This seemingly generic garment was born from a partnership between American Giant and Walmart. The retail giant was searching for ways to begin deploying the $350 billion investment it had publicly committed to US manufacturing in early 2021.
The company connected with American Giant to discuss the possibility of creating an exclusive made-in-America t-shirt it could sell in more than 4,600 US retail locations.
Applying Walmart’s Scale to a Fledging Supply Chain
The hurdle, as has always been the case with made-in-America garments, was price. The challenge was making a t-shirt that, while pricier than others on the shelves at Walmart, still needed to cost dramatically less than any other made-in-America t-shirt.
The key unlock was Walmart’s scale and willingness to make the financial commitments necessary to bolster American Giant’s fledgling supply chain. The prospect of making t-shirts at the volume of Walmart’s needs incentivized all parties involved to invest in efficiency improvements, which helped drive costs down. American Giant also implemented less labor-intensive sewing methods and swapped in less expensive yarn to lower costs further.
The result is a t-shirt made in America from 100 percent American-grown cotton that costs $12.98