Contingency factors and reshoring drivers in the textile and apparel industry

The article examines the relationship between contingency factors and reshoring drivers quantitatively analysing secondary data collected by the Reshoring Initiative for 140 US textile and apparel companies. Results indicate that there is not a significant relationship between the region of the world from which a company reshores, the region of operation in the USA and reshoring drivers. The need of a skilled workforce is a reshoring driver for large companies more than for small ones, and apparel companies reshore manufacturing processes less than the avarage proportion of the american companies; sustainability of production is a reshoring driver more relevant in textile than in other industries. Lastly, after 2016 quality is no more a relevant reshoring driver since the quality gap between US and China has been reduced.