American Apparel has officially been sold

On Thursday the sale of American Apparel’s intellectual property to Gildan Activewear was finalized. The official sale closed Wednesday, February 8, including some equipment from the Los Angeles-based company.

Gildan Activewear was the stalking horse bidder for American Apparel’s bankruptcy for some time, so the acquisition does not come as a surprise. The company purchased American Apparel for 103 million dollars, according to WWD. The purchase also includes a 15 million dollars in inventory purchase orders as well.

Originally, Gildan Activewear had a bid for the controversial apparel company for 88 million dollars. In the auction, competing with another company caused Gildan Activewear to bid higher. The company first expressed interest in buying American Apparel to help drive sales, which is why Gildan was probably so persistent in attaining the Los Angeles-based company. “We see strong potential to grow American Apparel sales by leveraging our extensive printwear distribution networks in North America and internationally to drive further market share penetration in the fashion basics segment of these markets,” President and CEO of Gildan Glenn Chamandy told FashionUnited in January.

Gildan Activewear acquires American Apparel officially

Taking over the brand, it’s not yet disclosed what will become of the rest of American Apparel’s brand and the rest of its assets. Many stores have shuttered over the past couple of months and it seems that most stores are working to empty out their merchandise. All stores are currently advertising sales of at least 40 percent of, which have been ongoing very recently. The company also underwent massive layoffs in the past couple of months and numerous financial struggles.

Whether or not the American Apparel name will continue operating under Gildan Activewear still remains to be seen. According to WWD, the company’s next quarterly conference call on February 23 may help determine the future of the brand. Until then, it seems that American Apparel’s stores will remain as is until further notice.

Photo: FashionUnited