In this article, we will talk about the 10 biggest clothing and footwear manufacturers in the world. You can skip our industry trends, and go directly to the 5 Biggest Clothing Manufacturers.
Clothing remains one of the fastest-growing industries in the world amid rising demand and new trends. In 2020, the global apparel market’s value jumped to $1.5 trillion and is projected to grow of up to $2.25 trillion by year 2025. Furthermore, the clothing industry is having a steady growth over the years although some small companies are affected because of the rising number of e-commerce businesses and not to mention the unexpected surge of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The clothing industry worldwide was affected because many countries close down stores and manufacturing plants. For a while this led to less to no sales at all and pushed several publicly traded companies into deep losses. For instance, Under Armour lost about $773 million while Abercrombie & Fitch Co. lost $244.2 million. Moreover, according to Bloomberg, Bangladesh has had more than $1.5 billion of canceled orders during the outbreak.
The Clean Clothes Campaign, an international coalition that deals with the production chain of the clothing industry worldwide, conducted a study that analyzed the crisis of the seven biggest clothing manufacturing countries in Asia. These countries are Cambodia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, and India. The results show that workers in the clothing industry had an economic loss between 3.2 and 5.8 billion dollars in the first 3 months of the Covid-19 surge. Although this year, more clothing businesses are gaining profits again, there are still workers that are having a hard time because many of them are still underpaid. This is because of the non-payment orders, sudden cancellations of orders, price reduction, and unfair purchasing of the big brands. From the start of the pandemic in March 2020 up to March 2021, unpaid wages reached up to $11.8 billion- considered as “irreparable human pain.”
Euromonitor reported that the worldwide market size for apparel and footwear contracted by -18.1% in 2020, bringing it down to $1.45 trillion, whereas McKinsey indicated that the fashion and apparel sector experienced a decline of 20% in revenue during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. According to McKinsey, in 2020-21, the fashion industry experienced a rise of 21% in revenue and saw a doubling of EBITA margins, increasing by 6 percentage points to 12.3%.
Meanwhile, fashion trends have shifted over the past year. Just like what is mentioned above, eCommerce continues to grow and online shopping has become very popular. Also, there is an increased sale of comfortable clothes. When lockdown started because of the pandemic, people tend to stay home. Online class and work-from-home schemes were implemented and so, people just work on their pajamas. According to Alibaba.com, there was an increase of 143% in sales of pajamas in March 2020. Plus size women are now finding it easier to shop because many companies are already creating styles and manufacturing for them. Moreover, ReCommerce is also growing. Many stay-at-home people buy used clothes from thrift stores and sell them online through live selling or social media postings. Another trend nowadays is that payment plans have become available. The “Buy Now, Pay Later” scheme allows consumers to buy as much as they want and will be able to pay it over the next three months.