Goodbye American Manufaturer

I've bought a number of tee shirts from American Apparel over the years. Why? Because I like the idea of clothing made in America and I found that their small tees actually fit me rather than looking like one size too big. Unfortunately their CEO is something of an erratic type with questionable judgment (and taste in advertising) and that has finally impacted the corporation in a very direct way. In the last week of July it was revealed that Deloitte & Touche resigned as their auditor after becoming aware of problems with the company's 2009 financial reports. The American Apparel has also run through four CFOs and is facing a number of sexual harassment lawsuits.

This all means, unfortunately, that American Apparel is about to be delisted from the stock exchange and then go bankrupt. It will then be received wisdom that a company just can't make clothing in America and be successful when the basic business model probably works, the problem is the personality of the person implementing it. And if I had more money I would stock up on tee shirts before they became unavailable.