Background
Textile industries have been in secular decline since the early 1970s. In 1973, there were more than 2.4 million textile and apparel workers in the United States; in 2019 there were about 335,000. Decline in apparel employment is attributable to the internationalization of production and the off-shoring of labor-intensive cutting and assembly work. Until the 1980s, there were specialized garment production centers in nearly every city in the United States – men’s coats and suits in Chicago, outerwear in Detroit and Minneapolis, sportswear in Los Angeles and San Francisco, dresses in Dallas, swimwear in Miami, wedding dresses in St. Louis, and outdoor wear and “gear” in Portland and Seattle. These specialized urban agglomerations have all but vanished. Textile production employment, which since the mid-1900s has been concentrated in rural areas in the southeastern U.S., particularly western North Carolina, has also been affected by globalization, but even more significantly by capital investments that reduce demand for labor1. Training and vocational education have declined along with the industry2.
It would be unrealistic to imagine that the apparel and textile sectors can be revived here in their pre-existing forms. And from a workforce equity perspective, communities would not want to do this; despite the sometime presence of union representation, for example, firms in the apparel industry have tended to pursue “low-road” competitive strategies dependent on low wages and persistent labor law violations3.
There is some evidence, however, that two emerging industry trends offer opportunities to create conditions for sustainable livelihoods in apparel and textile product manufacture.
First, businesses are considering on-shoring apparel production to respond to greater demand volatility and to reduce waste and overstock. Given rising wages overseas, an increasing number of industry leaders believe that it is possible to be competitive and to produce domestically, provided that firms invest in technology-intensive production methods and needed skills training. According to a 2018 report by McKinsey & Company, large apparel companies are driven both by an interest in greater speed and agility and by the recognition that adopting the values of a circular economy (with resource-efficient production, less waste, and shorter shipping distances) reduces some costs and increases the appeal of merchandise to socially-conscious consumers.
The second trend is the rise of small-scale firms headed up by designer-entrepreneurs who do their own production, merchandising, and distribution. The relative ease of accessing business services (Computer Aided Design (CAD) services, accounting, consulting) and marketing, retailing, and distribution infrastructure (social media, drop-ship services) on the Internet makes it increasingly possible for individual apparel and textile “creatives” to go into business for themselves. The recent nationwide growth rate of non-employer manufacturing establishments in apparel, textile, and leather, at 20%, is not as dramatic as in food and beverage production; nevertheless, sole proprietor establishments in apparel, textile, and leather manufacturing posted receipts of $1.28 billion in 20174. Mutualistic communities of fashion entrepreneurs have emerged in Detroit, Nashville, Cincinnati, Portland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Austin, as well as the more traditional fashion capitals of New York and Los Angeles. Their interest is often in making quality products at a high price point, aimed at socially-conscious consumers or people seeking individuation and customization. These entrepreneurs are supported by many organizations who compose an ecosystem of service providers.
Together, these are the stakeholders of Mechanism’s Flexible Product Fabrication Collaborative.
- Mark Mittlehauser, Employment trends in textiles and apparel, 1973-2005. Monthly Labor Review, August 1997. Western North Carolina is also a traditional center of garment production.
- Abigail Clarke-Sather and Kelly Cobb, Onshoring fashion: Worker sustainability impacts of global and local apparel production. Journal of Cleaner Production 208 1206-1218, 2019.
- Tarry Hum, Mapping Global Production in New York City’s Garment Industry: The Role of Sunset Park, Brooklyn’s Immigrant Economy. Economic Development Quarterly, 17(3), 294–309, 2003.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Non-employer Statistics series, 2000 and 2017. According to this data, there were 25,953 sole proprietor apparel manufacturers, 5,326 sole proprietor textile products manufacturers, and 5,903 sole proprietor leather manufacturers in the United States in 2017. The cited growth rate of 20% is for 2000-2017.
