Clothing Industry

What is the clothing industry?

Have you ever wondered about the journey your clothes, shoes, and accessories traveled before these items found a home in your closet?  Everything that happened along the journey is a result of the clothing industry.

Members of the apparel industry design, manufacture, ship, warehouse, distribute, market, wholesale, and retail all of the clothes that are worn around the globe.  It is mind boggling if you stop to think about how large the clothing industry truly has become.  It is the opinion of Apparel Search, that no one research company in the world has yet been able to accurately account for the full depth and breadth of the apparel market.  Sure, their are several excellent clothing industry statistics and research reports that we can turn to, but do such reports measure the complete impact of every single aspect of the industry.  Reports typically monitor large segments of the industry such as retail sales numbers or manufacturing volume.  However, these reports can not easily dive into the minor details that take place during the garment product lifecycle.  For example many reports may not measure dollars earned or spent on button development, pattern making drafts, fabric wastage during the manufacturing process, refurbishing costs, etc.  The lifecycle of a product is so complex it is not as easy as one may think to evaluate in full.  If a particular "product" can not be accurately measured, how can an "entire industry" be measured into one report?  With that said, we can take a general pulse on how an industry is performing based on key factors.

Over the years, the clothing industry has had it's ups and downs.  As with most sectors of the market, our industry has had good times as well as bad.  The Global Financial Crisis that began in late 2007 resulted in millions of Jobs around the world being lost, and hundreds of thousands of small and large businesses to shut there doors. This economic downtrend had an obvious effect on the clothing industry.

Fortunately for us, consumers always need clothes and they typically wish to stay fashionable which leads to additional purchases.  All in all, garment industry is recovering and will continue to push forward as it has done throughout history.

To look at the overview of the industry this year, its fair to say that the retail segment is more online today then it was in previous years.  There are more people buying clothing online then ever before. Fashion consumers today are spending more cash online then in brick & mortar retail stores.

In regard to manufacturing and total retail sales, we will leave that for another article or research report.  For now, let's just say that the clothing industry is doing well.  It could be better, and it could be worse.  Great fashion brands combined with new fabrics and interesting styles will keep our market flourishing.  If you are interested in a career in fashion, now would definitely be a good time.

You may want to read the fashion blog post about clothing industry resources to find additional information on this subject.

Read more about the Apparel Industry here on the Apparel Search guide.