Thomas Hilfiger
After high-school, rather than furthering his education, Hilfiger began working in retail. Hilfiger would visit New York City to buy denim and bell-bottom pants, which he later customized and resold at a downtown Elmira store.
He later opened his own store, The People’s Place, in Elmira. Though the shop was a popular venue for teenagers with frequent contests and live DJ appearances, there were often more people hanging out than actually shopping. After seven years, The People’s Place shut down. Hilfiger then turned to the design aspect of clothing by designing for stores in upstate New York. During this time, he turned down design assistant positions with Calvin Klein and Perry Ellis. He had greater plans in his mind.
Recently Hilfiger has been criticized for manufacturing clothes in sweatshop conditions in the United States territory of Northern Mariana Islands and Saipan. As a U.S. Commonwealth, clothes made there can be labeled “Made in the USA” but federal labor laws including the minimum wage do not apply. Thousands of garment workers live and toil in deplorable conditions, working up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and earning $3.05 an hour or less, often without overtime pay. In 2000, Saipan garment workers brought a class action suit against the company (along with other defendants). This suit had alleged mistreatment by over 20 U.S. clothing manufacturers. The companies settled the suit out of court.
In 2007, the New York Times reported that Hilfiger fired a union cleaning company and replaced workers earning $19 per hour and benefits with workers making $8 per hour.
Hilfiger himself receives a minimum of $14.5 million per year from the company he sold in 2006 to Apax Partners, a private investment company, for $1.6 billion.
