SIC 2321 Men's and Boys' Shirts
SIC 2321
This category includes establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing men's and boys' shirts (including polo and sport shirts) from purchased woven or knit fabrics. Establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing work shirts are classified in SIC 2326. Knitting mills primarily engaged in manufacturing outerwear are classified in SIC 2253.
315211
Men's and Boys' Cut and Sew Apparel Contractors
315223
Men's and Boys' Cut and Sew Shirt (except Work Shirt) Manufacturing
Sales of men's and boys' shirts reached $2.8 billion in 2003. Although knit shirts continued their dominance of the sector, woven dress shirts made slow increases, as the trend back toward a dressier, more tailored appearance began coming to prominence in the mid-2000s. Although casual dress was still prevalent in corporate America, economic uncertainty and widespread layoffs were key in bringing back a more polished look to U.S. offices and service industries, and by 2004, more than 60 percent of men wore tailored clothes to the office by choice. Management no longer had to entice workers with casual dress policies and workers felt that projecting a more professional image would be a wise decision in the increasingly competitive market for jobs in the 2000s. In addition, according to Chain Store Age, men preferred the tailored look because it made them "feel more professional."
One important issue affecting the industry was cost. Shirt manufacturers had greater competition for consumers' dollars because of less disposable income. Manufacturing costs, however, continued to rise with shirt makers forced to find ways to save in other areas to keep costs low. Continuing an important trend of the 1990s, shirt manufacturers moved production to more affordable factories overseas. Domestic shirt makers also experienced increasing competition from less expensive imports. In 2005, long-standing quotas on imports were lifted, bringing a glut of inexpensive Asian products into the American market, further affecting price and sales of products manufactured and marketed in the states.
U.S. shirt production is heavily concentrated in the southeastern states, especially North Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Georgia, which together account for about 55 percent of total shipments. North Carolina and Georgia account for one-quarter of the almost 2 million U.S. jobs in textile production, apparel manufacture, and production of synthetic fibers and cotton. California also commands a huge percentage of the jobs, about 181,000 in various textile-related industries, three times more than all of New England.
The two most important supplies for men's and boys' shirt establishments are knit fabrics and broadwoven cloths. For most of the twentieth century, knit and woven shirts were assembled from cut pieces of fabric according to the "bundle system." Sewing a dress shirt requires anywhere from 20 to 40 operations under this system. Each operation is the specialty of a certain sewing-machine operator, who performs his or her single task on a large bundle of cut pieces, reties the pieces in the bundle, and then sends them along to the next operator.
At any moment there are thousands of garment-pieces lying on the factory floor, a huge "work-in-process" that represents the manufacturer's inventory. It takes less than 20 minutes of actual labor to assemble a shirt in this system. But those 20 minutes are spread over a production cycle that lasts as long as six weeks, from the time separate pieces are cut to the time they are packaged for distribution. The bundle system maximizes the productivity of individual operators but also results in a costly build-up of in-process inventory and hinders manufacturers' flexibility to respond to changing consumer demand. The industry's largest manufacturers report that department stores and mass merchandisers are the biggest consumers of their products. In addition, a number of firms are expanding sales through their own retail divisions, especially factory stores at outlet malls.
The historical development of the men's and boys' shirt industry can be divided into two basic periods: the eras before and after the 1918 introduction of the soft-collar-attached shirt. The current state of the men's and boys' shirt industry is the result of a range of influences, including wars; political, industrial, and technological revolutions; government policies; apparel construction and design changes; introductions of new natural and synthetic fibers and/or improvements in their resiliency; and the fleeting nature of fashion preferences.
The American Revolution of 1776 gave birth to the U.S. apparel industry. It created a climate in which the activities of urban-based industrialists, bankers, merchants, and other professions and crafts could flourish. Progressing in step with this newly emergent and triumphant political and economic class of white men were styles of dress reflective of their own particular preferences. These tastes were largely utilitarian in design and style. Early uniformity in fashion tastes facilitated mass production of ready-made shirts.
From its infancy at the end of the American Revolution to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the U.S. apparel industry was nurtured by a highly protectionist trade policy. Between 1816 and 1829 tariffs on imported clothing rose from 25 to 50 percent, where they remained until 1860. Additional duties were imposed if the imported clothing arrived in the United States on board a ship of foreign origin.
The introduction of sewing-machine technology in the 1850s precipitated the downfall of these tariffs and allowed U.S. shirt manufacturers to compete in international markets. The increased productivity generated by sewing machines propelled the U.S. apparel industry to a world-status second to none. The industry's main advantage lay in its ability to reduce the cost of labor per shirt, which led to a sharp decrease in the selling price of its product. The sewing machine had a profound structural impact on the organization of the workplace. It ultimately led to greater divisions of labor based on outinization and specialization. Highly paid, skilled tailors were replaced by low-wage, semi-skilled, or unskilled laborers who arrived from Europe to work in U.S. factories.
Another milestone in the shirt industry occurred with the outbreak of the Civil War. Prior to the war, manufacturers and retailers of ready-made apparel had been hampered by the absence of standard clothing sizes. To facilitate its clothing orders for private...
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