Privately-held American Apparel will sell itself to a small investment firm for $382.5 million. NYT reports,
- “American Apparel’s buyer, the Endeavor Acquisition Corporation, is a small, publicly traded investment group created last year, with less than $125 million in assets. American Apparel is the firm’s first acquisition — and Endeavor is expected to expand the chain across the globe.”
Endeavor is shooting for 800 stores world-wide.
“I think we will get beyond that,” number, CEO Mr. Charney said. “It’s all about manifest destiny. Wherever FedEx goes, we will go.”
Whether paying double minimum wage and charging $30 for a blank t-shirt will scale internationally remains to be seen, just like an American Apparel product we would consider buying. — BEN POPKEN
Provocative Retail Chain Is Acquired [NYT]
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Dov Charney is only doing this for the foreign blowjobs.
Expensive, but they’re also the most comfortable t-shirts I’ve ever worn.
I just like the advertisements….
snappy comment, but AA stuff is well made, and surprise, you can get it for way under $30 if you’re buying wholesale (they’ll sell in quantities as low as a dozen, I believe, if you have the proper paperwork: tax id and maybe a wholesalers license). Chances are, if you’ve bought any t-shirts from boutique online retailers, you’re *already* wearing american apparel — because they not only compete on quality, but they compete on price (it’s like an extra buck a shirt over those crappily cut no-name cotton tees you can get).
hopefully this expansion isn’t, as you mentioned, going to destroy their quality or policies.
their quality control needs work. For what I paid for a sweatshirt, the seams should not have come loose within a week (and the zipper also broke).
Say what you will about sweatshop labor, but at least they can sew a seam.
Manifest destiny? Uh oh.
Kudos Fuzzy_Duffel – the Hondurans do certainly know their way around a double-stitched seam…
So wait, if AA is bought out by some investment firm, does that now mean that hipsters in general have sold out? Perhaps now they can finally take a fucking shower?
I didn’t think AA sold much through their stores. Their big business seems to be boutique T-Shirts. Just about every boutique or “art” t-shirt is on American Apparel stock. My problem is quality control. I just bought a hoodie from Odica that is actually made by AA, and the pocket wasn’t sewn right and the stitching is messed up in a few places. I’ve also see all sorts of weird things on the T-Shirts. Not to mention their sized are off compared to every other maker of T-Shirts.
A plain t-shirt at American Apparel is fifteen bucks Ben. Last time I was at the Gap they were 12, and that was probably four years ago. The AA shirts also feel like butter.
These are the ones with the preteen models and the lecherous perverted rapist for a boss, right?