Is American Apparel Only at S&S Activewear? Fact-Checking the Exclusive Distribution Deal

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For print shops, exclusive wholesale agreements create practical friction on the warehouse floor. Most commercial decorators prefer building mixed-cart purchase orders to reach free-freight thresholds, typically set between $200 and $250 per order.

When a decorator needs SanMar’s proprietary Port & Company fleece alongside American Apparel fashion blanks for an event order, they can no longer combine them into a single shipment. The order must split into two separate transactions across different vendors:

• Printers must split their weekly purchase volume between vendors, which risks incurring independent shipping fees if individual orders fall short of carrier thresholds.
• Regional delivery times now depend entirely on S&S Activewear’s geographic distribution center footprint (facilities in Illinois, Georgia, Texas, California, and Pennsylvania).
• Shops seeking to avoid multiple vendor invoices are increasingly testing alternative retail-grade ringspun blanks from Bella+Canvas, Next Level Apparel, or Gildan’s own Hammer line when consolidating orders through alternate distributors.

Independent decorators who rely heavily on American Apparel for band merchandise, boutique fashion labels, and high-margin client programs must integrate S&S directly into their primary purchasing routines.