Change in the Innerwear Industry

The innerwear category has seen a lot of structural change in the past year, through mergers, acquisitions, and new or restructured licensing models:

• Wacoal International, a global innerwear company based in Japan, acquired Glamorise, a direct-to-consumer plus-size lingerie specialist, in a deal announced last week. Wacoal, which in the U.S. sells primarily to the department and specialty store tier and is known for its focus on fit, has been involved globally in licensing and collaborations, including with anime properties in Japan and with Christian Siriano for a runway collection in the U.S., while Glamorise has collaborated with Amazon’s Mae private label on plus-size collections. Other Wacoal lingerie acquisitions in the past several years have included Bravissimo in the U.K. and Lively in the U.S.

• Brand management firm Marquee Brands bought sock maker Stance in a deal announced in November, converting the latter from a manufacturing to a licensing model. Licensee United Legwear & Apparel took over production, design, retail, and e-commerce sales of Stance’s core men’s, women’s, and children’s socks and underwear categories, as well as the apparel categories into which the brand has expanded. United’s deal is global, outside of China. Stance holds many inbound licensing and collaboration agreements, including with Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery. 

• Puma and United Legwear restructured their long-time partnership from a joint venture to a licensing model, in a deal announced last November. United Legwear is responsible for Puma-branded socks and underwear, as well as children’s apparel and accessories, in the U.S. and Canada. The change was driven by Puma’s desire to put more focus on its core categories in North America and simplify operations by licensing out other categories. Puma, which has partnered with United Legwear for 25 years, had owned 51% of the joint venture, called Puma United.  

• Gildan Activewear completed its purchase of HanesBrands, announced in August 2025, in December. Among other benefits, the addition of Hanes innerwear brands expands Gildan’s scope in the basic apparel category; Hanes has expanded into other casual apparel but is still closely associated with its innerwear roots. The Hanes brand moved into home textiles in December, through a licensing deal with Designer’s Linen, with sheets, comforters, towels, crib textiles, utility bedding, and mattresses rolling out this year. The brand is also involved in inbound licensing and collaborations, including with a range of colleges and universities, Urban Outfitters, and design label Madhappy, to name a few recent examples. 

• In July of 2025, Hong Kong-headquartered supply chain management company Li & Fung purchased Orrsum, a supplier of hosiery, underwear, and loungewear based in the U.K., representing its first acquisition in more than 10 years. The brand became part of Li & Fung Europe, with plans calling for an expansion of its global footprint. At the time of the deal, Orrsum produced 50 million pairs of socks each year, sold through 5,000 retail doors worldwide. Li & Fung’s inbound licensing and collaboration activity across categories in recent years has included deals with Sanctuary, Vera Bradley, Loft, and Pendleton, among others.

Innerwear remains a key target category for licensing programs across all property types, of course. Recent examples, of many, include sportswear brand Castore licensing Apparel Brands Group for socks and underwear; Berkshire Hathaway Shoe Holdings signing Majesty Brands to handle the sock category for its Carolina, Phantom Rider, and Double-H labels; and U.K. candy company Swizzels (through Blonde Sheep Licensing) and football club West Ham United both signing Oddballs for underwear.