American Apparel question
 

I'm thinking of screenprinting some bike shirts...I was just wondering if AA traditionally runs larger or small on the sizing

smaller....more slim fitting.

+1.. definitely smaller. they are definitely great for screen printing though.

yeah, like said, smaller. and if you're getting the
100% cotton shirts there will be slight shrinkage.

they're also hands-down the best for printing. you can get some serious detail on them. too bad the guy who runs the company is a terrible human being.

I can barely fit into a women's large..and I aint big.

i'm the typical lanky, scrawny 6'3" 165lbs trackster build, and i wear a medium.

i like 'em tight, so as to show off my pecs.

i'd say they shrink upwards of 10-20% on the first hot wash, as well.

Run small and according to American Apparel they shrink 5% after the first wash, but I'd go with Ben's estimate of 10-20%.

What makes him a terrible human?

Aparently he's made sexual advances or something of the sort to workers, and he's fighting unionization with borderline illegal methods.

Sexist, womanizing *******.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dov_Charney

there's this

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/fa...erland&emc=rss

The QC on american apparel wholesale shirts tends to be pretty shoddy as well... when you order them in runs in the hundreds, you tend to get a bunch of shirts with holes in them or with hems that are falling out. But they fit really well and they take ink like nobody's business.

I worked for AA for about a year and the company is horrible. The owner, Dov, is horrible and after working my 1 year at AA the whole management staff either quit or got fired. I'm talking about 20-30 people. Everything bad you have heard about Dov is true, from sexual advances to verbal abuse.

I also feel that their shirts are flimsy. They sure are soft, but they get holes in them pretty easily. After a couple of washings, there's holes all over.

My girlfriend works as a manager at one of his stores and I can tell you quite comfortably that he is *******, sexist, womanizing piece of **** who uses his fame, money and the offer of positions in his company to sleep with women... From all the stories I've heard from her and everyone else who works there, I would never buy a single piece of clothing from that store.

While it's great that he produces sweatshop free clothing, I wouldn't try and pretend it's ethical just so you can sleep better at night, when you take into account their marketing campaigns, shameful treatment of women, employees, and his hypocritical stance on unionization the whole company is just as bad as any other. </rant>

You know what has always bugged me about them (other than the fact that their stuff costs twice what it should even taking into account their labor costs and yuppies still pay for it)? They make nothing that's at all tailored -- it's all t-shirts, polos, sweatpants, nothing that takes any real detail work, and the sewing on the stuff they can do makes H&M look like Mountain Hardwear. And then they make bras. They can't do pants, or a yoked shirt, or anything like that, but they can do lingirie, which is about the most technical sewing you can get. What gives?

umm they have yoked shirts, and if you are really complaining about a 15 dollar t-shirt you are an idiot.

oh and I just quit the company cause it is so ****ing poorly run...

They must have stuff in the stores that they don't put online, then, because I don't see anything more complicated than gym shorts with piping.

And I don't care what the T-shirts cost, I'm not buying them anyway, I just think it's funny what goods people try to get their socially conscious consumerism on about. We'll shell it out for fair trade coffee or American-made shirts (even though there is other American and union made stuff for half the price), but nobody's asking where their bikes get welded or all their parts get forged, or looking into apple's manufacturing practices.

tell me of an american made t-shirt for half the price? oh and it's funny that american apparel is now trying to play down the made in america thing, saying it's about the money not about the workers or some other ****.

Below was the first google hit I got for union made shirts, $6 color shirts, no sexy models or slim cuts, but the same product in terms of costs. I know from doing political crap we could get union made plain white tees for under $5 on bulk orders, but then you have to pay IUPAt rates to get them screened and bugged.

http://www.unionjeancompany.com/Merc...uct_Code=10331

I disagree about them falling apart or getting holes easily. I bought a screened AA t-shirt and while it feels flimsy (read: light) it still looks new after dozens of washes and has no holes or signs of wear. that's more than I can say for any other t-shirt I bought at the same time.

They run about a size smaller. I always wear medium, and that's what I bought. It fits ok, but a little tight. I wish I got a large.

And I have to agree, screenprinting on them is great.

They are made from pretty good material and do take screening well, but you also have to remember that screening quality is way more a function of the screening than the shirt.

I'm going to have to agree with the people that think they have crappy QA. Maybe it's simply because they do such a large volume of shirts that some bad ones get by, but I find this hard to believe.

I worked as a quality assurance inspector at the Abercrombie & Fitch distribution center for over a year so I know what a good shirt should look like. I own probably about five or six t-shirts from American Apparel of various styles and two of them have major issues. They do feel nice, I love the fit, and I'm all about buying American made stuff, but not at the cost of quality, especially when the cost is higher than average. I don't think this applies as much to their stuff that's been printed on though. If a shirt has printing on it and is from a clothing manufacturer or retailer it will probably go through some kind of quality check at least twice if not three times instead of just once.

For all you guys complaining about shrinking, everything doesn't go on hot. If you don't want a shirt to shrink, then always wash it on cold. If you want some shrinkage then go with warm. On hot you're taking a chance (the label probably says warm anyway). In my experience shrinkage occurs in the length of a shirt too, not the width, which is something to keep in mind. This means when and if it shrinks the most significant change will be in the length of the body and sleeves. This only applies to 100% cotton t-shirts.