Gildan Announces ALStyle Partnership With Apparel Wholesalers

ALStyle, the merchandise brand purchased by Gildan from Ennis Inc., will now be sold through a select number of wholesale companies within the promotional products space. ALStyle was previously only a retail product sold via licensing agreements, but will now be sold by alphabroder (California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia and Florida), American T-shirt Company (Hawaii), The Apparel Source (California), TSF Sportswear (Florida, Alabama and Texas) and S&S Activewear (Nevada, Georgia and Illinois).

The wholesale distribution partnership begins on Feb. 15, and according to Marc Held, senior vice president of sales for alphabroder, the ball started rolling "relatively quickly."

"We have a very good relationship with Gildan," Held said. "They're a major brand and a valued partner. They reached out to a select few supplier distributors such as ourselves, and we're excited to carry the line for this year. Our customers today, they're looking for retail brands in our channel. If they see it in retail, and it's decoratable and you can put a logo on it, they assume that we can get it for them. And it's just another piece of the story, but admittedly it's a big piece."

ALStyle also announced in a release to customers that it will consolidate its distribution center into three locations:

• Eden, N.C. (full cases only)
• Downtown Los Angeles (full cases only)
• Jurupa Valley, Calif. (full cases and piece picking)

The Jacksonville, Fla.; and Chicago distribution centers will be consolidated into the Eden, N.C. facility, but the company will ship from those locations until the end of February.

"We're excited for 2019," Held said. "It's another brand that we're carrying under the Gildan umbrella. We have several others that are under the Gildan umbrella, and couldn't be happier to have ALStyle in our assortment."

"We are excited about the newly expanded distribution network and believe this will better serve future growth for [the customer] and the ALStyle brand," ALStyle said in the release.

For more information on ALStyle, visit www.alstyle.com.