Apparel Industry Report: China's U.S. Apparel Shipments Fell 34% in 2026

WILMINGTON, Del. - EntSun -- Arklavo, a U.S. custom branded apparel company serving more than 13,000 businesses with no minimum order, today released "U.S. Apparel Supply Chains: The 2026 Import Concentration Report," a free, open-access analysis of where American apparel imports originate and how that pattern differs for the specific shirts and trousers a uniform program buys. The Wilmington, Delaware company publishes open-access research on the apparel industry alongside its products. The report is built on the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) Annual Data export of September 14, 2026, and every figure can be regenerated from that file with the published calculation scripts.

U.S. apparel imports in OTEXA's total-apparel category reached $41.835 billion in January through July 2026, compared with $45.610 billion in the same seven months of 2025, a decrease of 8.28%. China's value fell by $2.358 billion, or 34.11%, and its share fell 4.27 percentage points to 10.89%, enough to account arithmetically for 5.17 of those 8.28 points on its own. Vietnam supplied 22.39% of the 2026 value, followed by Bangladesh at 11.14% and China at 10.89%; together the three accounted for 44.41%. The values are nominal import values, not retail sales or garment counts.

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"China lost a third of its U.S. apparel value in seven months, and that one move accounts for most of the national decline," said an Arklavo spokesperson. "The rest of the story is who picked up the volume and who did not."

Who absorbed the shift

Among the leading origins, Cambodia's value rose 10.89% and Indonesia's rose 3.10%, while Bangladesh fell 6.25%, India fell 25.65% and Mexico fell 9.69%. Vietnam's share rose 1.71 percentage points even though its value fell 0.68%; it gained share because the market shrank faster than it did. The top-three share fell from 46.73% to 44.41%, and while 190 origins recorded positive values, the distribution was as concentrated as roughly 10.73 equally sized suppliers.

"A country can gain share while shipping less, and a market can have 190 origins while behaving like ten," the spokesperson said.

The picture changes by garment

Across twelve predefined shirt and trouser categories, the leading origin's share ranged from 13.65% for men's and boys' cotton knit shirts to 39.24% for women's and girls' man-made-fiber trousers and shorts. A national total therefore says little about the exposure of an individual uniform program. The report does not estimate domestic supply, consumption, factory counts or the effect of any policy.