Gildan Activewear Inc. is a Canadian manufacturer of branded clothing, including undecorated blank activewear such as

t-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a '' crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are genera ...

s, sport shirts and

fleeces Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. A ...

, which are subsequently decorated by

screen printing Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open me ...

companies with designs and

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...

s. The company also supplies branded and private label athletic, casual, and dress socks to

retail Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...

companies in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

including

Gold Toe Brands Gold Toe Brands, Inc., is the third-largest United States based producer of socks, producing more than 140 million pairs of socks annually. History Gold Toe was founded by Fritz S. Stern, Fritz Bendheim and J. Kuglemanin in Bally, Pennsylvani ...

, PowerSox, SilverToe, Auro, All Pro, and the Gildan brand. The company also manufactures and distributes Under Armour and

New Balance New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), best known as simply New Balance, is one of the world's major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch ...

brand socks. The company has approximately 44,000 employees worldwide, and owns and operates manufacturing facilities in Rio Nance,

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

. Glenn and Greg Chamandy founded Gildan in 1984 with the acquisition of a

knitting Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine. Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...

mill in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, Canada, to make fabric to supply Harley Inc., the childrenswear business already owned by the family. It later expanded to sell t-shirts made of 100% cotton to

wholesaler Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

s, which resold them to United States and Canadian screen-printers, to be decorated with designs and logos. By 1994, Harley was closed in order to focus on the expansion of what had become Gildan Activewear. Gildan has factories in low-wage countries like Honduras and Haiti, which has allowed Gildan to lower its price per shirt to below that of Chinese manufacturers as of 2006.

Growth and acquisitions

Gildan opened its first offshore

sewing Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving ...

facility in Honduras, in 1997. The plant was vertically integrated and employed 1,200 workers. A year later, the company achieved an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

and was listed publicly on both the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the ...

and the

NYSE MKT NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was kno ...

. By 2001, Gildan was the leading distributor of 100% cotton ill-fitting T-shirts in the US as determined by the

ACNielsen The Nielsen Corporation, self-referentially known as The Nielsen Company, and formerly known as ACNielsen or AC Nielsen, is a global marketing research firm, with worldwide headquarters in New York City, United States. Regional headquarters for ...

S.T.A.R.S. Report. The next year, the company opened a knitting, bleaching, dyeing, finishing, and cutting facility in Rio Nance, Honduras. In 2010, the company invested $15m in Shahriyar Fabric Industries Limited in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

to support planned growth in Asia and Europe. WM2006wikiashirts

In May 2012, Gildan again expanded with its purchase of 130-year old apparel maker Anvil Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Anvil Knitwear and producer of environmentally-friendly lines of sustainable, recycled, and organic apparel. In 2014, Gildan Activewear acquired Doris Hosiery for CA$110 million. In February 2015, Gildan announced its intent to purchase the Comfort Colors brand and assets, for a total purchase price of approximately US$100 million. Comfort Colors is the leading supplier of garment-dyed undecorated basic T-shirts and sweatshirts for the North American printwear market. In 2016, Gildan Activewear announced its $55 million purchase of PEDS Legwear. In 2017, Canadian company Gildan Activewear purchased American clothing company

American Apparel American Apparel Inc. is an online-only retailer and former brick-and-mortar stores operator based in Los Angeles, California. Founded by Canadian businessman Dov Charney in 1989, it was a vertically integrated company that ranked as one of the ...

for $88 million at auction. This deal did not include retail locations.

Advertising and sponsorships

Gildan bought a 30-second spot to air an advertisement during the third quarter of the 2013 Super Bowl. The ad was part of an overall $25 million marketing push created by DeVito/Verdi, which included broadcast, print, digital, event marketing, and public relations. Gildan started speaking to the media about its Super Bowl ad in early December 2012. The company also sponsored the Gildan New Mexico Bowl, which was played December 15, 2012 in Albuquerque. In a 2017 commercial, Gildan depicted older men in (sometimes ill-fitting) white

briefs Briefs (or a brief) are a type of short, form-fitting underwear and swimwear, as opposed to styles where material extends down the thighs. Briefs have various different styles, usually with a waistband attached to fabric that runs along the pe ...

and urged younger men not to wear their fathers' underwear.

Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music singer and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin". The lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" spent five weeks at ...

was a spokesperson for the company.

Allegations of labor rights violations

Genesis, S.A. is a

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

an factory manufacturing T-shirts whose main customer is Gildan Activewear. It has been accused as the most serious offender in a campaign of retaliatory dismissals, targeted at the leaders of a new labor rights and union organizing effort in Haiti's capital,

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

."Preliminary Report on Unlawful Dismissals at Genesis, S.A. (Haiti)"
October 11, 2011.

Notes

References

External links

*
Veetrends , Gildan Distributors
{{Authority control 1984 establishments in Quebec Clothing brands of Canada Clothing companies established in 1984 Canadian companies established in 1984 Clothing companies of Canada Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Manufacturing companies based in Montreal S&P/TSX 60 1997 initial public offerings