

References

  1. ^ "Company Information". American Apparel. http://americanapparel.net/presscenter/pressCompanyInfo.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-18. 
  2. ^ "American Apparel Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2007 Financial Results". Business Wire (American Apparel press release). March 17. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080317/20080317006439.html?.v=1. Retrieved on 2008-03-18. 
  3. ^ LA Mayor Villaraigosa praises LA-based clothing manufacturer American Apparel PublicRadio.org 9/2008
  4. ^ Dov Charney. (2007). American Apparel - Don Charney Interview. [YouTube]. CBS News. @3:50
  5. ^ Apparel News -Angeleno Style - Alison A. Niedler - August 2000
  6. ^ a b "Segment of Modern Marvels: Cotton". The History Channel via AmericanApparel.net. http://www.americanapparel.net/gallery/modernmarvels/qt.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
  7. ^ "Inc. No. 308:American Apparel". inc.com. 2006-08-01. http://www.inc.com/app/inc500/viewCompany.jsp?cmpId=2006308. Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
  8. ^ "American Apparel's unusual flotation is typical of Dov Charney, its founder". The Economist via AmericanApparel.net. 2007-01-04. http://www.americanapparel.net/presscenter/articles/20070104economist.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
  9. ^ Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael Barbaro (2006-12-19). "Provocative Retail Chain Is Acquired". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/business/19deal.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-12. 
  10. ^ American Stock Exchange Announces Closing of Endeavor Acquisition and American Apparel Merger[1]
  11. ^ Endeavour Acquisitions Corp. SEC Proxy Statement Schedule 14A, June 5, 2007
  12. ^ Kang, Stephanie (2006-12-19). "American Apparel Seeks Growth Through An Unusual Deal". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116648211605153768.html?mod=mm_media_marketing_hs_left. Retrieved on 2008-03-21. 
  13. ^ a b c "An Interview With American Apparel Founder Dov Charney". Market Watch. September 9, 2008. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/mayor-villaraigosa-congratulates-american-apparel/story.aspx?guid={E43C0BFC-DE49-441B-BE02-CF525E640935}&dist=hppr. Retrieved on 2008-09-21. 
  14. ^ a b c New York Post - T-Shirts, As Far As the Eye Can See - Maxine Shen - March 24, 2004
  15. ^ Press Release: American Apparel Purchases Assets from U.S. Dyeing & Finishing, Inc. accessed 6/22/08
  16. ^ True colors: some dyeing operations thrive, others fail - Los Angeles Business Journal - October 10, 2005[2]
  17. ^ "Good Luck Competing Against Chinese Labor Costs Mfg. Job Growth In China Is Headed Up, Not Down; 109 Million Mfg. Workers In China Dwarfs Number In U.S.". Manufacturing and Technology News. 2006-05-02. http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/06/0502/art1.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-28. 
  18. ^ Mayor Villaraigosa visits American Apparel as company announces employment milestones PublicRadio.org KPCC 9/2008
  19. ^ a b Falsh, Derek (2007-02-01). "Keep Your Fashion in Great Shape". The Pitt News. http://media.www.pittnews.com/media/storage/paper879/news/2007/02/01/AE/Keep-Your.Fashion.In.Great.Shape-2689351.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.  "His team manufacturing..."
  20. ^ American Apparel BenCorman.com June 2008. "More important than the pay is the functional organization. Instead of having an assembly line system where people are disconnected from each other, people are organized into groups and the group decides how many articles of clothing they're going to make that hour. Since everyone is paid a base of $8 an hour and then a bonus for hitting certain production goals, the group decides how hard to work and how much to make in a day.
  21. ^ AMERICAN APPAREL, INC - APP Current report filing (8-K) "Capacity to produce over 1 million T-shirts per week with significant potential to expand."
  22. ^ Dov Charney. (2007). American Apparel - Don Charney Interview. [YouTube]. CBS News. @3:28
  23. ^ a b c d Jamie Wolf (2006-04-23). "And You Thought Abercrombie & Fitch Was Pushing It?". New York Times Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/magazine/23apparel.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
  24. ^ inside american apparel: 4,000 downtown employees and counting Angelenic.com June 2008
  25. ^ Flickr "American Apparel is an Industrial Revolution". June 19th, 2008
  26. ^ a b Greenberg, David (2004-05-31). "Sew what? American Apparel founder Dov Charney wants to de-emphasize the fact he doesn't use sweatshop labor; he's just trying to sell a better T-shirt - People". Los Angeles Business Journal. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_22_26/ai_118184828. Retrieved on 2008-03-26. 
  27. ^ Dov Charney. (2006). Charlie Rose. [YouTube]. PBS. 
  28. ^ Dov Charney. (2006). Charlie Rose. [YouTube]. PBS.  32:40
  29. ^ Joellen, Perry (2004-05-17). "Made in American: Some Consumers- and firms - prefer homemade goods". US News and World Report.  "I can cut on Monday, sew Tuesday through Thursday, and ship on Friday."
  30. ^ Dov Charney. (2007). American Apparel - Don Charney Interview. [YouTube]. CBS News. "fastest retail roll out in American history"
  31. ^ DNR - All the Way to the Blank - Lee Bailey - March 22, 2004
  32. ^ a b c Harmon, Andrew (2008-03-17). "American Apparel Expands To China". DNR. http://www.dnrnews.com/site/article.php?id=1567. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.  "[Wages] will not be the same as the L.A. workers, but we will make sure that every worker in China receives at least a U.S. federal minimum wage per hour worked,” Charney said."
  33. ^ a b Wu, Nina. "American Apparel opening store in Waikiki". Star Bulletin. http://starbulletin.com/2008/01/05/business/story04.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-01. 
  34. ^ a b c d e Hirschfeld, Bob (2006-12-19). "American Apparel Rides Marketing, Site-Selection to Success". Retail Traffic Mag. http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_american_dream/. 
  35. ^ American Apparel Mapped Curbed LA
  36. ^ Walker book pg 224"
  37. ^ a b c Eskenazi, Stuart (2005-10-22). "[www.portlandtenspeed.com/pdfs/The%20Seattle%20Times.pdf Hot Retailer...]" (PDF). The Seattle Times. www.portlandtenspeed.com/pdfs/The%20Seattle%20Times.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.  "In a few instances..."
  38. ^ Map of American Apparel stores in Manhattan Racked.com
  39. ^ [3]
  40. ^ www.americanapparelstore.com
  41. ^ a b c "AmericanApparel.net dresses for more success". Internet Retailer. 2008-05-14. http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=26392. Retrieved on 2008-05-28. 
  42. ^ [4] Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide] 2008.
  43. ^ "On Our Radar: American Apparel Does Vintage". Fabsugarl. http://fabsugar.com/837918. Retrieved on 2008-03-28. 
  44. ^ American Apparel Launches California Select Fashionindie.com May 30th, 2008
  45. ^ "Dov Charney of American Apparel Named Retailer of the Year". PR News Wire. 2008-05-12. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-12-2008/0004811796&EDATE=. Retrieved on 2008-05-15. 
  46. ^ Fashionista: Dov Charney, Winner "Dov Charney was just named Retailer of the Year for his work as the Creative Director and entrepreneur behind American Apparel. The award's previously gone to Calvin Klein and Oscar de la Renta.
  47. ^ Charney, Dov. "My Name is Dov Charney". DovCharney.com. http://www.dovcharney.com. Retrieved on 2009-02-11. 
  48. ^ Danton, Eric (April 29, 2005). "A Quiet Company Makes Big Bang on T-Shirt Market". CTnow. 
  49. ^ What is Shirt Woot "Woot Tees are 100% cotton blank shirts made by American Apparel in Los Angeles, California."
  50. ^ Wanna Know What PETA Said? Going Green For Life Blog. June 2008
  51. ^ Palmeri, Christopher (2005-06-27). "Living on the Edge at American Apparel". Businessweek. http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_26/b3939108_mz017.htm. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.  "Charney takes many of the photos himself, often using company employees as models as well as people he finds on the street."
  52. ^ American Apparel BenCorman.com June 2008. See Photograph "All advertisements are done in house as well."
  53. ^ Spector, Matt (2008-07-18). "'Gossip Girl' and Others Branding Sex in Ads". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=5465733&page=2. Retrieved on 2008-07-25.  Advertising Age magazine editor-at large Matthew Creamer said Charney's team develops consistent ads that "telegraph the brand."
  54. ^ Daily Update: Top Of the Charts
  55. ^ Stossel, John (2005-12-02). "Sexy Sweats Without the Sweatshop". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Business/story?id=1362781. Retrieved on 2008-03-21. 
  56. ^ Morford, Mark (2005-06-24). "Porn Stars in My Underwear". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/06/24/notes062405.DTL. Retrieved on 2008-03-21. 
  57. ^ a b Story, Louise (2008-01-18). "Politics Wrapped in a Clothing Ad". ABC New. http://www.americanapparel.net/presscenter/articles/20080118nytimes.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-25. 
  58. ^ CNBC's Made in China American Apparel in China Jul. 21 2008
  59. ^ [http://www.americanapparel.net/presscenter/dailyupdate/dailyUp.asp?d=0&t=1165 American Dream] AmericanApparel.net Daily Update "Without compromise, we sell that idea and Parnass calls out companies that sell the American lifestyle but still don't manufacture at home."
  60. ^ Sarah Estrella (December 30, 2008). "Sasha Grey and American Apparel: Selling socks the sexy way". The Examiner. http://www.examiner.com/x-1916-Sex--Relationships-Examiner~y2008m12d30-Sasha-Grey-and-American-Apparel-Selling-socks-the-sexy-way. Retrieved on 2009-02-12. 
  61. ^ Credited as "Jillian". "American Apparel - Photo collections". American Apparel. http://americanapparel.net/gallery/photocollections/models/jillian/. Retrieved on 2009-04-26. .
  62. ^ "American Apparel ad: Yup, that’s a porn star". Blast Magazine Newsroom. August 1, 2008. http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/kinky-stuff/2008/08/american-apparel-ad-yup-thats-a-porn-star/. Retrieved on 2009-04-26. 
  63. ^ Grace Cerrone - lasplash.com - LA Fashion Awards - 2005 [5]
  64. ^ Kevin Ransom (2007-04-20). "Reign Of The Plain: Survey Finds Gen Ys Prefer Brand Simple". MediaPost. http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=59027&Nid=29596&p=281205. 
  65. ^ "Cassandra Report" (PDF). Intelligence Group. 2008-01. http://www.intelg.com/CassandraReport_sample.pdf. 
  66. ^ Vernon, Polly (30 November 2008). "American Apparel Label of the Year". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/30/style-awards-2008-american-apparel. Retrieved on 2009-02-12. 
  67. ^ "American Apparel Breaks New Ground". Linden Research, Inc. http://secondlife.com/newsletter/2006_06/html/developer.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-28. 
  68. ^ "Sorry, We're Closed.". American Apparel Inc. 2007-02-27. http://www.americanapparel.net/presscenter/secondlife/. Retrieved on 2008-04-28. 
  69. ^ a b Charney, Dov (May 18th, 2009). "Statement from Dov Charney, founder and CEO of American Apparel". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/18/american-apparel-woody-allen. Retrieved on May 22, 2009. 
  70. ^ Charney, Dov (May 18th, 2009). "Statement from Dov Charney, founder and CEO of American Apparel". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/18/american-apparel-woody-allen. Retrieved on May 22, 2009. 
  71. ^ a b Harmon, Andrew (2008-04-02). "American Apparel Defends Woody Allen Billboard". DNR. http://frillr.com/?q=node/7470. Retrieved on 2008-04-21. 
  72. ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/woody-allen-american-appa_n_187815.html
  73. ^ Dave Itzkoff (2009-04-16). "Woody Allen vs. American Apparel". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/movies/16arts-WOODYALLENVS_BRF.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26refQ3Darts&OP=51f33b47Q2Flao.lQ5B2GQ2Br22Q20Q3DlQ3DIIDlIQ25lQ2FZlp2ksoQ2BlQ2FZYrQ20Q2BQ274LLMAWJJiQ22w)SQ5D5CEQ7CQ20px. 
  74. ^ A Statement from Dov Charney Daily Update, AmericanApparel.net May 2009
  75. ^ The May Day Marches - Claire Hoffman - The Los Angeles Times - 2006-05-02 "The iconoclastic chief executive of American Apparel Inc. not only gave 3,300 of his employees the day off, but he also supplied them with T-shirts emblazoned with a pro-immigration message," "By noon, Charney had left the factory and joined his workers and their families, who had arranged to march together on Broadway," "American Apparel, with about 130 stores around the world, has a history of supporting May Day marches: In past years, employees were given half the day off and bused to protests.
  76. ^ Legalize LA subpage
  77. ^ [http://legalizegay.com LegalizeGay.com
  78. ^ Carmichael, Evan. "Dov Charney Quotes". EvanCarmichael.com. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/1699/Dov-Charney-Quotes.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.  "You know the face of your worker... engineers and designers and finance people and knitters and dyers and chemists can come together in one location and say, ‘How can we do this better?’ You can produce products more efficiently than they can be made on an outsource basis."
  79. ^ Dov Charney. (2007). American Apparel - Don Charney Interview. [YouTube]. CBS News. @8:13
  80. ^ Dov Charney. (2006). Charlie Rose. [YouTube]. PBS.  32:00
  81. ^ Jamie Huff (2006). "Sweatshop Free but Still Exploitative:Sexual Harassment at American Apparel" (pdf). Chrestomathy: Annual Review of Undergraduate Research, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs, College of Charleston 5: 153–67. http://www.cofc.edu/chrestomathy/vol5/huff.pdf. 
  82. ^ Hall, Caral (2008-01-17). "Lawsuit has fashion mogul in spotlight". Los Angeles Times. http://server.finklawfirm.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=6&Itemid=57. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.  "The case is the fourth against him alleging sexual harassment. One was dismissed. Two others were combined and settled. He has denied the charges in all of them."
  83. ^ Brennan, Margaret (2008-03-06). "American Apparel's Dov Charney: An Update". CNBC. http://www.cnbc.com/id/23500866. Retrieved on 2008-03-28. 
  84. ^ TMZ: My Boss is a Jerk Off
  85. ^ Stein, Sadie (2008-10-31). "Tangled Webs: Dov Charney's Court Case is Totally Complicated". Jezebel. http://jezebel.com/5071232/dov-charneys-court-case-is-totally-complicated. Retrieved on 2008-11-04. ""In response, Ms. Nelson's lawyer, Mr. Fink, devised a settlement agreement whereby his client would agree to certain stipulations amounting to a confession that her charges of sexual harassment were bogus, and that she had never been subject to any harassment or a hostile work environment."" 
  86. ^ Slater, Dan (2008-11-04). "The Story Behind American Apparel's Sham Arbitration". Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/11/04/the-story-behind-american-apparels-sham-arbitration/. Retrieved on 2008-11-05. ""The court went on to say that 'the proposed press release is materially misleading — among other things, no real arbitration of a dispute occurred and [the] plaintiff received $1.3 million in compensation.'"" 
  87. ^ NAKED SHAKEDOWN: DOV CHARNEY IS THE VICTIM! HollywoodInterrupted.com Dec. 2008
  88. ^ Chaudhuri, Saabira (Dec 2nd, 2008). "American Apparel Aims to Bring Down "Celebrity Ambulance Chasing" Lawyer". Fast Company. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/saabira-chaudhuri/itinerant-mind/american-apparel-aims-bring-down-celebrity-ambulance-chasing-l. Retrieved on 2008-03-28. 
  89. ^ Carmichael, Evan. "Lesson #3: Conventions Are Not For The Creative Entrepreneur". EvanCarmichael.com. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/1699/Lesson-3-Conventions-Are-Not-For-The-Creative-Entrepreneur.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.  “We plan to continue to behave in a contrarian matter,” Charney says. “This creative environment is what got us to this point. We certainly aren’t going to stop doing it now after we created a highly profitable company.”
  90. ^ Walker book pg 225 "It wasn't mere imagery; it was honesty. 'Young people like honesty', he said."
  91. ^ "American Apparel to report Q4 2007 financial results". Fibre 2 Fashion. 2008-03-17. http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=52379. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. 
  92. ^ Strasburg, Jenny (2004-07-04). "Made in the U.S.A". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/04/BUGB67G1G21.DTL. Retrieved on 2008-03-27.  "At American Apparel, he says that he works 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. most days, with a lunch break, and makes anywhere from $80 to $120 per day... rarely earned more than $30 or $40 a day at other factories.... Its sewing-machine operators commonly make more than $500 a week...."
  93. ^ Linda Baker (2004-02-11). "Made in the U.S. of A.?". Salon.com. http://www.americanapparel.net/presscenter/articles/20040211salon.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
  94. ^ inside american apparel: 4,000 downtown employees and counting Angelenic.com June 2008 "perhaps most touchingly, free long-distance phone service on every floor of the building."
  95. ^ a b "American Apparel Announces Further Details of $39 Million Employee Stock Grant". Business Week. 2008-01-03. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS100724+03-Jan-2008+BW20080103. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.  "This equates to roughly one share of stock for each workday."
  96. ^ Bell, Michele (August 2004). "Dov Charney: Rebel With A Cause". The Counnselor. "There's a waiting list 2,000 names strong to work at American Apparel."
  97. ^ Apparel News - Influential in 2002 - December 2002
  98. ^ Ari Paul (2005-08-04). "Wolf in Sheeps Clothing". In These Times. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2270/. Retrieved on 2007-12-19. 
  99. ^ a b Charney, Dov. "Letters: American Apparel & United". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040920/letter. Retrieved on 2008-03-26. 
  100. ^ Stephen Wishart. Behindthelabel.org (January 2005) The Truth Behind American Apparel: Sweatshop free or Union buster?
  101. ^ Ari Paul (2005-08-04). "Wolf in Sheeps Clothing". In These Times. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2270/. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. 
  102. ^ Walker pg 219 "Indeed, the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out that the nonprofit Garment Worker Center... did not...."
  103. ^ Ari Paul (2005-08-04). "Wolf in Sheeps Clothing". In These Times. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2270/. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.  "As part of a no-contest settlement, the company voluntarily posted a notice informing workers that it would not interfere with their rights to organize."
  104. ^ Walker, Rob Buying In: The Secret Dialog Between What We Buy and Who We Are Random House. New York 2008 pg 219
  105. ^ Louise Story - The New York Times - January 18, 2008[6]
  106. ^ May 1,March for Workers Rights - 05_2002
  107. ^ American Apparel Homepage: Legalize LA
  108. ^ [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090701/us_nm/us_americanapparel Probe fingers 1,800 American Apparel workers
  109. ^ [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03immig.html?_r=3&hp U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants
  110. ^ PSFK - Piers Fawkes - October 4, 2007 "Why Build Sustainability Into Your Business?".
  111. ^ AA is Apparel Magazine's Sustainability All-Star Daily Update March 2009
  112. ^ "American Apparel bicycle program provides healthy benefits to employees and environment.". Wearables Business. 2004-04-04. http://www.allbusiness.com/labor-employment/worker-categories-garment-workers/7331718-1.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-24. 
  113. ^ Animal-Friendly Fashion Retailer, Cosmetics Maker Capture Youth Vote on peta2.com, PETA, November 30, 2006 
  114. ^ American Apparel Organics: Sustainable Edition, http://www.americanapparelorganics.com/indexContent.html, retrieved on 2008-03-24 
  115. ^ Sustainable Edition Organic Fine Jersey Short Sleeve T-Shirt, http://store.americanapparel.net/2001org.html#i, retrieved on 2008-03-24 
  116. ^ American Apparel Makes Big Cleaner Cotton Purchase, http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/04/28/american-apparel-makes-big-cleaner-cotton-purchase/, retrieved on 2008-04-28 
  117. ^ RenewableEnergyaccess.com (January 27, 2006).Downtown L.A. Clothing Company Goes Solar
  118. ^ a b c Margolis, Sharon, It’s OK to Like American Apparel, http://www.beanstockd.com/greenstockd/2008/07/18/it%e2%80%99s-ok-to-like-american-apparel/1065, retrieved on 2008-07-24 
  119. ^ Josh Sims, "Organic Consumers Association" (July 6, 2006). Look Good, Save the Earth
  120. ^ American Apparel takes environmental stand by recycling over 1 million pounds of cotton cuttings per year, http://www.americanapparel.net/presscenter/articles/20020813financialtimes.html, retrieved on 2002-08-13 
  121. ^ Eco Complaints at 'Good' Stores PSFK.com Access Date: July 2008
  122. ^ Hall, Steve, Bikini Car Wash Raises Money For Katrina, http://www.adrants.com/2005/10/bikini-car-wash-raises-money-for-katrina.php, retrieved on 2008-03-36 
  123. ^ WireImage: Pictures from American Apparel Carwash
  124. ^ "Delivering the Good -- News". Los Angeles Garment and Citizen. 2005-10-12. http://www.americanapparel.net/presscenter/articles/20051012lagarment.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-26. 
  125. ^ Farm Aid: Merchandise Description
  126. ^ Grossberg  , Josh (2006-08-31). "Farm Aid Gets Polka On". E! News. http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=86bf1607-aa3f-4676-bd8f-d33adee3c65a&entry=index. Retrieved on 2008-03-26. 

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