Overview
Gildan Activewear Inc. is a Montreal-headquartered apparel manufacturer focused on everyday basics. Its two principal product categories are activewear, including T-shirts and fleece, and innerwear, including socks, underwear and intimates. It sells branded products to retailers and consumers, supplies undecorated garments to distributors and screenprinters, and manufactures apparel for other brands. Its products are sold across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.[1][2][3]
Gildan operates a vertically integrated production network with manufacturing hubs in the United States, Central America, the Caribbean and Asia. Its stated mission is to “create value in everything we do,” and its vision, “Making Apparel Better,” emphasizes how apparel is made. In 2025, the company reported approximately US$3.62 billion in revenue and about 80,000 employees worldwide; these figures reflect its expanded scale following the acquisition of HanesBrands in December 2025.[4][5][6][7][3][8] [1][2][3][4][5][7][8][6]
Products & services
Gildan Activewear’s products span activewear, hosiery, underwear and intimates. Its activewear includes T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, sport shirts, polos and tank tops sold under labels including Gildan, Softstyle, Comfort Colors, Hanes and Champion. Its other products include athletic and dress socks, men’s and boys’ underwear, women’s panties, bras and shapewear. Activewear accounted for 85% of net sales in fiscal 2025, with innerwear accounting for 15%.[9][2]
The range includes the Heavy Cotton 5000 T-shirt, specified at 5.3 oz/yd² and made from 100% U.S. cotton, and the DryBlend 8000 T-shirt, specified at 5.5 oz/yd² with a 50% cotton/50% polyester blend. Softstyle includes ring-spun cotton T-shirts designed for garment decoration. Gildan sells much of its activewear as undecorated garments through wholesale distributors to screenprinters and other embellishers, rather than providing decoration as its primary offering.[10][11][12][2] [9][9][9][9][2][10][11][12][10][11][12]
Geographic presence
Gildan Activewear’s sales are concentrated in the United States. In 2025, sales to U.S. customers were $3,254.2 million, or approximately 90% of total net sales; Canada accounted for $125.0 million (about 3%) and other international markets for $240.0 million (about 7%). The figures reflect customer locations rather than where products were manufactured.[13]
Gildan manufactures across the United States, Central America, the Caribbean, South America and Asia. Its yarn-spinning operations are in the United States, while Honduras is its largest manufacturing hub. Its listed textile and sewing operations span countries including Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Bangladesh and Vietnam.[5][14] The corporate head office is in Montreal, Canada, and its global sales and marketing office is in Christ Church, Barbados. Gildan also uses distribution facilities across the Americas and third-party warehouses in North America and Europe.[3][15] [13][13][13][5][14][3][15]
Business segments
Gildan Activewear reports **one operating segment**. It also discloses sales by product group, but Activewear and Innerwear are not separate reportable operating segments. In 2025, Activewear accounted for approximately 85% of net sales and Innerwear for 15%.[16][2]
Activewear comprises tops and bottoms, including T-shirts, fleece, sport shirts, polos and tank tops; much of it is sold as undecorated garments through wholesale distributors serving the imprintables market. Innerwear comprises socks, underwear and intimates.[2][9] Gildan also discloses sales by geography rather than as geographic operating segments: in 2025, approximately 90% of net sales came from the United States, 3% from Canada and 7% from international markets, based on reported sales amounts.[13] [16][2][9][13][13][13][13]
Company history
Gildan’s roots trace to a Montreal children’s-apparel business founded by Joseph Chamandy in 1946. His grandsons Greg and Glenn Chamandy took over in 1982. In 1984, the business acquired a knitting mill, moved toward vertically integrated manufacturing and named the operation Gildan Textiles Inc. Gildan reached a public-market milestone in 1998 with a listing in Toronto.[17]
The company expanded beyond its original apparel business through acquisitions, entering the hosiery market with Kentucky Derby Hosiery in 2006 and acquiring Gold Toe Moretz in 2011. It acquired Anvil in 2012 and the American Apparel brand and certain related assets in 2017. A further major expansion came in December 2025, when Gildan completed its acquisition of HanesBrands.[18][19][20][21][22] [17][18][19][20][21][22]
Sources
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