Outlets Outlets

Apparel Outlet
Originally uploaded by kardinalsin.

Coming back from Santa Barbara, we stopped by the huge Camarillo outlets for routine shopping madness. It's one of the biggest ones in Souther California, and now there's another reason to go. Namely, the new American Apparel outlet.

For those not familiar with AA, check out their mission statement:

American Apparel is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor and retailer of T-shirts and related products. All of our garments are cut and sewn at our 800,000-square-foot facility in downtown Los Angeles.

We are trying to rediscover the essence of classic products like the basic T-shirt, once an icon of Western culture and freedom. Our goal is to make garments that people love to wear without having to rely on cheap labor.

Every aspect of the production of our garments, from the knitting of the fabric to the photography of the product, is done in-house. By consolidating this entire process, we are able to pursue efficiencies that other companies cannot because of their overreliance on outsourcing.

Our downtown Los Angeles factory, now considered the largest sewn-products facility in the United States, is a design lab where creative ideas, efficient manufacturing techniques, and concepts for designing and selling T-shirts are developed and put to the test. The challenge for companies like American Apparel is to establish new ways of doing business that are efficient and profitable without exploiting workers.

While apparel is a universal necessity that transcends almost all cultural and socioeconomic boundaries, most garments are made in exploitative settings. We hope to break this paradigm.

Pretty admirable, and pretty accessible too. They offer tons of basics for great prices (at the outlet at least) and they're not bad looking either. I'll look into their stuff more, as I know a few of my friends are into their stuff as well. Maybe you'll see one of their shops open up near you.