Clothing Company Definitions — United States clothing company definitions from Apparel Search
This index lists United States clothing company definitions for companies whose names begin with the letter M. The six companies are Maidenform, Majestic Athletic, Mamiye Brothers, Maverik Lacrosse, Mechanix Wear and Merrell Company, covering women's underwear, sports apparel and Major League Baseball uniforms, branded children's and teen apparel, lacrosse equipment and apparel, high performance work gloves, and performance outdoor footwear, and each name links to a full definition page describing the company, its products and its history.
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The six M companies cover six quite different kinds of clothing and equipment. Maidenform is the intimate apparel name: founded in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1922 by seamstress Ida Rosenthal, shop owner Enid Bissett and William Rosenthal, it built its reputation on bras and support undergarments designed to accentuate the natural shape of the figure rather than flatten it. Majestic Athletic is the team sports manufacturer: founded by Faust Capobianco III in 1976, it entered the Major League Baseball market with batting practice jerseys in 1982, signed its first MLB national licensing agreement in 1984, and from 2005 was the sole provider of authentic jerseys for all 30 MLB teams. Mamiye Brothers is the children's specialist: a family-owned and operated manufacturer founded in New York in 1946, producing branded children's and teen apparel under names including Flapdoodles, Little Me, Barbie, Guess Kids, Lisa Frank and Mary Kate and Ashley.
The other three M companies are equipment-led in different ways. Maverik Lacrosse, based in Mineola, New York, was founded in 2005 by professional lacrosse players Jay Jalbert and John Gagliardi to make equipment for the player, by the player, including gloves, elbow pads, shoulder pads, shafts and a head. Mechanix Wear, headquartered in Valencia, California, makes high performance work gloves, specialised footwear and related items for the automobile, construction and emergency services segments, and its Original gloves were first used in NASCAR at the 1992 Daytona 500. Merrell, founded in 1981 by Clark Matis, Randy Merrell and John Schweitzer, built its name on performance outdoor footwear, starting with hiking boots shaped with a wide toe box and narrow heel, and added a clothing line in 2006 after its acquisition by Wolverine Worldwide in 1997.
Read together, the six entries show how much of the American clothing business is specialist rather than general. None of these companies tries to dress a customer from head to toe for every occasion. Each one concentrates on a defined job: supporting and shaping undergarments worn under other clothes, uniforms that have to match exactly across a whole baseball team, children's clothes sold under licensed character and fashion names, protective gear fitted to a lacrosse player's position, gloves that protect hands without destroying grip and feel, and boots and shoes built for trails. Specialisation brings its own kind of expertise, because sizing, materials and construction all have to answer to one clear use, tested by customers who wear the product hard and notice quickly when it falls short.
United States clothing companies are filed alphabetically by company name, one letter per index page, so a company can be found by its first letter even when its full history is unknown. Each definition is a concise profile rather than a full company history: founding facts, headquarters, products, brands and lines, ownership where it is notable, and the events that made the company worth defining. The M index is a good illustration of why the alphabetical approach helps, because its companies span more than eighty years of founding dates, from Maidenform in 1922 to Maverik Lacrosse in 2005, and range from a family children's wear manufacturer in New York to a California work glove company whose name is best known in motor racing pit lanes.
Readers who need more depth on a company can follow the path into the Apparel Search fashion company profiles in the names directory, where major companies carry fuller profiles. Companies change — they are acquired, renamed, relaunched or close — so a definition records the company as described at the time of writing, including dated facts such as acquisitions, licensing agreements and product launches with their years, so the record stays useful even after the company itself has moved on. The dated milestones on these M pages, from a 1946 founding and a 1984 licensing agreement to a headquarters move in 2007, are part of what makes each short profile worth keeping.
The geography of the letter is also typically American. Maidenform and Mamiye Brothers are New Jersey and New York companies from the traditional East Coast garment trade, Maverik Lacrosse is based in Mineola, New York, Mechanix Wear is headquartered in Valencia, California, and Majestic Athletic and Merrell built national businesses around baseball and outdoor footwear respectively. Some sell mainly to individual consumers choosing a garment for themselves, some sell to leagues, retailers and brand owners, and some sell to both at once, which is why a single index page has to hold intimate apparel, team uniforms, licensed children's wear, sports protection, work gloves and hiking boots together without confusing the reader looking for just one of them.
The M list covers Maidenform, Majestic Athletic, Mamiye Brothers, Maverik Lacrosse, Mechanix Wear and Merrell Company. Each name links to that company's definition page.
Each definition page describes the company itself: what it makes or sells, when and where it was founded, the brands and lines it owns, and the notable events in its history, in a short standardised profile format.
Use the United States clothing company definition directory to reach the index page for every letter from A to Z. Fuller company profiles are also available in the Apparel Search fashion company profiles in the names directory.