Apparel Knitting Mills (NAICS 31512) — a U.S. industry primer

1. Overview

Apparel knitting mills are factories that turn yarn directly into finished garments — socks, sweaters, hosiery, T-shirts, underwear, and other knit clothing — often knitting the fabric and shaping the product in one integrated operation. This is different from the rest of the clothing industry, which mostly buys finished fabric and cuts and sews it. [1][2]

At this level of the code, the story is a nearly complete offshore migration: domestic U.S. output has shrunk for three decades, and the federal statistics now describe a small surviving remnant, not the market Americans actually buy from. BLS data show that in 2024 alone, domestic output fell 11.2% and hours worked fell 17.0%; over 1987–2024, output declined at a 6.7% average annual rate. [3] Ways in for an investor are limited — essentially one large public name (Gildan Activewear), one major private competitor (Fruit of the Loom, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary), and a long tail of private, family-owned mills. The full detail lives one level down, in 315120. [4][5][6][7]

2. What's inside — and why this level equals its one child

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) is a nested code: the 5-digit industry 31512 sits above 6-digit national industries. In this case 31512 contains exactly one child — 315120, Apparel Knitting Mills — so the two are, for practical purposes, the same thing. Every establishment counted in 31512 is a 315120 establishment; the rollup adds nothing the child does not already contain. [1]

This one-to-one match is itself a product of the 2022 NAICS revision, which merged two older 2017 codes — 315110 (Hosiery and Sock Mills) and 315190 (Other Apparel Knitting Mills) — into today's single 315120. [1][8]

For everything specific — scope and exclusions, production methods, the investable names, how the economics work, trade policy, and the outlook — read the child primer, 315120. The rest of this page gives this level's own ground-truth figures and a short orientation.

3. Size (this level's rollup figures)

Our ground-truth federal statistics for NAICS 31512:

Because 31512 equals its single child, these are the same figures reported for 315120. Our ingested ground-truth stats for this level cover receipts, firms, value added, and the concentration ratios above; they do not include employment, establishment, or payroll. For those, the child primer's County Business Patterns figures apply — roughly 178 establishments, ~7,656 workers (CBP 2023) / ~6,100 (BLS 2024), and ~$290 million in annual payroll — and point to the same universe of ~180–220 mostly small firms. [11][3]

Undercount caveat — the opposite of the usual one. This is not a case of tiny operators slipping past the survey. It is the reverse: the ~$1.2 billion of domestic mill output is a small slice of what Americans actually spend on knit apparel, because the market is served overwhelmingly by imports and by U.S. brands producing offshore. Knit socks and hosiery imports alone ran about $2.63 billion in 2024 — more than double total domestic knitting-mill receipts — and total U.S. apparel imports were $79.3 billion in 2023. Only an estimated ~2.5% of apparel bought in the U.S. is domestically produced. So the industry's footprint as consumers experience it is far larger than these domestic figures; most of that value is simply offshore. [12][13][5]

4. Investable universe (where value concentrates)

Because this level equals its one child, the investable picture is the child's picture. There is no pure-play, U.S.-domestic apparel-knitting-mill public stock. The value concentrates at two poles:

• One scaled public name. The practical large-cap way in is Gildan Activewear (NYSE/TSX: GIL), a vertically integrated knitter of tees, fleece, underwear, and socks that in December 2025 acquired HanesBrands and roughly doubled its size — FY2025 net sales of $3.62 billion, ~21.5% adjusted operating margin, market cap ~$9.4 billion — but knits mostly offshore (Central America/Caribbean, Bangladesh). [6][7][14][15]
• A major private integrated player. Fruit of the Loom is a wholly owned Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary; it manufactures 89% of products in its own global facilities, with North American cloth production primarily in Honduras. Not separately investable. [16]
• A private domestic remnant. The genuinely U.S.-located mills are almost all private and family-owned — legwear/sock makers concentrated in North Carolina and Alabama (e.g., Renfro, ~$540M revenue) and performance/military niche makers (e.g., Darn Tough, ~$50M+ revenue). [17][18][4]

Full names, tickers, and scale are in the 315120 primer. Concentration is modest in the domestic data (CR4 24.3%, HHI 273.8), but a top-50 that holds 82.5% of receipts means a handful of mid-size mills do most of the domestic work. [9]

5. How the money works

This is a capacity-utilization and input-cost business, like other commodity manufacturing — not a fee-income or same-store-sales business. Owners earn the spread between what a garment sells for and the cost to convert yarn into it. Yarn (cotton, polyester and nylon, wool, spandex) is the dominant cost, so margins move with commodity cycles; large integrated players may hedge input prices 12–24 months forward. Keeping capital-intensive knitting machines full is what turns thin gross margins into profit; and vertical integration (spin-knit-finish-sew, the Gildan model) captures more of the margin. [2][15]

There are two ways to win — global commodity scale at rock-bottom cost (which in practice means offshore production, given a $15–$20/hour U.S. labor cost versus under $1/hour in Bangladesh), or protected/premium niches (military, medical compression, performance wool, quick-turn private label). Census data show annual payroll at roughly 26% of sales, excluding benefits and non-payroll costs. See 315120 for the full mechanics, including seasonality (Q2 T-shirts, fall/winter fleece, back-to-school and holiday hosiery). [5][19][15]

6. Demand drivers

• Overall clothing spending, which tracks consumer income and confidence; basics like socks and underwear are staples, so demand is less cyclical than fashion. [2]
• Fashion and activity trends — the athleisure and performance-sock boom lifted premium knit categories. [2]
• Import competition and the dollar — now the single biggest swing factor for domestic mills. [5]
• Government procurement — the military must buy domestic, a guaranteed niche. [19]
• Fiber substitution — cotton competes with synthetics on price, performance, and durability; USDA estimated 2025 U.S. retail cotton use at 8.3 billion raw-fiber-equivalent pounds, roughly flat — fiber demand is mature, not a growth engine. [20]

7. Regulation

Trade policy is the regulatory story, and 2025 was a turning point:

• De minimis repeal (2025). The long-standing rule letting parcels under $800 enter duty-free (Section 321 of the Tariff Act) was eliminated for Chinese-origin goods in May 2025 — the biggest policy tailwind for domestic mills in years. [21]
• "Yarn-forward" rules of origin. Under USMCA and CAFTA-DR, knit apparel gets duty-free access only if spinning, knitting, and assembly all happen inside the bloc — which is why so much U.S.-brand knitting sits in Central America. [19]
• Berry Amendment. The Department of Defense must buy U.S.-grown-and-produced clothing, yarn, and footwear, including socks — a price-insulated domestic niche. [19][22]
• Labor compliance. DOL requires minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping for garment workers; a Southern California survey found FLSA violations in 80% of investigations (that survey covered the wider garment-contractor sector). [23]
• Environmental. Wet finishing creates wastewater and energy exposure; EPA textile-mill effluent rules regulate pollutants, and EPA is studying PFAS use in textile mills, creating potential future obligations. [24]
• Occupational safety. OSHA's cotton-dust standard expressly states it does not generally apply to knitting operations, though upstream yarn manufacturing can be covered. [25]
• Labeling/safety (FTC, CPSC) and forced-labor screening (the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, UFLPA) also apply. [general]

8. Consolidation

The domestic data looks fragmented (HHI 273.8; CR4 24.3%), but the brands selling knit apparel into the U.S. are consolidating fast and mostly produce offshore. The defining event is Gildan's December 2025 acquisition of HanesBrands (~$2.2 billion equity / ~$4.4 billion enterprise value, ~$200 million targeted synergies), which created a dominant vertically integrated activewear-and-innerwear player. On the domestic side, Renfro was acquired by The Renco Group in 2021. Meanwhile the commodity-blanks segment keeps failing — Delta Apparel went bankrupt in 2024. The survivors' playbook is niche: military, medical compression, performance wool, quick-turn private label. [7][17][26][9]

9. Risks

• Structural import competition — the offshore cost gap is permanent barring policy intervention; commodity domestic knitting keeps shrinking. [5]
• Trade-policy whiplash — tariffs and the de minimis repeal help domestic mills but raise import costs, and policy can reverse. [21]
• Input-cost volatility — cotton and oil-linked synthetic prices swing margins directly. [2]
• Customer concentration — losing one mass-retailer program can sink a mill. [2]
• Demand cyclicality and destocking — retail inventory corrections hit order volumes even for staples. [2]
• Capital intensity and labor — automation requires ongoing capex; skilled machine technicians, programmers, and linking operators are scarce and getting costlier. [5]
• Consolidation risk for suppliers — fewer, larger brand buyers means less pricing power for independent knitters. [7]
• Environmental and compliance — wet-finishing faces EPA effluent and potential PFAS obligations; labor compliance is material for jobber models. [23][24]

10. How to invest, and the outlook

Public route. The practical large-cap way in is Gildan (GIL) — a scaled, low-cost, vertically integrated basics manufacturer that returns cash via dividends and buybacks. Understand what you are buying: Gildan is a play on low-cost, offshore, vertically integrated commodity knitting and brand distribution, not on U.S. domestic mills. [6][7]

Private route. Because the domestic industry is almost all private, the real domestic plays are direct — buying or backing a family-owned mill (many face succession questions, a classic small-cap/PE roll-up opening), supplying protected niches (Berry-compliant military, medical compression, performance/outdoor), or direct-to-consumer sock/underwear brands (though most of those outsource the actual knitting). Key diligence variables include customer concentration, machine age and utilization, operator retention, yarn-price pass-through, and environmental obligations. [4][18]

Outlook (forward-looking judgment). The multi-decade decline of commodity U.S. knitting is unlikely to reverse, but 2025 delivered the strongest policy tailwind in a generation (de minimis repeal plus higher China tariffs). Industry insiders caution it will take "more than tariffs" to reshore volume, given thin domestic spinning, knitting, capex, and labor. The most durable value sits where it already is: global low-cost scale (Gildan) at one end and legally or functionally protected domestic niches (military, medical, performance) at the other, with the undifferentiated middle continuing to erode. For the full analysis, see the 315120 primer. [21][5][7]

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Sources

1. NAICS Association / Livesight. 2022 NAICS updates — consolidation of 315110 (Hosiery and Sock Mills) and 315190 (Other Apparel Knitting Mills) into 315120 (Apparel Knitting Mills). 2022. https://www.naics.com/naics-code-description/?v=2022&code=315120
2. IBISWorld. Apparel Knitting Mills in the US — Industry Analysis (market size ~$945m, ~161 businesses, −3.3% CAGR 2020–2025). 2025. https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/apparel-knitting-mills/2034/
3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Productivity and Costs by Industry — apparel knitting output, hours, and productivity trends (2024; 1987–2024 series). April 2025. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/prin_04242025.htm
4. Encyclopedia of Alabama / Wikipedia. Fort Payne, Alabama — "Sock Capital of the World"; W. B. Davis Hosiery Mill. 2024. https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/fort-payne/
5. Sheng Lu (FASH455, University of Delaware) / U.S. Fashion Industry Association. State of U.S. Textile and Apparel Manufacturing, Employment and Trade. April 2025. https://shenglufashion.com/2025/04/07/state-of-u-s-textile-and-apparel-manufacturing-employment-and-trade-updated-april-2025/
6. Finviz / Yahoo Finance / SEC (Form 6-K). Gildan Activewear FY2025 results — record revenue ~$3.6B, adj. operating margin ~21.5%. 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gildan-activewear-gil-achieves-record-072420754.html
7. Apparelist / BNN Bloomberg / SEC. Gildan Announces Completion of HanesBrands Acquisition (Dec 1, 2025) — ~$2.2B equity / ~$4.4B enterprise value, ~$200M synergies. 2025. https://www.apparelist.com/2025/12/02/gildan-announces-completion-of-hanesbrands-acquisition/
8. Federal Register. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Updates for 2022 — merger of 315110 and 315190 into 315120. 2021. https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2021-14249/north-american-industry-classification-system-naics-updates-for-2022-update-of-statistical-policy-directive-no-8-standar
9. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 Economic Census — receipts, firms, and concentration ratios (CR4/CR8/CR20/CR50, HHI), NAICS 31512 / 315120. 2022. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
10. Federal Reserve. G.17 Industrial Production — value added by industry, NAICS 315 (apparel knitting mills: $651M, 2022). 2022. https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/SandDesc/table1.17.htm
11. U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, NAICS 315120 — establishments, employment, payroll. 2023. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
12. Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) / IndexBox. Knit Socks and Hosiery (HS 6115) trade — U.S. imports ~$2.63B in 2024; China ~$1.09B. 2024. https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/knit-socks-and-hosiery
13. U.S. International Trade Commission. Apparel Competitiveness — U.S. apparel imports $79.3B in 2023; China and Vietnam ~40%. 2024. https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub5543_0.pdf
14. Macrotrends. Gildan Activewear (GIL) Market Cap — ~$9.4B (2026). 2026. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/GIL/gildan-activewear/market-cap
15. Gildan Activewear. 2025 SEC-filed annual report (MD&A) — net sales breakdown, cost structure, commodity hedging, seasonality. 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1061894/000106189426000006/exhibit991-mdax2025.htm
16. Fruit of the Loom / Berkshire Hathaway. Fruit of the Loom company profile (89% self-manufactured); Berkshire Hathaway 2024 Form 10-K (Honduras cloth manufacturing). 2024–2025. https://www.fotlinc.com/our-company/
17. PR Newswire / ZoomInfo. Renfro Brands acquired by The Renco Group (2021); ~$540M revenue legwear maker. 2021. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-most-renowned-sock-manufacturing-company-renfro-brands-acquired-by-the-renco-group-301308934.html
18. Merino Wool Gear / ZoomInfo. Darn Tough (Cabot Hosiery Mills) company profile — ~$50M+ revenue, 5M+ pairs/yr, Northfield, VT. 2025. https://merinowoolgear.com/darn-tough-company-profile/
19. U.S. Department of Commerce (trade.gov) / U.S. Department of Defense. CAFTA-DR/USMCA textile "yarn-forward" rules of origin; Berry Amendment (10 U.S.C. §4862). 2024. https://www.trade.gov/summary-cafta-fta-textiles; https://www.trade.gov/berry-amendment
20. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cotton and Wool Outlook — U.S. apparent retail cotton use 8.3B lbs in 2025. March 2026. https://www.ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/_laserfiche/outlooks/113948/CWS-26c.pdf
21. Congressional Research Service (Congress.gov, R48380) / Fortune. Imports and the Section 321 (De Minimis) Exemption; elimination for Chinese-origin goods, May 2025. 2025. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48380
22. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS). 225.7002-1 — Berry Amendment restrictions on clothing including hosiery. 2024. https://login.acquisition.gov/dfars/225.7002-1-restrictions.
23. U.S. Department of Labor. Garment industry compliance toolkit; Southern California garment survey (FLSA violations). 2023. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230322-0
24. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Textile Mills Effluent Guidelines — pollutant regulations and PFAS study. 2024. https://www.epa.gov/eg/textile-mills-effluent-guidelines
25. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 29 CFR 1910.1043 — Cotton Dust Standard (knitting operations generally not covered). 2024. https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.1043
26. Yahoo Finance / Bloomberg Law. Delta Apparel Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (June 30, 2024); Salt Life sold for $28M. 2024. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/delta-apparel-files-bankruptcy-warns-203240207.html