American Apparel Bankruptcy–What We Know

American Apparel Bankruptcy

Courtesy of American Apparel

UPDATE 4/21/2017

Limited stock for select styles is now available for drop ship from the American Apparel warehouse! Drop shipped items will take 24-48 hours to process prior to shipping. Items included in the new stock wave are the infamous kids raglan tee BB253, the 8369 Sleeveless Crop Top and the women’s tri-blend TR301.

The American Apparel wholesale website is back up and revamped, giving anxious buyers a sneak peek into what the future holds for the collection. Ordering is disabled for now but some popular items host a “Coming in May” title.

The popular 2001, BB401, F497, TR401 and BB453 all made the cut! And with new stock available, you’ll want to order ASAP.

Categories for US Made, Unisex, Kids, etc. show a scaled-back version of the line, featuring only the top heavy hitters that customers know and love.

UPDATE 2/27/2017

In a conference call on Feb. 23rd, Chief Executive Officer Glenn Chamandy announced that the American Apparel brand will begin production soon using a mix of contracted US producers and Gildan’s own manufacturing plants outside the country.

The new owners plan to continue producing some key wholesale styles in the US, while other items offered in the line will be produced at their facilities in the Caribbean and Central America. Distribution will be handled via Gildan’s vast network of warehouses.

Chamandy, the head of the company, is optimistic about the future of American Apparel, and looks forward to expanding the brand into new international markets. “We have huge interest from all of our international customers to carry this brand,” he said. “We’re going to continue to support our core Made in the USA business, but we’re also going to offer product where they couldn’t compete before.”

In a statement released on the brand’s wholesale website, Gildan elaborates:

“Gildan and American Apparel share a vision that owning the factories and building responsible practices and sustainable solutions into the manufacturing process is the way to do it right.”

“We anticipate [the transition] to be completed late February.”

1/26/2017

If you haven’t noticed, the American Apparel Bankruptcy has put production on a temporary hiatus. The iconic brand has filed for bankruptcy and is in the process of being bought out by another company. Manufacturing of all items has been suspended for now and with no ETA on when production will pick up, there’s still a lot of questions left unanswered. But here’s the good news–American Apparel will still be around for all your screen printing needs going forward, and stock is still available for the time being.

The popular US-Made brand sold the company in January after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in November 2016. With over $177M in debt, the company was unable to turn things around after persisting legal battles and another bankruptcy back in October 2015. The sale brought retail giants Amazon and Forever 21 to the table, and in the end a bid for $88M was accepted from Canadian-based Gildan Activewear.

American Apparel Bankruptcy

Courtesy of the Center for Latin American Studies

Gildan, another big name in the wholesale market, has indicated they will assume some of the current manufacturing operations. The company recently acquired Alstyle apparel and has since kept the brand’s manufacturing in Los Angeles. More specific plans are set to be released during a conference call on Feb. 23rd. They expressed no interest in purchasing the company’s retail stores, and with no other buyers on the horizon, doors are closing for good at brick-and-mortar locations across the globe.

With industry experience spanning spanning 30+ years, Gildan is expected to fully pivot the brand towards the wholesale market and dedicate it’s resources to serving that consumer base. It’s unsure how much of the current line will remain after the American Apparel Bankruptcy, but if you’re a wholesale buyer or screen printer who’s had trouble buying American Apparel in the past, things just might get a little easier.

American Apparel Bankruptcy

Courtesy of Teen Vogue

Warehouse closures for both retail and wholesale products have already begun in Southern California–including massive layoffs at the famous American Apparel factory in Downtown Los Angeles. Because of this, stock levels represented on your distributor’s website may not be 100% accurate or up-to-date. Only one thing’s for sure–if you need popular shirts like the 2001, BB401 or BB453–be sure to stock up now while you can!

Stay Tuned for more Updates on the American Apparel Bankruptcy!

 

See More from Chelsey on Google+

 

Sources

Gildan will Continue Manufacturing some American Apparel Lines in the US

American Apparel Wholesale

Forbes: American Apparel Agrees To Gildan Activewear Acquisition

Fortune: Bankrupt Retailer American Apparel Begins Laying Off Thousands of Workers

Gildan: Company Overview

Blank T Shirt Templates 6 Must-Haves

Blank T Shirt Templates must have vector packs!

2001 imageso, you’ve got your t-shirts ready to sell on your website but you’re missing one important thing–the product shots and mock-ups. Stop right there! Well rounded images are the number one way to sell your products online because shoppers really depend on the pictures. Cutting corners will only hurt you. Using Blank T Shirt Templates to create free mock-ups of your designs is the first step to start selling your products!

Maybe you’re waiting on the printed shirts to arrive. Maybe your screen printer drop ships to all your customers and you never actually have any tees on hand. Either way, using a t-shirt template is a great way to get a head start on selling. Simply place your vectored design onto the template and edit the t-shirt to match your colors! You can even add a custom background!

Once you’ve designed your mock-ups, put them together in a look book or line sheet to showcase your tees to potential wholesale buyers. Or post them to your website and start pulling in those orders—all before you print your first run!

Vector Blank T Shirt Templates

Blank T Shirt Templates

Spec’d Illustrator Template Pack

[download id=”1037″]

Spec Pack Details:

-Includes a free AI file for 1) classic men’s crewneck tee spec’d to the American Apparel 2001 2) classic women’s crewneck tee spec’d to the Next Level 3300L and 3) classic youth crewneck tee spec’d to the Gildan G500B 4) blank polo template spec’d to the Ogio OG122

-Edit file in Illustrator or save as a PDF to edit in other programs

-Change the t-shirt color & layer your designs onto the file

-Ideal for look books, line sheets & catalogs

-Offers a technical view of your product

-Must Have Adobe Illustrator

Realistic Blank T Shirt Templates

Blank T Shirt Templates Anvil 779

Realistic PNG Pack

[download id=”1040″]

PNG Pack Details:

-Includes free font & back PNG images for 1) classic men’s crewneck tee Anvil 779 2) classic women’s crewneck tee BELLA+CANVAS 6004

-Edit file in various programs

-Change t-shirt color, layer your designs & add a background

-Ideal for product images, promotional material, look books, line sheets & catalogs

-Offers a more realistic depiction without measurements

Design Tool

Create your own Blank T Shirt Templates in the Design Tool Next Level 3900

For those of you looking for a screen print price quote but want to see the mock up first, visit our Design Tool! There we’ve got dozens of styles and designs to choose from and you can even upload your own artwork to get a realistic view of how your designs will look. Spend some time toying around with your ideas, then get your price quote when you’re ready. You can even get a 10% discount for checking out through the design tool!

 

Stay tuned for our next blog–Free Blank Hoodie Templates for Starting Your Clothing Line!

Chelsey on Google+

Printing Tees for your Nonprofit: 4 Must-Know Tips

Run of Exploding Colour

Festival of Good Things hosts The Run of Exploding Colour—a 5k allowing individual charities to enroll runners for fundraising efforts!

So, you’ve got a nonprofit and you’re in need of some printed merchandise. Printed t-shirts and hoodys are a great way to help build hype around your organization and raise dollars at the same time! Whether you’re looking to sell them at your next event, auction off for some big bucks or even just give away to participators, you’ll want to make sure that your design is original and low cost to produce. Follow these tips to make it happen!

First and foremost, pick the right shirts

With so many brands and styles to choose from, choosing which tee to print on can get a little overwhelming. The first factor you should consider is the price. Generally the price per tee will go down with volume (depending on where you decide to shop) so you’ll want to order in bulk at wholesale prices.

If you plan on giving these tees away, you’ll want to check out Tultex and Gildan tees. These are some of the leading brands in the industry and they offer the lowest prices. If you’re looking to sell but don’t necessarily want to splurge on the finest, go for a brand like Next Level or Anvil—which are still a great price but offer more contemporary styles. If you’re looking for a premium tee to be sold or auctioned off at a higher price, American Apparel, BELLA+CANVAS or Alternative Apparel is your best bet.

For printing purposes, you’ll want to consider the color of shirts you choose. With screen printing, it’s cheaper to print onto light colored garments, like white or heather grey. When you print onto light colors, most inks (dark colors and bright colors) will be easily visible on the garment. However if you try to print on say, a black, royal blue or a dark grey shirt, you’ll need to first lay down a white under base in order for the color of the ink to show up against the dark background. The additional layer will raise your printing costs as well as add more thickness to the feel of your design.

Numana

Numana fights to end world hunger by arranging large-scale meal packing events with hundreds of volunteers at a time!

Create a Simple Design

When it comes to designing your t-shirts, you’ll want to make sure that you’re not creating an image with too many colors because you’ll most likely be screen printing your shirts. In this method, the price is based on the amount of colors you need to print. A new screen is created for each color—so the price will start to sky rocket when you’ve got three or more colors compared to just one or two. More colors will also add to the weight of your print. Try incorporating the color of the t-shirt into the artwork to make use of negative space! Or come up with a dynamic, one color design that can be printed with color, or bleached out with discharge inks for a soft, unique look.

You’ll want to cut down on the amount of print locations. Since screen printing isn’t priced based on the size of the print, even small logos on the sleeve or hip can pump up the price. Keep things simple—if you need to list your sponsors on the back of the shirt, make sure to convert the logos to one color so it can be printed with one screen! Also make sure to create your design using Adobe Illustrator or a similar program because some printers will charge for vectoring your file and separating the colors.

Represent.com

Represent offers organizations and individuals a way to jumpstart their nonprofit fundraising by selling cause-related tees.

Explore your options

There are many online ways to promote and auction off merchandise for a good cause. Sites like Represent and Teespring now offer sellers an opportunity to create, sell and drop ship printed products—all on one platform without any of the risk or the headache. Represent takes it one step further—specifically catering to the nonprofit community. This site allows you to create your designs online along with a campaign outlining your organization and fundraising goal. Share the campaign with your friends and supporters and they can purchase directly from the site. Once enough tees are sold and your goal is reached, Represent will fulfill your orders and pass your profits right to your charity! It’s a very hands-off, seamless process–making crowdsourcing for your cause easy. Promoting your cause on social media using custom hashtags is another good way to build hype around your organization and merchandise.

Always find the best deals!

Always make sure that you’re getting the best prices, especially when shopping online. Retailmenot is a site that runs a search engine specifically for finding online coupon codes and sales! If you’re planning to sell or distribute your merchandise in person at an event, try to use a company that specializes in both screen printing and providing many options for blank t-shirts—that way you can keep your costs down. Here at Blankstyle.com we offer hundreds of blank apparel brands and can even do your printing for you!  This will ensure that you get the best prices, the fastest turnaround and the widest selection of brands.

 

Chelsey on Google+