Gant (retailer)
GANT is a clothing brand that was originally based in New Haven, USA in 1949 but is currently owned by Swiss holding company Maus Frères. GANT's products are available from retailers and at signature GANT stores throughout the world, and offer clothing for men, women, boys, girls and babies. Home, Time, Fragrance, Footwear, Underwear and Eyewear licenses are also incorporated under the Gant brand name.
History
Bernard Gantmacher[1] arrived in New York City in 1914, a Jewish[2] immigrant from Russian Empire. He went straight to the garment district in Manhattan and secured his first job as a collar-sewing specialist in a downtown factory. A few years later, he met his future wife, a button and buttonhole specialist who worked for the same company. Their sons, Marty and Elliot, along with a cousin, started a family business in New Haven, CT, acting as a subcontractor, manufacturing shirts.
Mark Zumerch sold shirts to private labels in America, including Manhattan Shirts, J. Press and Brooks Brothers. Captain Marty Gant mustered out of the US Air Force in 1945. Drawn to the family business, his brother Elliot quit the US Navy and joined him in 1947. They continued sales to other companies, but a small “G” stamped next to the union mark on the shirt indicated the manufacturer.
Gant dress shirts were popular among American male students in the early and mid 1960s. The shirts were worn open-collar and without necktie, with the top button open to reveal the roll of the collar, except when the formality of an occasion demanded otherwise. The front of the shirt buttoned along a double-truck hem, a feature that became absolutely requisite for any brand targeted at adolescents and young men. Three style features that made Gant the pick of the young style conscious was the hanger loop, cross-stitched buttons, and the rectangle label sewn through the back yoke so the stitched outline was visible on the back yoke of the shirt. Other manufacturers offered similar product, but only Sero, another premium-priced line, matched the Gant style, differentiating its shirts from the former solely by omission of the distinctive Gant loop at the top of the back pleat, and sometimes dispensing with the double pleat down the center back in favor of single pleats on the back shoulders. Sero was considered to be the only alternative truly equivalent in prestige to Gant in the youth market. All other brands, for whatever reason, clearly identified themselves as knockoffs by failing to precisely conform to the Gant cut. Beginning in the spring of 1964, Gant participated in the Madras craze, offering shirts in both the proprietary Gant cut and other styles.
Gant’s initial customer for American sportswear was the Paul Stuart store in New York City. The first shirts created offered button-down collars with sportswear fabrics.
As Gant became known as a designer label in the US, it began opening shops in a number of department stores across the country. At one point in the 1960s, Gant was the second-largest shirt maker in the world. The Gant family sold the business in 1967. Since then, the company has changed hands several times. In 1979, Gant Corporation became a subsidiary of apparel manufacturer The Palm Beach Company.[3] In 1980/1981, Gant entered the international market when Pyramid Sportswear of Sweden was given the right to design and market the Gant brand outside the U.S.[4] Initially, Pyramid only offered the Gant label in Sweden but quickly expanded internationally. In 1995, Phillips-Van Heusen acquired the Gant brand in the U.S. from bankrupt Crystal Brands, Inc. of Connecticut, a sportswear manufacturer. In November, 2010 - Gant recently returned home to New Haven when it opened a new retail store located on the corner of Broadway and York streets.
Recent history
PVH sold its Gant operations in 1999 to Pyramid Sportswear of Sweden, in which PVH held a 25% stake, for $71.000[5] even though, as the brand's international licensee, Pyramid had already opened a Gant flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue in 1997. Pyramid Sportswear, which was to become Gant Pyramid AB, eventually turned Gant into a global brand. In the spring of 2006, Gant became a public company and was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange’s O-List[6] until it was delisted March 20 and bought by Maus Frères.[7] For the fiscal year 2006, Gant Pyramid AB reported total revenues of SEK 1,295 billion (ca. US$167.7m) and a net income of SEK 162.6 million (ca. US$23.6m).[8]
Gant is established in 73 countries and their products are available at selected retailers and 298 Gant stores worldwide, 18 of which are directly operated by Gant AB. The Gant fashion collections are subdivided into the main line G.N.H. (Gant New Haven), the younger RUGGER sportswear line and 'GANT By Michael Bastian' collection. The 'Yale Co-op' line just includes some Yale shirts. Gant have a Kids line, as well as Home, Fragrance, Eyewear, mobile accessories and Time.
References
External links
- Gant.com - Official site