PVH Corp., formerly known as the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation, is an American clothing company which owns brands such as
Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( /hɪlˈfɪgər/; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.
After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upst ...
,
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...
, Warner's, Olga and
True & Co. The company also licenses brands such as
Kenneth Cole New York and
Michael Kors
Michael David Kors (born Karl Anderson Jr. August 9, 1959) is an American fashion designer. He is the chief creative officer of his brand, Michael Kors, which sells men's and women's ready-to-wear, accessories, watches, jewelry, footwear, and f ...
. PVH is partly named after
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
immigrant John Manning Van Heusen, who in 1910 invented a new process that fused cloth on a curve.
Organization
PVH is headquartered in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
New York, with policy-making offices in
Bridgewater, New Jersey
Bridgewater Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is both a regional commercial hub for Central New Jersey (home to Bridgewater Commons and different corporate headquarters) and is a bedroom suburb ...
and handling plants in
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...
,
Jonesville, North Carolina
Jonesville, originally called Allen's Settlement, is the oldest town in Yadkin County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,285 at the 2010 census. The town grew by nearly 800 residents in 2001 when it merged with neighboring Arling ...
, and
McDonough, Georgia
McDonough is a city in Henry County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Its population was 22,084 at the 2010 census, up from 8,493 in 2000. The city is the county seat of Henry County. The unincorporated com ...
all in the United States.
As of April 2014, globally, PVH had over 120,000 employees and was positioned in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Mongolia, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Honduras.
In September 2020, PVH announced that
Stefan Larsson was named CEO on February 1, 2021, succeeding
Emanuel Chirico
Emanuel "Manny" Chirico is a business leader in the retail and apparel industry. Having been with the PVH Corp for 20 years, Chirico served as chief executive officer from 2006 as well as chairman from 2007. Before resigning from his position as ...
, who remains as chairman.
History
Trade names and early mergers
The history of Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) goes back in part to Dramin Jones, a
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n immigrant who founded the shirt manufacturing company D. Jones & Sons, c. 1865. Separately, in 1881, Moses Phillips and his wife Endel began sewing shirts by hand and selling them from pushcarts to local anthracite coal-miners in
Pottsville, Pennsylvania
Pottsville is the county seat of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,346 at the 2020 census, and is the principal city of the Pottsville, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies along the west bank of th ...
. This grew into a shirt business in New York City that placed one of the first ever shirt advertisements in the ''
Saturday Evening Post''. D. Jones & Sons merged with M. Phillips & Sons in 1907 under the name Phillips-Jones after Dramin Jones's death in 1903. Later Isaac Phillips met John Van Heusen, resulting both in their most popular line of shirts (Van Heusen), and in the subsequent acquisition of Van Heusen by Phillips-Jones and its renaming to Phillips-Van Heusen in 1957. In 2011, Phillips-Van Heusen is renamed to PVH.
Acquisitions and divestitures
The Phillips-Jones Corporation received a patent for a self-folding collar in 1919; the corporation released the product to the public in 1921 and it became successful. The first collar-attached shirt was introduced in 1929. The Bass Weejun was introduced in 1936. Geoffrey Beene shirts were launched in 1982. In 1987, Phillips-Van Heusen acquired G. H. Bass. In 1995, the corporation acquired the
Izod
The Izod Corporation (officially stylized as IZOD) is an American midrange clothing company that produces dressy-casual clothing, sportswear for men, and footwear and accessories. It is a division of Authentic Brands Group, and is currently m ...
brand, followed by the Arrow brand in 2000, and the
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...
company in 2002.
In 2004, PVH began manufacturing clothing for the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection as part of a licensing agreement with
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
.
After acquiring Superba, Inc., in January 2007, PVH now owns
necktie licenses for brands such as Arrow,
DKNY
DKNY is a New York City–based fashion house for men and women, founded in 1984 by Donna Karan.
History
Karan worked for 15 years at Anne Klein, including 10 as its head designer. In 1984 Karan and her late husband Stephan Weiss were offered t ...
,
Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( /hɪlˈfɪgər/; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.
After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upst ...
,
Nautica
Nautica is an American apparel brand of Authentic Brands Group featuring primarily men's, women's, children's apparel and accessories, as well as home, watches, and fragrance. Nautica was founded in 1983 by clothing designer David Chu and a par ...
,
Perry Ellis
Perry Edwin Ellis (March 3, 1940 – May 30, 1986) was an American fashion designer who founded his eponymous sportswear house in the mid-1970s. Ellis' influence on the fashion industry has been called "a huge turning point" because he int ...
,
Ted Baker
Ted Baker is a British high-street clothing retail company known for suits, shirts, and dresses. It was founded in 1988 in Glasgow, Scotland. The company is owned by Authentic Brands Group, after its £211 million acquisition in October 2022. T ...
,
Michael Kors
Michael David Kors (born Karl Anderson Jr. August 9, 1959) is an American fashion designer. He is the chief creative officer of his brand, Michael Kors, which sells men's and women's ready-to-wear, accessories, watches, jewelry, footwear, and f ...
,
JOE Joseph Abboud,
Original Penguin
Original Penguin (also known simply as Penguin) is an American clothing line. With roots in the 1950s and 60s, the brand specializes in clothing, footwear, and eyewear. It is sold in North America, South America, Central America, Europe and Asia- ...
and
Jones New York
Authentic Brands Group LLC (ABG) is an American brand management company headquartered in New York City. Its holdings include various apparel, athletics, and entertainment brands, for which it partners with other companies to license and merchand ...
.
The corporation began making men's clothing under the
Timberland name in 2008, with women's clothing following in 2009, under a licensing agreement.
On March 15, 2010, Phillips-Van Heusen acquired
Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( /hɪlˈfɪgər/; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.
After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upst ...
for $3 billion.
[
] In the third quarter of 2010 losses made on the "Van Heusen" brand led to the decision to pull it out of all European trading markets. the company sells no products under that name in Europe. All European staff became redundant as a result.
In February 2013, PVH acquired
Warnaco Group
The Warnaco Group, Inc. was an American textile/clothing corporation which designed, sourced, marketed, licensed, and distributed a wide range of underwear, sportswear, and swimwear worldwide. Its products were sold under several brand names ...
, which manufactured the Calvin Klein underwear, jeans and sportswear lines under license, thus consolidating control of the Calvin Klein brand. The Warnaco acquisition also added the Warner's and Olga intimate apparel brands, as well the
Speedo
Speedo International Limited is a distributor of swimwear and swim-related accessories based in Nottingham, England, known for its swim briefs. The company has roots in Australia but is no longer based there. Founded in Sydney in 1914 by A ...
swimwear brand (the latter in North America only). In November 2013 PVH sold the G.H. Bass brand and all of its assets, images and licenses to
G-III Apparel Group.
PVH ended its licensing agreement with Trump in July 2015, after
Macy's
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
discontinued sales of his Trump Signature Collection due to controversial comments that he made regarding illegal immigrants.
[
In 2017 '']Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' ranked PVH, 25 out of 890 companies on the "Just company" list.
In March 2017, PVH acquired lingerie brand True & Co.
In June 2018, PVH acquired the Geoffrey Beene
Geoffrey Beene (born Samuel Albert Bozeman Jr.; August 30, 1924 – September 28, 2004) was an American fashion designer. Beene was one of New York's most famous fashion designers, recognized for his artistic and technical skills and for creati ...
clothing brand, which PVH previously produced under license. On August 28, 2018, PVH announced that it would expand the Izod brand to portions of Europe beginning with the Fall/Winter 2018 collection.
In January 2020, PVH sold back the rights for the Speedo swimwear brand, previously marketed under "Speedo USA" and "Speedo North America", back to Speedo's international parent, the British Pentland Group
Pentland Group is a British privately owned global company that owns and invests in, primarily, retail and wholesale businesses in the sports, outdoor and sports fashion sectors. The Group is the majority shareholder of JD Sports, which operate ...
for $170 million.
In May 2021, it was reported that PVH was exploring a sale of the Heritage Brands division consisting of Van Heusen, Izod, Arrow, Warner's, Olga, True & Co., and Geoffrey Beene, with Authentic Brands Group
Authentic Brands Group LLC (ABG) is an American brand management company headquartered in New York City. Its holdings include various apparel, athletics, and entertainment brands, for which it partners with other companies to license and merchand ...
as a potential buyer. The sale to ABG was officially announced on June 23, 2021, consisting of Izod, Van Heusen, Arrow, and Geoffrey Beene. The sale closed on August 2, 2021. Under Authentic Brands Group, United Legwear & Apparel Company was granted the license for the Van Heusen, Arrow, and Geoffrey Beene brands, while Centric Brands was granted the license for the Izod brand.
Distribution
PVH provides products to many popular department stores, such as JC Penney
Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...
, Macy's
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
, MYER
Myer (stylised MYER, sometimes known as Myers) is an Australia, Australian mid-range to upscale department store chain. It trades in all Australian states and one of Australia's two self-governing territories. Myer retails a broad range of ...
, David Jones, Kohl's
Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Haw ...
, Belk
Belk, Inc. is an American department store chain founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina, with nearly 300 locations in 16 states. Belk stores and Belk.com offer apparel, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, a ...
, and Dillard's as well as online retailer Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
both through its own labels and private label
A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...
agreements. PVH also sells its products directly to customers through about 700 outlet stores
An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowin ...
under the brand names Van Heusen, Tommy Hilfiger, and Calvin Klein.
The Calvin Klein stores sell the full range of products at full price, differing from existing outlet stores. These stores range from to .
The brands are sold in different price segments; for the dresswear and business-casual brands, from lowest to highest priced are Arrow, Van Heusen, Geoffrey Beene, and Calvin Klein. For the preppy-styled brands, Izod occupies a more moderate price range while Tommy Hilfiger occupies a more premium segment.
Phillips-Van Heusen closed its Geoffrey Beene outlet retail division in 2008. Approximately 25 percent of the Geoffrey Beene outlet stores became Calvin Klein stores, while the remaining 75 percent of stores closed entirely. The company continued to license the Geoffrey Beene brand name for Geoffrey Beene brand dress shirts and men's sportswear until 2018 when it acquired the brand outright. In 2015, PVH closed its Izod retail division due to an increasing competitive environment driven by more premium brands in the outlet retail channel; this did not affect Izod's wholesale business to department stores and online retailers. Select Izod products are now available at some Van Heusen stores; initially this only included the golf line, but now includes products from Izod's other lines (mostly from the Advantage and Saltwater lines). In July 2018, PVH launched a direct online sales platform on the Izod and Van Heusen websites where both brands are featured and can be cross-shopped on each other's site. On July 14, 2020, PVH announced that it would close its remaining Heritage Brands retail outlets operating mainly under the Van Heusen/Izod Golf names. The Izod and Van Heusen brands are not being discontinued; the wholesale business, which sells their product to department stores, warehouse clubs, and online retailers, is not affected. The direct online sales platform for the Izod and Van Heusen brands will also remain active.
Marketing
In October 2007, PVH took over naming rights to the Meadowlands Sports Complex
The Meadowlands Sports Complex is a sports complex located in East Rutherford, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The facility is owned and operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA).
The complex currently con ...
arena in East Rutherford
East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 10,022, reflecting an increase of 1,109 (+12.4%) from the 8,913 counted in the 2010 census. , New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. The arena's name was changed to the Izod Center
Meadowlands Arena (formerly Brendan Byrne Arena, Continental Airlines Arena and Izod Center) is a closed indoor arena facility located in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The arena is located on ...
, and the change became effective on October 31, 2007. PVH paid about $1.4 million a year for two years, then paid $750,000 a year and included the arena employees IZOD uniforms. In 2015 IZOD center was permanently closed.
In July 2022, PVH announced the creation of a first sustainable supply chain finance program, in partnership with HSBC Bank USA.
Controversy
Environmental practices
In July 2011, PVH—along with other major fashion and sportswear
Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons.
Typical sport-specific garments ...
brands including Nike
Nike often refers to:
* Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory
* Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment
Nike may also refer to:
People
* Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...
, Adidas
Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...
and Abercrombie & Fitch—was the subject of a report by the environmental group Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
entitled "Dirty Laundry". PVH is accused of working with suppliers in China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
who, according to the findings of the report, contribute to the pollution of the Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
and Pearl River
The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-a ...
s. Samples taken from one facility belonging to the Youngor Group
Youngor Group Company Limited () is a public textiles and clothing enterprise in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China. It is engaged in designing, manufacturing and selling clothing products with its "Youngor" brand for gentlemen’s clothing. Youngor was est ...
located on the Yangtze River Delta
The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD, or simply ) is a triangle-shaped megalopolis generally comprising the Wu Chinese-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. The area lies in the heart of the Jiangnan reg ...
and another belonging to the Well Dyeing Factory Ltd. located on a tributary of the Pearl River Delta
The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Mac ...
revealed the presence of hazardous and persistent hormone disruptor
Endocrine disruptors, sometimes also referred to as hormonally active agents, endocrine disrupting chemicals, or endocrine disrupting compounds are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine (or hormonal) systems. These disruptions can cause ca ...
chemicals, including alkylphenols
Alkylphenols are a family of organic compounds obtained by the alkylation of phenols. The term is usually reserved for commercially important propylphenol, butylphenol, amylphenol, heptylphenol, octylphenol, nonylphenol, dodecylphenol and related ...
, perfluorinated compound
A perfluorinated compound (PFC) or perfluoro compound is an organofluorine compound containing only carbon-fluorines and C−C bonds, as well as potentially heteroatoms. Perfluorinated compounds have properties that result from the presence of flu ...
s, and perfluorooctane sulfonate
Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) (conjugate base perfluorooctanesulfonate) is a chemical compound having an eight- carbon fluorocarbon chain and a sulfonic acid functional group and thus a perfluorosulfonic acid. It is an anthropogenic (man-m ...
.
In 2020, PVH announced for its sustainability policy for its Izod and Van Heusen brands to eliminate single use plastic from packaging by 2024, and use 100% sustainable cotton, polyester, and nylon by 2025.
Use of animals
Concerns have also arisen about PVH's practices with regards to animal testing.
In 2020, PVH announced that as part of their animal welfare policy, the company does not use exotic skins and would be banning their use in Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( /hɪlˈfɪgər/; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.
After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upst ...
and Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...
collections when "our annual update of that policy is released."[Rosemary Feitelberg,"PVH Corp. Said to Agree to Stop Using Exotic Skins, After Appeals by PETA,]
WWD
10 September 2020.
See also
* Iconix Brand Group
Iconix Brand Group is an American brand management company that licenses brands to retailers and manufacturers primarily in the apparel, footwear, and apparel accessory industries. Its brands are available in such stores as Kohl's, Kmart, Se ...
References
31. https://apparelresources.com/business-news/retail/pvh-opens-its-liaison-office-in-india
32. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140324005749/en/Arvind-Limited-Joins-Indian-Joint-Venture-with-PVH-Corp.-for-Operation-of-Calvin-Klein-Businesses-in-India
External links
*
{{authority control, state=expanded
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Manufacturing companies based in New York City
Clothing brands of the United States
Manufacturing companies established in 1881
Multinational companies based in New York City
Publicly traded companies based in New York City