Where Are Tommy Hilfiger Clothes Manufactured?
One of the major locations in which Tommy Hilfiger clothes are manufactured is Saipan, a territory of the United States in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Manufacturing in this U.S. territory allows Tommy Hilfiger to use the “Made in the U.S.A.” label. Hilfiger has been accused of implementing sweatshop conditions in these clothing factories, however. Saipan has no minimum wage law.
Hilfiger settled a class action lawsuit in 2000 regarding mistreatment of garment workers in Saipan. About 20 other clothing manufacturers were also defendants in the lawsuit.
Hilfiger also encountered criticism of his clothing manufacturing location choices in 2011, when 29 garment workers were killed in a factory in Bangladesh that made clothing for Hilfiger. Inadequate wiring and locked gates were among the causes of the deaths. Many workers were trapped on the roof during their lunch break because there were no fire escapes to climb down. The building lacked sprinklers or fire equipment. Tommy Hilfiger was the first American company to respond, committing $1 million toward safety reforms, including public reports on factory safety conditions and independent fire inspections. However, in 2012, the Worker Rights Consortium claimed that more workers had been killed in Hilfiger factories.
