A Decade of Denim: Assessing Sourcing Shifts of Denim Apparel Importers

Although denim has been an American staple in the last two centuries, denim production in the United States has been dwindling. Global suppliers have taken over production since the mid-20th century, dominating every aspect of the denim apparel supply chain, including denim fabric production to cutting and sewing of denim into finished garments. Global suppliers, especially from Asia, are now the dominant suppliers to the United States. This paper examines U.S. imports from five top denim apparel suppliers to the United States from 2010 to 2020—China, Mexico, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Lesotho. However, the ranking of these suppliers has shifted over the last decade due to changing competitive factors present within each country. Some of these competitive advantages include textile machinery investments, lower labor costs, the availability of domestic sources of denim fabric, availability of skilled workers, speed to market, and the effect of duty preferences resulting from free trade agreements and other preference programs. The paper also addresses the competitive disadvantages of denim apparel production in these five countries, including a lack of capital investments, rising labor costs, and labor issues surrounding worker exploitation.