SIC 2322
MEN'S AND BOYS' UNDERWEAR AND NIGHTWEAR

This category includes establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing men's and boys' underwear and nightwear from purchased woven or knit fabrics. Knitting mills primarily engaged in manufacturing underwear and nightwear are classified in SIC 2254: Knit Underwear and Nightwear Mills; and those manufacturing men's and boys' robes are classified in SIC 2384: Robes and Dressing Gowns.

NAICS Code(s)

315211 (Men's and Boys' Cut and Sew Apparel Contractors)

315221 (Men's and Boys' Cut and Sew Underwear and Nightwear Manufacturing)

Industry Snapshot

By the 1990s, a particularly important force shaping the U.S. nightwear and underwear industry was economic globalization. As foreign competitors' share of the domestic market expanded throughout the first part of the decade, U.S. firms adapted by basing an increasing share of their own production outside of the United States. The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) continued to bolster these trends into the twenty-first century.

In addition, larger firms continued to gain market share and were well positioned to invest internally generated funds in state-of-art technologies. These new technology investments resulted in a boost in productivity and lower unit costs of production as the number of employees in the industry declined from 9,759 in 1997 to 5,434 in 2000. Under the weak economic circumstances of the late 1990s and early 2000s, middle and lower tier firms found it difficult to keep pace with larger rivals; some industry observers expected the gap related to productivity and unit cost differentials to widen, placing the continued existence of the less competitive firms in serious jeopardy.

Organization and Structure

In the 1990s, approximately 90 U.S. establishments were involved in the manufacture of men's and boys' underwear and nightwear. Of these, about 70 operated with 20 or more employees. The industry was heavily concentrated in the southeastern United States, with Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kentucky accounting…