HR VIOLATIONS EVERYWHERE

American Apparel Welcomed New Employees With a Vibrator

From vibrators in employee welcome kits to ritualistic shaming, “Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel” will leave you gobsmacked.

Before its infamous collapse, American Apparel was a cultural force of the mid-2000s. The clothes were colorful, the ads were provocative, and the brand marketed itself as progressive with its proud motto: “Ethically Made, Sweatshop Free.”

But behind the scenes, beneath the indie sleaze and moral posturing, the company was quietly imploding. Now, thanks to Netflix’s new documentary anthology Trainwreck, people finally have an inside look at what brought this once billion-dollar corporation to its knees.

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Here are the most shocking revelations from The Cult of American Apparel:

The Company Interviews Were About Vibe Checks

Founder Dov Charney wasn’t just building a brand—he was creating a look.

Former employees say they were hired on the spot simply because of their appearance: “I’m tall and skinny,” said one. Another claimed their “hipster meets bike messenger” style got them hired. In some cases, people with no fashion background were placed in senior roles.

The Employee Welcome Package Included Vibrators

Yes, it’s true.

New hires reportedly received Hitachi wand vibrators as part of their employee welcome kits.

A safe working environment? Not exactly American Apparel’s thing.

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Fool of the Week

Charney didn’t just have a proclivity for sexual perversion; He also loved verbally abusing his staff!

Every week, he would hold mandatory company wide calls, during which he nominated a “fool of the week”—an employee who he believed “screwed him over.”

The whole thing was basically an exercise in ritualistic shaming.

Extreme Work Hours

Former American Apparel employees claim that they worked insane hours.

“On one two-week period, on top of the 80 hours that I worked, there was another 120-something hours of overtime I clocked,” Carson, one of the documentary’s subjects, said.

‘The 48 Laws of Power’

Charney reportedly treated Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power like gospel.

The book outlines how to manipulate and dominate in business and life, which people claim heavily influenced Charney’s leadership style.

When the company went public in 2007, he even appointed Greene to the board

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The Sexual Abuse and Harassment Allegations

By 2014, several women had accused Charney of sexual harassment. However, many employees were bound by contracts that funneled complaints into private arbitration, shielding the company from public lawsuits.

The Civil rights attorney Toni Jaramilla, who was featured in the documentary, explained: “It started with one woman, then another. In doing our due diligence, we found more who had experienced the same thing.”

Following a formal investigation, Charney was ousted for sexual harassment, discrimination, and misuse of company funds.

Today, American Apparel lives on in name only. It exists as a fully online store owned by Canadian manufacturer Gildan Activewear. But the brand’s cultural relevancy has long vanished, and along with it, so too has the “cult” that once surrounded it.

Clare DonaldsonEditorial Intern

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