The History of the Worldwide Famous Hanes Clothing Brand
In 1901, the P.H. Hanes Knitting Company was founded to manufacture men’s underwear. Throughout the middle of 1970, the company’s executives discovered that the company’s white underwear product was being screen printed in order to be worn as an outerwear.
Because of this, Hanes saw the potential of white underwear T-shirts and began selling them. Thus, the Hanes 5000 T-shirt line was developed and began to be sold to individual screen printers.
A few years later, the company introduced their new product known as the Hanes Beefy-T® which was a roomier and heavier weight T-shirt. It was developed specifically for the rising screen print industry. Later in the same year, the company was able to develop the ‘screen printer fold’ which eliminates the added cost and individual packaging handling.
Hanes Knitwear, a Separate Division
The company became a separate entity of Hanes Knitwear and was known as Hanes Printables in 1980. This new division was solely dedicated to manufacture and distribute T-shirts which could be imprinted along with other apparel. The original Hanes Knitwear then became a part of the family of Sara Lee Corporation’s branded consumer products.
Introduction of Hanes Her Way
In 1986, the company introduced the Hanes Her Way which manufactured inner clothing for women. They began manufacturing underwear for women such as body wear, panties and bras.
The Participation of Hanes to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
The 1996 Atlanta Olympics contracted the company to become a major sponsor. Hanes was able to produce a unique series of their original Hanes Beefy T-shirts which represented the 500 days that lead to the event’s Opening Ceremonies. The T-shirt Number 1 was auctioned for an amazing price of $32,500. The money was spent on purchasing game tickets for the Olympics for children who were underprivileged.
Hanes Celebrates Its 25th Year
Hanes turned 25 on 2000. For the past 25 years, the company’s original T-shirt has been sought after by their loyal customers. In fact, a research showed that each individual aged 16 years old and above, purchased an average of at least four t-shirts every year. Because of the success of their t-shirt, the company celebrated the purchase of their one billionth Hanes Beefy T-Shirt. As such, they celebrated with a sweepstakes for the ‘Beefy-T’ PT Cruiser.
The ‘Go Tagless’ Campaign
The company got another innovation in 2004 when they initiated the movement called ‘Go Tagless’ which was launched on their authentic Hanes T-shirts. This campaign got rid of the irritating neck labels which came along with an ordinary t-shirt.
Hanesbrands Inc., the Separate Brand
After a 26 year partnership with Sara Lee Corporation, the company was finally able to become independent on the 26th day of September 2006. The brand became known as Hanesbrands Inc. They founded their headquarters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and have been able to employ over 50,000 people all over the world.
This company currently owns several apparel brands such as Hanes, Champion, Playtex, Just My Size, Barely There, Wonderbra, L’eggs, and many more.
Throughout the history of the company, they have been widely known for the work they have done for the environment such as the ‘green’ buildings. Aside from this, they have also been noted for their community work as a support for the schools in Honduras and also for the Dominican Republic’s relief efforts during the hurricane.