Fabric Marketing Research: Customized Directories for the Clothing and Textile Industry

A Customized Directory Service

Most directories are printed first and searched afterwards. Fabric Marketing Research works the other way: the customer describes the firms wanted, and the directory is customized to that description. The customization features allow selection carefully by market, garment type, geography and company profile, so a sales department receives prospects that match its line instead of a general list it must sift itself. Delivery in 3 days makes the service usable on a campaign schedule, and delivery to foreign countries by FedEx Express Mail in 7 days extends it to overseas sellers working the United States and Canadian markets.

The service describes its databases as sales leads, and that is the right way to understand them: each profile is a starting point for an approach, with the firm's products, executives and scale already researched. The profiles and databases of apparel and textile firms include all types of information about the firm's products: names of executives, types of fabrics used, volume of business, number of employees and much more data about each company's operations. A representative planning a route, or a mill planning a mailing, can work directly from the selection.

Manufacturer Directories by Market

The largest databases are the manufacturer lists. The Apparel Manufacturers directory for the US holds 6,484 profiles across women's, men's, girl's and boy's wear — sportswear, dresses, active wear, intimate apparel, tailored and formal clothing, knitwear and more. Within it, the women's wear manufacturers number 4,228 profiles, men's and boy's wear 2,760, and girl's and boy's wear 1,110, with separate selections for girl's wear (622 profiles) and boy's wear (488). Geography can be selected as precisely as market: 2,173 profiles cover East Coast women's and girl's wear manufacturers for New York and New Jersey, 2,518 cover women's and girl's apparel manufacturers outside New York and New Jersey, and 1,875 cover West Coast apparel manufacturers in California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. Canadian apparel manufacturers add 1,412 profiles.

Specialty Manufacturer Lists

Garment type is the other main selection. Women's sportswear manufacturers number 2,143 profiles and apparel sportswear manufacturers for men's and women's wear 3,237, with men's sportswear at 1,094 and a 973-profile selection of women's and men's manufacturers in active wear, swim wear, aerobic wear, ski wear, tennis wear and golf wear. Dress wear manufacturers number 1,380, swim wear manufacturers 382, and women's intimate wear manufacturers — lingerie, sleep wear, beach wear, robes and related garments — 412. Knit wear manufacturers, selected by yarn used rather than cut and sew, number 244. Men's shirts divide into 704 profiles of men's shirt manufacturers and 198 of men's dress shirt manufacturers, and men's tailored clothing manufacturers number 748.

Trade and fabric selections complete the range: 560 profiles of uniforms and career wear, 547 accessory manufacturers, 171 socks and hosiery manufacturers, 267 embellishment firms, 886 T-shirt screen printers, 717 screen printers and embellishment firms, and 390 T-shirt manufacturers. Manufacturers can also be selected by the fabric they use: 317 profiles of apparel manufacturers that use denim, 221 that use fleece, and 404 manufacturers and importers that use silk or linen. The RN and WPL directory holds 4,000 profiles for the US, and apparel importers number 1,957 profiles across women's, men's, girl's and boy's wear.

Textile, Home Furnishing and Retail Lists

Beyond apparel manufacturers, the databases cover the supply chain around them: 2,695 profiles of textile mills, importers, converters and jobbers in the US and Canada, and 1,335 profiles of fabric shop retailers in the US — major fabric stores that control 95 percent of the home sewing market. Home furnishing manufacturers number 909 profiles, covering curtains, drapes, comforters, decorative pillows, table linens, blankets and kitchen textiles, alongside 537 jobbers of decorative fabrics, 465 upholstered furniture manufacturers and 458 drapery manufacturers. Hat and cap manufacturers add 267 profiles. At the retail end, the 300 profiles of major apparel retailers in the US — women's, men's, girl's and boy's — represent retailers that control 90 percent of the apparel retail business in the US, with a combined sales volume of over $148,000,000,000; that retailer selection is described in full on the retailer directories page in this section.

Counts and Currency

The number of profiles fluctuates daily, and on the day of purchase the exact number of listings for any directory can be verified. That fluctuation is the honest condition of a living database: firms open, close, merge and change lines, and a customized build reflects the database as it stands when ordered. Buyers choosing between selections should weigh coverage against precision — a narrower selection of closely matched firms is usually worth more to a sales campaign than the largest possible list.

Checking Directory Data

Apparel Search does not maintain or own the directories described on this page; the information is provided so viewers can research and purchase fashion industry guides and directories more easily. Reliance on directory data should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness and timeliness.