In this article, we will talk about the 10 biggest clothing and footwear manufacturers in the world. You can skip our industry trends, and go directly to the 5 Biggest Clothing Manufacturers.
Clothing remains one of the fastest-growing industries in the world amid rising demand and new trends. In 2020, the global apparel market’s value jumped to $1.5 trillion and is projected to grow of up to $2.25 trillion by year 2025. Furthermore, the clothing industry is having a steady growth over the years although some small companies are affected because of the rising number of e-commerce businesses and not to mention the unexpected surge of the Covid-19 pandemic. Women Wear Wholesale
The clothing industry worldwide was affected because many countries close down stores and manufacturing plants. For a while this led to less to no sales at all and pushed several publicly traded companies into deep losses. For instance, Under Armour lost about $773 million while Abercrombie & Fitch Co. lost $244.2 million. Moreover, according to Bloomberg, Bangladesh has had more than $1.5 billion of canceled orders during the outbreak.
The Clean Clothes Campaign, an international coalition that deals with the production chain of the clothing industry worldwide, conducted a study that analyzed the crisis of the seven biggest clothing manufacturing countries in Asia. These countries are Cambodia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, and India. The results show that workers in the clothing industry had an economic loss between 3.2 and 5.8 billion dollars in the first 3 months of the Covid-19 surge. Although this year, more clothing businesses are gaining profits again, there are still workers that are having a hard time because many of them are still underpaid. This is because of the non-payment orders, sudden cancellations of orders, price reduction, and unfair purchasing of the big brands. From the start of the pandemic in March 2020 up to March 2021, unpaid wages reached up to $11.8 billion- considered as “irreparable human pain.”
Euromonitor reported that the worldwide market size for apparel and footwear contracted by -18.1% in 2020, bringing it down to $1.45 trillion, whereas McKinsey indicated that the fashion and apparel sector experienced a decline of 20% in revenue during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. According to McKinsey, in 2020-21, the fashion industry experienced a rise of 21% in revenue and saw a doubling of EBITA margins, increasing by 6 percentage points to 12.3%.
Meanwhile, fashion trends have shifted over the past year. Just like what is mentioned above, eCommerce continues to grow and online shopping has become very popular. Also, there is an increased sale of comfortable clothes. When lockdown started because of the pandemic, people tend to stay home. Online class and work-from-home schemes were implemented and so, people just work on their pajamas. According to Alibaba.com, there was an increase of 143% in sales of pajamas in March 2020. Plus size women are now finding it easier to shop because many companies are already creating styles and manufacturing for them. Moreover, ReCommerce is also growing. Many stay-at-home people buy used clothes from thrift stores and sell them online through live selling or social media postings. Another trend nowadays is that payment plans have become available. The “Buy Now, Pay Later” scheme allows consumers to buy as much as they want and will be able to pay it over the next three months.
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
With this context in mind, let's now start our list of the top 10 biggest clothing manufacturers, in accordance to their market cap.
Gap Inc is known as the world’s leading apparel company. It owns several main brands such as Gap Global, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Intermix, and Athleta. It has a gross sale of $15.6 billion making it to our 10th spot in the biggest clothing companies in the world. Gap Inc is an American clothing retailer and manufacturer that was founded in the year 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris Fisher.
VF Corp is a company produces footwear, fashion products, and other apparel for men and women. Its global sales reached $11.7 billion over the last 12 months. Moreover, this company owns some popular brands such as The North Face, Kipling, Vans, Eastpack, and more. It actually controls almost 55% of the backpack market in the USA with Eastpack, Jansport, North Face, and Timberland brands. Meanwhile, the company was founded in 1899.
Reaching the 8th spot is Hennes & Mauritz, popularly known as H&M which has nearly $22 billion of sales. This company specializes in sportswear, underwear, accessories, and other apparel for women, men, and even for kids. It was founded in Sweden in the year 1947 by Erling Persson. This promising company now has over 5000 stores globally and has made online shopping easier in over 33 countries. Moreover, it also had collaborations with different personalities such as Karl Lagerfield, Stella McCartney, Viktor and Rolf, Madonna, and more. This strategy surprisingly gives the brand good sales.
A popular competitor of Nike is Adidas which also manufactures sportswear is part of our top 10 list. It generated $22.5 billion dollars of sale. It is a multinational corporation that is founded in Germany and it is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe. Furthermore, Adidas Group is also the owner of the popular sportswear brand Rebook.
In the early years, Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas, had joined the business with his brother and named the company “Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory.” However, the partnership did not work out and they decided to part ways. Adi decided to rename his business as” Adidas” while his brother decided to make competition and he named it “Ruda” now popularly known as “Puma.
Owner of the luxury brands Gucci, Bottega Veneta, and Yves Saint Lauren, Kering is one of the biggest clothing manufacturers in the world with $75.9 billion of market capitalization. In 1999, it bought 42% of Gucci group’s stake for $3 billion while it also acquired a 100% stake of Yves Saint Lauren. Meanwhile, in the years 2000 and 2001, the company was able to obtain Boucheron, Bottega Vinetta, and Balenciaga. Furthermore, in the year 2004, it finally acquired 99.4% of Gucci. Its current revenue is more than $20 billion.
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The Dress Vendors Disclosure: None. Top 10 Biggest Clothing and Footwear Manufacturers is originally published on Insider Monkey.