Montreal-headquartered Gildan (asi/56842) aims to start selling American Apparel products to the wholesale market, including promotional product distributors, by the end of February. The announcement comes after Gildan formally completed the acquisition of the fashion basics brand last week.

Gildan, an apparel manufacturer whose portfolio of brands includes Anvil (asi/36350) and Alstyle (asi/34817), cemented the $88 million acquisition of American Apparel’s brand and certain assets about a month after winning a court-supervised auctionfor the Los Angeles-headquartered clothing maker, which filed for bankruptcy in November. “We remain excited about the opportunity to bring American Apparel into our family of brands,” said Garry Bell, Gildan’s vice president of corporate marketing and communications.

In an interview with Counselor, Bell said Gildan plans to resume direct sales of American Apparel products to the wholesale market by the month’s conclusion. To that end, Gildan is currently working on integrating American Apparel customers into its customer service platform and has taken over the American Apparel wholesale website, among other measures.

In the interim, distributors and apparel decorators keen for American Apparel items can purchase product from authorized dealers, including alphabroder (asi/34063), TSC Apparel (asi/90518) and others. A full list of companies carrying American Apparel stock is available here.

Bell said that once Gildan is selling American Apparel products directly, distributors and others in the wholesale market will be able to buy the items from Gildan and/or from authorized dealers. “Both business tracks have always run in parallel, and will continue to,” Bell said.

The American Apparel product line Gildan will offer for 2017 is trimmed down. Even so, Bell noted that Gildan purchased inventory from American Apparel, which was producing items to help Gildan beef up stock. He also said that Gildan is eager to begin offering the fashion-forward brand to customers. “The more we talk to people about American Apparel, the more we hear that there is a real enthusiasm for this brand,” Bell told Counselor.

Gildan’s acquisition did not include American Apparel’s retail stores or its distribution center, production facilities or Los Angeles headquarters. Manufacturing in Los Angeles was a key component of the American Apparel brand, but it remains unclear if Gildan will continue with stateside apparel production. Bell said a plan for manufacturing American Apparel clothing could soon be finalized.

“Gildan and American Apparel share a vision that owning the factories and building responsible practices and sustainable solutions into the manufacturing process is the way to do it right,” Gildan said in a statement. “We know that this iconic brand was built upon a heritage of fabric innovation, great styling and unique marketing campaigns, all things that we intend on maintaining a focus on.”