American Apparel is a company that wears its ethics very clearly on its sleeve. Under the banner of 'sweatshop-free clothing', American Apparel successfully presents itself as a company that truly cares, in a fast-moving, cut-throat industry that has a reputation for doing everything but care.
What can you learn from American Apparel?
Being transparent and ethical doesn't have to be dull. You can still be stylish, sexy, and above all, highly profitable too. What makes it work is the company's top-to-bottom approach and its use of real people, combined with total openness and genuine enthusiasm for the way they do things. They truly are proud to be different, and don't care what their detractors think. Get in touch for inspirational suggestions on how transparency can boost your brand.
For a clothing company, American Apparel comes across as a highly transparent brand, and builds enormous reserves of trust and loyalty as a result. In reality, it’s not all down to the ‘sweatshop-free’ label. Firstly, the company stands out for using its own employees in brand and product advertising. This not only gives the company a human face, based on real people as opposed to models, it also implies that employees are treated well – and are proud to be portrayed as the public face of the brand.
American Apparel’s creative director, Marsha Brady explains, “The girls in our photo shoots are mostly girls that are our employees, and the photographers are often our employees, too. We usually shoot in our apartments or the hotel rooms that we stay in when we travel around. If you look closely you can see personal things in the background, and all of this is real, not ‘styled’. We never go to special places to shoot, we just shoot wherever we happen to be when we’re working. We don't retouch pictures, or have hair and make-up people on hand. We're just friends taking pictures of friends, or things we would show our friends. This is true for all rotators on our websites, it all just reflects what is right around us that holds our interest”.Transparent from top to bottom
One of the most striking things about American Apparel is its ‘Vertical Integration’ business model. This means that the company has based all its commercial activities under one roof, from cutting and sewing to marketing and design – in one big factory located in Downtown Los Angeles. This way, the company saves time as it avoids middlemen and it is able to respond to market demands incredibly quickly; but more importantly, it does not have issues with supply-chain transparency, something that hardly any other garment company can pride itself on. The garment industry has suffered from transparency troubles since the day consumers and the media started to take an interest in what goes on behind the scenes. Many companies have been unable, or unwilling, to disclose much information about their supply chains and production methods, and have consequently come in for huge consumer criticism. American Apparel, in contrast, is renowned for looking after its employees by paying them very well and by offering them an array of benefits, such as language classes, bus and lunch subsidies, on-site masseurs – as well as the basics that are so often lacking elsewhere such as good lighting and ventilation.
Come and see for yourself
And it doesn’t stop there. In its blog, the ‘Daily Update’, American Apparel has invited everybody to come and have a look at the American Apparel offices. Weronika, an American Apparel employee, says “If you want to know how we do things, you can come over to our factory and headquarters in Los Angeles and see for yourself. You can walk around, talk to the cutters, sewers, the people who produce our ads”.
There really isn’t much more that a company could do to be transparent. American Apparel probably doesn’t expect all its customers to turn up on the doorstep, and they probably won’t, but just the fact that they are invited, immediately gives customers the feeling that they can trust American Apparel. After all, why would the company open its doors for everybody to come and have a look and a chat if it had something to hide?
Marsha explains that transparency is a very big part of who they are as a company and how they are perceived. She says, “I think it has been refreshing for the public to see a company be so relaxed. But all we're doing is communicating in a way that makes our customers feel comfortable and for the most part, they like our point of view”. But she doesn’t necessarily think that being transparent itself is the reason for American Apparel’s success, “I would still say the number one key to our success is our clothes; how they fit and feel. Transparency adds to the allure, but good product is still king”, she concludes.
Critics versus devotees
In American Apparel’s blog, employees, outsiders and even critics get a chance to air their views, which adds to the company’s reputation for being transparent. However, it’s not a secret that American Apparel is a very marketing savvy (and sometimes lewd) company, something for which it has been criticised, and some people might be a bit suspicious that the negative comments on the blog are so outrageous that it’s difficult to take them seriously. This inevitably raises the question: Is American Apparel being sincere about transparency or is it just carefully orchestrated marketing? Marsha takes this with a pinch of salt, “You know, everything is a marketing tool, even if it’s sincere. And no, it doesn't bother us [to be criticised], it’s worse to be ignored. Sometimes I meet people who seem a little irritated by how they perceive us, but they didn't strike me as the sort of people who'd be much fun to hang out with anyway”.
Courtesy of
American Apparel, Inc.
Courtesy of
American Apparel, Inc.
Courtesy of
American Apparel, Inc.
Courtesy of
American Apparel, Inc.
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