/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46987602/American-Apparel-Summer_2015_08.0.0.jpg)
Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
The HQ downsizing, those plans to streamline staff, the suspiciously utopian dance parties: it seems that the writing's long been on American Apparel's wall, and now comes news that the ailing company "does not have sufficient liquidity necessary to sustain operations for the next 12 months." Translation: the brand is going bankrupt.
Its latest SEC filing reveals that sales are down 17% to $134 million and its stock is trading at 11 cents a share. Per LA Times, financial analyst Craig Johnson likened the situation to a sinking ship. "You are trying to save the Titanic when the bow is already 10 feet underwater," he tells the newspaper. "It's not impossible, but it's a very tall order to do."
Maybe that American Apparel-inspired play can rewrite history into a happier ending?