Edwards Garment helps companies dress up their corporate image.

Company

Edwards Garment

World Headquarters

4900 S 9^th Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49009

Website

edwardsgarment.com

Executive

Gary Schultz, President and CEO

150 Years of Tailor-Made History

Founded in 1867 by Samuel Rosenbaum as a material and sewing notions firm, the company originally traded under the names Kalamazoo Pant and Overall and the Kalamazoo Pant Co. When Rosenbaum’s sons entered the business in 1902, the partnership then changed to a name reflective of the times: Saml. Rosenbaum and Sons. The Wool Labeling Act of the 1930s required the corporation’s name to match its trade name, hence it went back to Kalamazoo Pant Co. During this decade, the company began selling goods left over from sales to stores and by 1938 split into separate divisions—one for retail and the other for manufacturing. Manufacturing then moved to Columbus, Mississippi. In 1968, the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation purchased the company for its Redwood & Ross retail stores which were highly profitable at that time. The Seminole Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Mississippi purchased the manufacturing operations in 1970 and chose Kazoo, Inc. for the new name. It began making a small clothing line of dress pants labeled by the Edwards Garment Co. By 1978 as people began shopping more in malls and less in standalone retail shops for brands associated with their names, the company devoted its energies to the Edwards business. In 1981, a small assembly plant starting sewing again in Kalamazoo. It’s not so small anymore.

Local Footprint

140,000 square feet of distribution space for products sourced from all over the world

Products Made Then

Men’s and boys’ pants

Products Made Now

Career and uniform apparel for the hospitality and casino, culinary, housekeeping, security industries and more

And Notable Products Made In-Between

• Knickers for boys in the 1890s
• Dungarees for the World War I doughboys of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps
• The Hip-Zip knicker in 1931 with the first volume use of zippers
• Brand names like David Copperfield, Westchester, Huskees, and more in the 1960s

Customer Base

15,000 to 20,000 pieces are shipped per day to customers all over the U.S. Customers include industrial laundries that clean and rent clothes, local uniform retail distributors, and promotional product distributors who brand items with logos for employees or giveaways. Millions of people go to work every day wearing Edwards’ clothes.

Why Customers Order Uniforms from Edwards

Clothes are designed with appeal. Its catalog offers a multitude of options in one place that can be ordered today and worn tomorrow.

Number of Employees

175

Who Works There?

Warehouse workers, specialists in embroidery and alterations, and support staff in, sales, customer service, inventory planning, finance, marketing, etc.

They’re Hiring

Interested in a career at Edwards Garment? Visit edwardsgarment.hirecentric.com/pages/about/.