This major group, known as the cutting-up and needle trades, includes establishments producing clothing and fabricating products by cutting and sewing purchased woven or knit textile fabrics and related materials, such as leather, rubberized fabrics, plastics, and furs. Also included are establishments that manufacture clothing by cutting and joining (for example, by adhesives) materials such as paper and non-woven textiles. Included in the apparel industries are three types of establishments: (1) the regular or inside factories; (2) contract factories; and (3) apparel jobbers. The regular factories perform all of the usual manufacturing functions within their own plant; the contract factories manufacture apparel from materials owned by others; and apparel jobbers perform the entrepreneurial functions of a manufacturing company, such as buying raw materials, designing and preparing samples, arranging for the manufacture of clothing from their materials, and selling of the finished apparel.
Knitting mills are classified in Industry 2253 if primarily knitting outerwear, and in Industry 2254 if primarily knitting underwear and nightwear. Custom tailors and dressmakers not operating on a factory basis are classified in Retail Trade, Industry 5699; and establishments which purchase and resell finished garments but do not perform the functions of the, apparel jobbers are classified in Wholesale Trade, Industry Group 513.