Apparel Companies W

A Letter of Retail Giants and Work Clothes

This letter opens with scale. Walmart, founded by Sam Walton in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962, grew from a single discount store into the world's largest retailer, and its clothing departments make it one of the biggest apparel sellers on earth as well. Beside it sit two names that no longer trade independently: The Warnaco Group, the New York intimate apparel, sportswear and swimwear house founded in 1874, was acquired by PVH in February 2013, and Wet Seal, the California teen-fashion chain, closed all of its stores in January 2017. Both profiles are kept here in full, with their records on linked history pages where the record is substantial.

Work clothes anchor the middle of the letter. Williamson-Dickie of Fort Worth, founded in 1922, built the Dickies workwear business from bib overalls into a global brand - sold by VF Corporation to Bluestar Alliance in 2025. Wolverine Worldwide of Rockford, Michigan, founded in 1883, is the footwear group behind Merrell, Saucony, Hush Puppies and the Wolverine boot brand. And Wolford, founded in Bregenz, Austria in 1950, is the luxury legwear and bodywear maker whose seamless skinwear is designed in Milan and made in Europe.

Wrangler Four Ways, Plus the Industry's Referees and Record

One brand gets four pages here, because this directory has always told its story four ways. The Wrangler profile covers the Cowboy Cut jean and the brand as it stands under Kontoor Brands; the Wrangler History Timeline runs year by year from C.C. Hudson's 25-cents-a-day button sewing in 1897 to the 2019 spin-off; Wrangler Europe tells the brand's European telling of the same denim story; and Wrangler Hero covers the comfort line sold under the promise that its jeans feel like going home again. Each page stands on its own and links to the other three.

The letter closes with the industry's infrastructure and its press. WRAP - Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production - is the Arlington, Virginia nonprofit, founded in 2000, that certifies factories against its 12 principles of lawful, humane and ethical production, and it carries the site's compliance disclaimer: check the current standard with the certifying body itself. The WSA Show was Las Vegas's giant twice-yearly footwear marketplace. And Women's Wear Daily, founded in 1910 and published today by Penske Media's Fairchild Media, remains the fashion trade's paper of record - the 'bible of fashion'.

Using This Directory

Each company name below opens a profile with a verified company snapshot and an official-website button where the company operates today; companies whose record is substantial also link to a separate history page carrying the fuller earlier descriptions and photographs. Use the letter bar to move through the full A-Z company index, or the chips below to jump straight to a W topic.