Women's, Children's and Infants' Clothing and Accessories

Industry Snapshot

Generally, a business in this industry purchases apparel from manufacturers and sells the products to retailers with little to no further processing of the product. Wholesalers are also likely to perform sales and administrative activities to ensure proper supply and demand and marketing and advertising of the product.

According to D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions, in 2009 there were 10,389 establishments in this industry, with total annual sales of $23.2 billion. The average sales per establishment decreased slightly from $2.5 billion in 2007 to $2.4 billion in 2009. The number of employees in this industry totaled just over 70,000. Most establishments are located in California and New York, with 2,891 and 2,354 firms, respectively. These two states accounted for nearly three-fourths of the industry's revenues.

The Women's and children's clothing sector controlled the majority of wholesaler establishments with 4,857, or 46.8 percent. The sector's revenues were nearly $11 billion. The Women's and children's sportswear sector was a distant second with 614 wholesalers representing 6 percent of all establishments in the industry and accounting for $4.5 billion in revenues.

According to several U.S. business publications, including Forbes, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was the impetus behind a massive shift of U.S. garment production from Asia to Mexico. Half of the apparel sold in the United States was imported from other countries and, after the 1994 NAFTA agreement, apparel exports from Mexico grew to $3.3 billion. In early 1997, Mexico was the highest U.S. source of imported apparel. Sent to Mexico mainly in the form of cut pieces to be sewn, U.S. apparel exports almost doubled to about $2.5 billion a year after NAFTA. The change in production from Asia to Mexico helped lower U.S. clothing costs between 1994 and 1997.

By 2004, the Central American and Dominican Republic region was the top apparel supplier to the U.S. market, followed by China and Mexico. During that same period, imports from Mexico decreased almost 7 percent and imports from China increased by 24.3 percent over 2003.

In January 2005 the World Trade Organization quotas on almost all textiles and apparel were eliminated, which caused a shock to the U.S. textile industry, dropping prices by as much as 40 percent and increasing imports from China by nearly 600 percent. In response, the United States put new safeguards in place by imposing restrictions in numerous categories on imports and penned a bilateral deal that expired at the end of 2008.

Despite U.S. attempts to encourage trade with Central American countries by signing the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), China's dominance of the U.S. textile market continued through the first decade of the 2000s, and by the end of 2008, China held a 33.6-percent share of the U.S. market. In addition, Vietnam also threatened U.S.-based establishments as imports from that country increased by 36 percent in 2008 alone, making it the second largest importer of textiles into the United States.

Leaders in this industry include Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., with 2009 sales of $5.0 billion and 17,000 employees; Liz Claiborne, with 2008 revenues of $3.94 billion and 15,000 employees; and Jones Wear, with 2008 fiscal year sales of $3.6 billion and nearly 8,000 employees.