WSJ Blasts American Apparel
ed. note: I wanted to wait on this one until it the article was publicly available online. You can see the complete version here in the WSJ.
“If you’re offended by sexual innuendo or masturbation or sexual coloring books — if you’re offended by any of these, then don’t work here,” Mr. Charney says, [apparently unaware that in this country employees are legally entitled to a workplace free from sexual harassment].
This gem of a quote from our friend, American Apparel founder and complete douche-bag (we finally decided), Dov Charney appeared in last weekends front page lambaste of the company in the Wall Street Journal. Ok, lambaste might be a stronger word than might actually be accurate, but I take my journalistic cues from Matt Drudge. The article details American Apparel’s many financial woes particularly in the arena of bookkeeping know-how and liability from the Dov factor. Despite robust growth in 2007 to almost 400 million fucking dollars, AA stock is down more than 40% since its IPO intended to raise much needed cash to finance new store openings. My question after reading these numbers is who the hell is buying this crap? Even if you count every hipster in Brooklyn, $400m is a lot of gold lamay hot-pants.  Personal feelings about AA aside, I can’t possible imagine how the bottom isn’t going to drop out of this fad. According to the WSJ AA now has more than 187 stores packed with some of the most ridiculous looking garments I have ever seen. All of this really just leaves me baffled. Anyway, if you are looking for coherent analysis, read the article because you certainly aren’t going to find it here, and frankly I should probably be working now.
Stumble it!
April 21st, 2008 at 9:15 pm
it’s resellers. they have no minimum orders for wholesale and will give almost anyone an account, so really small scale crafters buy their shirts and things. they do have a lot of ridiculous stuff, but it’s probably the plain t-shirts that are really selling best. and so far as larger scale screenprinters go, the people they are selling to really like the sound of ’sweatshop free’.