I’m kinda worried about Am Appy. I saw this advertisement, and it wasn’t a traditional ad of a ‘hot girl’ showing off her perfect alternative figure. Instead, the advertisement was meant to highlight what a great company Am Appy is bc they hire unskilled ppl, make them skilled, and then pay them above-market wages + give them a chance to wear Am Appy clothes at work + learn English +etc.
Photo via PSFK
Feel like they have already penetrated the entire alternative market, and realize that maybe it is time 2 start targeting more mainstreamers. Feel sad that the Am Appy authentic glory days might be over/might live 4ever. Just looking for simple clothes that don’t brand me too much, but can still associate me with a relevant aesthetic. Not sure if there will ever be another Am Appy. Glad they came along, or all alternative ppl would still be wearing ‘vintage’ or maybe even ‘trying to make THE GAP’ seem alt.
Kinda sad that I didn’t know there was a ‘financial crisis’ going on behind the scenes of Am Appy. Not sure how businesses work, though, so maybe ‘mergers and acquisitions’ are . Feel like ’such a consumer’ sometimes. Then I pick up the ‘newspaper’ on the internet and read abt how companies are doing their best 2 expand and stay alive in a rapidly changing economy.
American Apparel, the clothing retailer, is near a deal to sell a 20 percent stake in the company to Lion Capital, a private equity firm that once owned Jimmy Choo, for about $80 million, people involved in the deal said on Thursday.
The deal is expected to be announced Friday. American Apparel is on the verge of defaulting on $16 million of debt owed to the technology mogul Michael S. Dell that comes due a week from Friday.
The deal should breathe new life into American Apparel and help stabilize its business in the economic downturn. The company announced last month that sales at its stores fell 9 percent, the first monthly drop in the company’s history. Shares of American Apparel have fallen from a high of $10.86 a share this year to $1.49 a share on Thursday because of anxiety about its ability to pay its debts.
American Apparel will use the proceeds of the sale to meet the payment due to Mr. Dell on Friday as well as $35 million of additional debt owed to him, these people said. Under the terms of the deal, Lions Capital, based in London, will receive warrants for 16 million new shares with a strike price of $2 a share, these people said. Lion Capital, which focuses on consumer investments, owns Orangina Schweppes, the soft drink maker; Kettle Foods, the potato chip maker; and Wagamama, a chain of trendy noodle restaurants in London.
[via NYTIMES]
Why didn’t any1 ever tell me that Dell Computers are responsible 4 the Am Appy Explosion? [via Dude Ur Getting a Dell/Hoodie] Does n e 1 else know n e successful alt companies who sold themselves to larger companies and couldn’t stay ALT 4ever? Did p4k get an investment from Viacom/CBS? Did Urban Outfitters get an investment from Apple Computers? Did tumblr sell itself 2 Yahoo? Did Vimeo get purchased by a company that used to make VHS tapes? Did youtube get purchased by Yahoo? Did iPhone get purchased by CISCO?
This is a video meant to show ‘corporate big wigs’ how ‘kewl’ and ‘marketable’ Am Appy is.
Yall I’d feel sad if Am Appy was purchased by some other lifestyle brand who managed it. What if www.oldnavy.com/americanapparel exists 1 day? Will it be authentic?
Do yall think Am Appy will stay in business 4evr? 1 day, will I walk through a mall in suburbia, and tell my son “That is an American Apparel. It is where I shopped when I was a tween/altbro. Things have really changed.”
I wonder if businesses wish they could ‘live 4evr’ kinda like how ppl wish they could live 4evr.
Where do yall shop these days?
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IAmCarles.com
45 Comments
wow i totally avoided even reading this crappy post just to be first?
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third
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I shop at Canadian Apparel, (same clothes but w/ huge red maple-leaves on everything).
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//////////Reply by Teh Anomususses
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 11:15 am
@chorles, SOunds Lyke the canadain dreem.
Weenin’ of teh teets of Merican Appy.
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//////////Reply by chorles
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
@Teh Anomususses,
(it is secretly for hyperalts)
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//////////Reply by anony
//////////Posted March 14th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
@chorles, and then there’s mexican apparel for the mexi alts
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//////////Reply by rocknonstop
//////////Posted March 19th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
@chorles, Jokes on you, half the people at American Apparel are Canadian. It’s a special blend of French Canadian Yiddish.
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just bought the army surplus t-shirt today. i am (h)appy.
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i shop at the gap for the clothes that i wear to work FML
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//////////Reply by blopester
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 11:54 am
@stev, dont wanna talk abt it. :(
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i shop at karmaloop and kazbah
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//////////Reply by cold legs
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
@tragedy in toyland, ew
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//////////Reply by tragedy in toyland
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
@cold legs, want to make out? do you like sk8r bois?
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No matter what kind of reccession we are in, hipsters always fork out the cash to support something/wear something/do something “cool” via white AM Appy t and cocaine to snort off the iphones at SXSW. All they have to do is sacrifice an actual automobile for a fixie/eat raman/live without lights for a month/ask rich parents who sold out to the man for cash for their minimal floor space yall! So bascially nothing changes in their alt life.Not fair…recessions and an almost non-existant job market have no effect on alts they are like roaches and it pisses me off b/c all I want to do is drive my goddamn car down the street without some asshole taking up the WHOLE lane! No matter how fast you peddal my car is still faster than your fucking fixie, but your calves look nice in those cutt off shorts yo. AND why don’t anti-meme coffee shops ever have lay offs? But I still have hope because once the electro wars hit yall…
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//////////Reply by xavier
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
@yellowPaiges, i loled,
I choose not to have a car so I can have more money for all the things you just said
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//////////Reply by Gurkman
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
@yellowPaiges, yah, i like 2 ride my meaningful beat-up mtn bike everywhere [via good bike being stolen].
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//////////Reply by smedly
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
@yellowPaiges,
i ride a bike [wal*mart edition fixie] to work instead of getting a car, and live in the basement of my parents’ coffee shop so i can afford to go to concerts/buy new pants once a week/buy bus tickets to NYC/drink more Natty B’oh
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//////////Reply by yellowPaiges
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
@smedly, ok all you guys sound like REAL winners, any of you want to go on a date??? Losers are my thing!
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//////////Reply by stev
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
@yellowPaiges, tryinagetlaid on a ‘alt/blog’ website is not alt, it’s still tryinagetlaid on a website
//////////Reply by blipOFFurRADAR
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
@smedly, ‘work’? since when do baltimorons ‘work’?
and what coffeeshoppe? i’ll help contribute to your parent’s bourgeois-bohemian mom&pop on my way to sonar 2 protest tht fggt grltalk this wknd
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//////////Reply by wrecks
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
@yellowPaiges, you’re ignorant.
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//////////Reply by yellowPaiges
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
@wrecks,does that mean you will go on a date with me?
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//////////Reply by yellowPaiges
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
@yellowPaiges, just wondering b/c you sound like a real loser
//////////Reply by Anonymous
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
@yellowPaiges, think you can get sex on HRO? probably better than your chance in real life
//////////Reply by yellowPaiges
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
@yellowPaiges, not sex silly! I am looking for true alt love with a true alt loser! You must ride a yellow fixie…
//////////Reply by georgeofthejungle
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
@yellowPaiges, you are so cool because you criticize people that you want to be…
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//////////Reply by yellowPaiges
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
@georgeofthejungle, haha that I want to be with, you are so right! I am not criticizing, sorry if i hurt your feelings b/c you’ll be snorting blow off you i-phone in your painted on skinny jeans this weekend. It’s ok that you are frustrated b/c your nuts are crunched in your denim. Movie and wine it can be a Korine Harmony film…my place or yours?
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//////////Reply by yeyobama
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
@yellowPaiges, someone’s a little bitter…
//////////Reply by paige
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
@yellowPaiges, hopefully the electro wars will be coming any moment now…
//////////Reply by до свидания
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
@yellowPaiges, i literally dont see how dat is a bad wkend. sometimes i live 2 party + get high. the world is 2 depressing 2 stay around fat girls who think they r smarter then they r. cest la vie!!!
round here (toronto) they are in erry mall, even a couple subruban ones
so they sold out loong time ago
as many of them as there are HMs n stuff round here
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//////////Reply by Steven Jobs
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
@mattattaxx,
I somewhat agree with this. The H&Ms are replicating at a far more terrifying rate. I’m afraid son. They’re turnin my house into an H&M next week…
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//////////Reply by Gurkman
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
@Steven Jobs, H+M is better than Old Navy tho. mayB ppl in the suburbs will finally look good. probz not tho.
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//////////Reply by Barronator
//////////Posted April 1st, 2009 at 9:41 pm
@mattattaxx, haha come off it bro. i can’t believe you read this shitty post.
and tell me, where are the hipsters running now if they can’t rely on good ol’ ‘Am Appy’?
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I LOVE AM APPY
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ALMOST AS MUCH AS I LOVE DRAWING FUCKING CIRCLES
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I don’t shop. I just wear my clothes until they fall apart. Then try to sew them. If that doesn’t work, I go to a church rummage sale and fill a bag with whatever fits for 1$.
Then I use my extra time to read things and have babies and walk around.
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Is there such a thing as an alt company?
I have a friend who makes shoes in Honduras. Not in a factory, but in a little storefront where he also lives. There’s also a shoe factory in Argentina that was taken over by the employees after they got laid off.
That is maybe like the only place that you can get alt stuff. Is to make it. Or find someone who knows how to make it and trade them for it.
Otherwise its just the same as anything else.
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am appy = communist
love it
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the other day i bought a ‘pomegranite’ organic t-shirt at am appy. so meaningful. every altchik <3s it b/c it shows i am vulnerable enuf 2 wear a pastel shade of pink. wish more altbros were willing 2 ‘get vulns’ via pastels.
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i want people to refer to me as a mogul. Maybe ‘Alt music mogul Mr. George Fruit’ i like the sound of that.
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carles is just saying AA is going down the drain cuz a black guy is representin them… D: well in any case i’m not implying anything, just makin a statement.
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I feel sad 2day bcause I h8 the new facebook design. I feel confused n scared. what if I miss something? A cool event? An opening event of a new galleria? Who am I if I don’t understand my own facebook? Plz help me Hipsterrunoff!
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//////////Reply by Dani
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
@Charlott, I agree with this. Facebook is officially the new current Myspace, and Twitter is not the new ‘thang’ so no one even give me that bs. You can’t properly stalk on twitter- fact.
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//////////Reply by son of steinem
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
@Dani, you underestimate the power of the “tweet.” twitter is “people helping people.” twitter is helping “save lives.” http://tinyurl.com/349f25. twitter jst needs an “observer” category so I can officially “watch” people w/o actually “following” them. just want maintain ‘lil objective distance. just want to remain apathetic and slightly aloof. “<3 the twitter, h8 the tweet” (via the “salt of the earth” / good christian bible folk).
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just want to shop with other pokemons!
h8 u am appy 4 being so “xenophobic” w/ yer american label.
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sometimes I go into an am appy store and I am almost overcome by a strange compulsion. I see 3-packs of stripe knee white socks, the flex fleece zip hoodies, the “post-ironic” mustache masks, the baby rib men’s briefs, and I think that these things can help me. I think that if my jeans slip down far enough to flash the waistband of my “sustainable edition” briefs (in pomegranate / white), and if I stare, kinda puzzled, at my ipod nanny on the train, that I will be more easily identified by my “tribe” in my “urban village”. I think that maybe I will finally “get” all of these useless RMXs on hypem, and these sillie wknd “get togethers”. but then I leave and don’t buy anything. the fact that my sister owns closets full of louie vuitton makes it easier for me to walk around all day looking like a complete bum. my love is insane.
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that new am appy ad is the totz un-tuggable
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//////////Reply by louis
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
@jnon, maybe if they put him in shiny gold undies…
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Am Appy selling-out y’all, might d1e:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/American-Apparel-gets-a-lifeline/story.aspx?guid={2745921E-F018-4DB6-91FF-3E725D8B64B2}
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AA is ‘authentic’ ?
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hey carles check the conservative (our republicans) strict branding rules:
http://www.mporcheron.com/torylogo/
click on the pdf.
write a post making fun.
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//////////Reply by xavier
//////////Posted March 13th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
@Splut Cunker, huh??
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I don’t understand. Am I going crazy or hasn’t AA been exploding in popularity every month? Everybody and their grandma wears it now. Whatev it’s so 2007 anyway, I guess vintage is back y’all. Sorry Carles.
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you’re boring.
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That’s what their first bunch of ads were like at the beginning of this decade. It focused on their hiring practices and sweatshop free environment. Then it got all nippley. I am old.
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http://i44.tinypic.com/2zpifyq.jpg
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well i clicked it anyway
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of uniqlo
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crls, ur such an art critic.
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hey yall, isn’t the Am Appy CEO a serial sexual harrisment type? slappin asses, makin chicks give him dome 2 get hired, mb8in to sasha grey in front of his secretaries? if they get bought out and he’s not ‘in charge’ anymore will he still be allowed this pervert way? is marketwatch/WSJ/cnbc/jim kramer/tim geitner considering these implications on the alt reputation of the brand lifestyle?
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this was a good, legit relevant post carles
more like this
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i welcome more mainstrmr titties
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Ben Sherman
Tsubi (ksubi)
HRO(??)
The list goes on. Alt investors just have to ’stick and move’. Kinda voids the ‘brand loyalty’ construct..
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oh no, carles! don’t bite the hand (teet?) that feeds!
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i worked at am appy. my boss did coke and had sex with the female employees who were all hot. because he hired them
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an am appy store is opening at my local shopping mall
2 doors down from urban outfitters.
i appreciate the mall trying to appeal to alts but i dont want all the mnstrmrs to ‘find out’ it.
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What about Urban Outfitters?
You forgot about them.
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AA = MNSTRM
so sad…………:(
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AmAp is so mainstream now. Even Forever 21 is copying their clothing style.
They are ‘out’ now…
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like selling stakes in am ap threatens their business integrity. just like all other clothing retailers, alt or not, they have shitty labor practices with shitty conditions for workers, except they happen to carry out these shitty practices in the us. they stifle unionization and sexually harass workers. fuck that pro worker bullshit ad. they make good clothing without out branding it so i buy some t-shirts.
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they got some good shit there b
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Real alts don’t care about being alt and binge at Kmart.
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think u missed the point of the ad CRLS, dont think mainstreamers will like Am-appy cos of an ad about how they’re good employers/have a positive effect on their locality. Abercrombie wouldn’t do that. Feel like most of their other ads where they actually have mnstrm models will make mainstreamers like them.
If anything this ad makes AMAP more alt, cuz they’re positioning themselves as an ‘ethical business’ aware of the potential of business to create ‘positive social change’ thus distancing themselves from the profit driven/corporate world mainstreamers inhabit.
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I buy american apparel from http://www.imaginarycreatures.net.
Everything is half what aa charges :)
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