American Apparel – Famous to most of us for their apartment shot ads. Girls & Boys in clothes in some apartment; on the bed, couch or against the wall. But how little do we know about American Apparel, a $500(half a billion) million company.

American Apparel is leading the way for our generation of entrepreneurs. Did you know that there 5,000 American Apparel employees in Los Angeles (Yes, That’s the U.S.) hand sewing all of their clothing? They make anywhere from $12-15 an hour plus fully subsidized health insurance (which is way above minimum wage) and are able to contribute designs to the company and be rewarded!

American Apparel is our Poster Company for sustainability. You don’t need to outsource & cut costs to be a highly profitable – you just need to think about how you do things! That’s exactly what is done at American Apparel – they get 30% of their factory energy from solar panels, they don’t waste money on expensive lobbies, they solicit ideas from their workforce and implement them, American Apparel dog sweaters & baby bibs are made from scratch and whatever isn’t used is recycled.

American Apparel is the future – so take a few hints, we definitely are…

Special Thanks to Venture Hacks for the Great article we pulled all these facts from.