What is Apparel?
Apparel is anything worn especially formal clothes; outerwear; garments; attire; raiment worn on an important occasion to protect, wrap, adorn or beautify the body. Apparel also refers to clothing of a specific type that is sold in stores. Product categories include everything from basic items like underwear, badges, jewelry to luxury items. The general classification of clothing is as follows: men's wear, women's wear, children's wear, and others.
How is Apparel used?
Zippia reviewed thousands of resumes to understand how apparel is used in different jobs. Explore the list of common job responsibilities related to apparel below:
- Uphold DICK S Sporting Goods standards for merchandise presentation of the best apparel and equipment brands in sporting goods.
- Assisted in other departments such as Team Sports, Bikes and Fitness, Apparel, and CSS
- Assist customers in finding proper apparel and/or footwear for their specific needs.
- Assist apparel and any other departments when closing.
- Present newest footwear and apparel to customers.
- Counted inventory for Footwear and Apparel.
Are Apparel skills in demand?
Yes, apparel skills are in demand today. Currently, 3,465 job openings list apparel skills as a requirement. The job descriptions that most frequently include apparel skills are footwear sales associate, athlete, and screen printer.
How hard is it to learn Apparel?
Based on the average complexity level of the jobs that use apparel the most: footwear sales associate, athlete, and screen printer. The complexity level of these jobs is basic.
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What jobs can you get with Apparel skills?
You can get a job as a footwear sales associate, athlete, and screen printer with apparel skills. After analyzing resumes and job postings, we identified these as the most common job titles for candidates with apparel skills.
Footwear Sales Associate
Job description:
Footwear sales associates focus on improving sales of all footwear products of a company. The sales associate works with the advertisement and marketing team to develop strategies to increase sales, maximize customer reach, and create a brand people can trust. Responsibilities of a footwear sales associate include monitoring inventory and issuing order requests for the replenishment of supplies, communicating with manufacturers, and keeping the management up-to-date as to the performance of each product in the market.
- Cash Handling
- Apparel
- Customer Engagement
- Merchandise Presentation
- Customer Service
- Sales Floor
Athlete
Job description:
An athlete specializes and competes in a particular sport as an individual or part of a team. Mentored by a coach or instructor, an athlete undergoes rigorous training and practices, even as professionals in the league, to develop and maintain skills. One must assess every competition or performance to learn areas that need improvement, maintain a healthy physique, and even serve as an advocate. Furthermore, it is vital to abide by the sport's rules and regulations and uphold healthy sportsmanship.
- Team-Oriented Environment
- Math
- Apparel
- Visual Displays
- Customer Service
- Nike
Assistant Technical Designer
Job description:
An assistant technical designer primarily performs support tasks to assist technical designers in completing various projects. They are usually responsible for preparing and processing documents, conducting research and analyses, coordinating with different teams, organizing documents, and maintaining records. Moreover, they work together with technical designers in developing plans and strategies, creating prototypes and assessments, identifying issues and concerns, coordinating with engineers, and subjecting designs into various tests to ensure it adheres to the company's standards and policies.
- Sketch
- Tech Packs
- Apparel
- Garment Construction
- PLM
- Adobe Illustrator
Assistant Merchandise Buyer
Job description:
Assistant merchandise buyers are skilled employees who are responsible for assisting other buyers and managers in purchasing products and maintaining the inventory of their store. These buyers must maintain positive relationships with vendors so that they can negotiate product specifications and prices of merchandise. They must prepare budgets and purchase orders so that they can purchase items and ensure on-time delivery of goods. Assistant merchandise buyers must also perform forecasts on their purchasing trends while compiling reports on the performance and statistics of their existing products.
- Apparel
- Kids
- Purchase Orders
- Math
- Historical Data
- Promotional Strategies
Merchandising Director
Job description:
A merchandising director is in charge of spearheading and streamlining merchandising strategies, including promotion and branding. Using their expertise and experience, they conceptualize plans with fellow directors and managers, perform extensive research and analysis, gather and analyze data, set goals and guidelines, establish budgets and schedules, and build positive relationships with external business partners. Moreover, as a merchandising director, they must lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
- Apparel
- Gross Margin
- Direct Reports
- Product Development
- Product Categories
- Merchandise Sales
Vice President, Merchandising
Job description:
Merchandising is everything that happens from when a product is delivered to a retail store to when a shopper buys it from the shelf. A vice president of merchandising promotes the services and products of their company at events like exhibits, concerts, or retail outlets. They are tasked with creating plans for the introduction and promotion of new products based on customer research. Also, they analyze market trends and observe the behavior of competitors to develop strategies for product promotion.
- Apparel
- Sales Growth
- Gross Margin
- Product Development
- Direct Reports
- Product Assortment
Licensed Psychologist Director
- Product Development
- IP
- Apparel
- Litigation
- Business Relationships
- Direct Reports
Director Of Merchandising & Marketing
- Trade Shows
- Consumer Insights
- Integrated Marketing
- Apparel
- Merchandise Sales
- ROI
Textile Designer
- Textile Design
- CAD
- Graphic Design
- Apparel
- Trend Research
- Product Development
Fitting Room Attendant
- Sales Floor
- Basic Math
- Apparel
- Sales Associates
- Loss Prevention
- Guest Service
Merchandising Manager
Job description:
A merchandising manager is responsible for supervising stock inventories, retail pricing, and managing product displays by analyzing customer preferences through researching the current market trends that would improve the store's sales condition and achieve profitability goals. Merchandising managers negotiate with reliable third-party vendors, minimizing costs without compromising the quality of the products. They also assist with planning floor layouts for store visuals that would attract customers and marketing promotional offers and special discounts to increase more revenues.
- Sales Floor
- POS
- Apparel
- Pallets
- Merchandise Presentation
- Drive Sales
Product Development Coordinator
Job description:
Product development coordinator positions require skills in time management, multitasking, organization, teamwork, and communication, in addition to being pro-active, process-oriented, and having good initiative. Those who choose this career path will be called on to oversee product life cycles, tracking product distribution, finding ways to gain consumer interest, assisting product launches, filling out paperwork, and reporting data.
- Product Development
- Apparel
- PowerPoint
- PLM
- Overseas Vendors
- R
Zone Merchandise Supervisor
- Product Knowledge
- Performance Reviews
- Back Room
- Front End
- Apparel
- Inventory Control
Merchandise Buyer
- Vendor Relations
- Purchase Orders
- Customer Service
- Apparel
- Trade Shows
- Product Categories
Fashion Designer
Job description:
Fashion designers design and assist with the making of shoes, accessories, and clothing. They identify trends and styles, colors, and trims of a clothing collection. The designers keep an eye on travel shows and read fashion magazines to spot trends and interpret specific patterns, color palettes, and prints for each season. They sketch designs by hand, address buyers as a seasoned marketer, and create technical production drawings. It is part of their responsibilities to collaborate with team members to make edits to lines, select seasonal themes, and create new concepts.
- Fashion Design
- Sketch
- Apparel
- Design Concepts
- Adobe Illustrator
- CAD
Allocation Analyst
Job description:
In the retail industry, an allocation analyst is in charge of providing analytical services to optimize a company's supply chain operations. Among their responsibilities include performing market research and analysis, determining the customers' purchase needs, managing product inventory, coordinating with store managers, gathering and analyzing data from internal and external parties, keeping abreast with the latest trends, and developing strategies to reach sales and inventory targets. Moreover, an allocation analyst must maintain an active communication line with staff while enforcing and promoting the company's policies and regulations.
- Allocation Strategies
- Purchase Orders
- Logistics
- Distribution Centers
- Apparel
- Store Sales
Assistant Buyer
Job description:
An assistant buyer participates and assists in the procurement procedures in a retail company. One of their primary responsibilities revolves around selecting products according to company guidelines, handling and organizing purchase orders, and monitoring the budget. An assistant buyer may also have administrative support tasks such as responding to calls and correspondence, preparing paperwork and progress reports, arranging schedules, keeping records of invoices and inventory, and staying updated with trends. Furthermore, an assistant buyer must reach out to new suppliers and engage with vendors to maintain and establish a positive business relationship.
- Purchase Orders
- Vendor Relations
- Customer Service
- Math
- Apparel
- Open-To-Buy
How much can you earn with Apparel skills?
You can earn up to $24,305 a year with apparel skills if you become a footwear sales associate, the highest-paying job that requires apparel skills. Athletes can earn the second-highest salary among jobs that use Python, $51,729 a year.
| Job title | Average salary | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|
| Footwear Sales Associate | $24,305 | $12 |
| Athlete | $51,729 | $25 |
| Screen Printer | $30,310 | $15 |
| Assistant Technical Designer | $55,660 | $27 |
| Assistant Merchandise Buyer | $52,001 | $25 |
Companies using Apparel in 2025
The top companies that look for employees with apparel skills are Dunham's Sports, Carter's, and Aeropostale. In the millions of job postings we reviewed, these companies mention apparel skills most frequently.
| Rank | Company | % of all skills | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dunham's Sports | 38% | 272 |
| 2 | Carter's | 13% | 737 |
| 3 | Aeropostale | 10% | 557 |
| 4 | Rainbow Shops | 8% | 664 |
| 5 | Torrid | 7% | 404 |
Departments using Apparel
The departments that use apparel the most are engineering, art/design, and plant/manufacturing.
| Department | Average salary |
|---|---|
| Engineering | $108,044 |
| Art/Design | $60,301 |
| Plant/Manufacturing | $52,892 |
| Supply Chain | $47,820 |
| Retail | $35,118 |
3 courses for Apparel skills
1. Designing Repeat Patterns: From Icons to Apparel and Beyond
Its all about idioms and icons in this 30-minute class on designing a repeat pattern using symbols and icons! Kimi Lewis artist and product designer at the Noun Project will walk you through her process of creating a pattern in full repeat — one that you can apply to clothing bags accessories wallpaper or practically anywhere you’d like. You’ll start with picking an idiom or cliché that you love and turn it into an illustrated story using pictograms. Kimi draws inspiration from the vibrant colors and patterns of Mexico merged with her passion for the Bauhaus movement — but your pattern can come from anywhere! The class will guide you through simple steps in Adobe Illustrator to make your pattern repeat perfectly and translate to print. No prior knowledge is necessary — this class is perfect for beginners as well as experienced designers and illustrators. Enjoy Kimis class? Explore more classes with the Noun Project: Icon Design: Creating Pictograms with Purpose...
2. Start Your Own Clothing Brand: Design, Create & Sell Apparel
This course is for those who are serious about starting your own brand, or learn how to get run of t-shirts printed for a great price. This course does not take forever to finish! It only takes two hours, but you will most likely have to wait a week or two for your shirts to be printed! Catch me on Instagram @yaswanthnukasani to get free exclusive insider content ?? In the meantime, you will learn how to get a design and logo made for $5 from professional designers, source wholesale blank apparel, and get the best pricing on screen printing these shirts. You will also learn the optimal and most powerful way to set up an online store, which only takes about an hour! YYou will walk away from this course with a super high quality and fair priced batch of shirts on the way, basic knowledge on how screen-printing and embroidery works, and an online store that is all set up and ready to bring in sales! The most valuable skill as an entrepreneur is sales & marketing. We have developed the ultimate crash course when it comes to learning how to sell and scale your clothing company. If you want to work with me one-on-one, have any questions from the course or just in general.. send me an email at sales@merchn. com (Does not cost anything, just a courtesy for purchasing the course) or you can directly get shirts made for the brand if you search up, Merchn on google! What is in it for you?You will avoid all the mistakes I made when starting my brandYou will learn step by step the process of sourcing your product and selling it onlineYou will get your brand up and runningYou will skip the usual mistakes, and avoid wasting money when getting startedHow to Start a Clothing Brand - Ultimate Step-By-Step GuideIdea & PlanningBrand IdentityVision StatementMission StatementDifferentiationProductMarketingDistributionProduction & ManufacturingLearn how to find great talented designersGet designs made for $5Learn how to have your logo madeHow to Filter for Good Designers and Avoid bad onesThe two types of packagingHow to D. I. Y. Customize Your Own PackagingSave money on finding bulk packaging suppliersGet the inside scoop on how we do our packaging for The Phi ConceptLearn how your shirts are printedThe actual process of screen printing t-shirtsThe variables which effect your cost on printingThe type of Ink & colors used in screen printingBONUS Tips & Tricks to Get the Best PricingHow to Calculate Screenprinting Prices & Understanding QuotesFinding the Idea Printing Partner for Your BrandDeeper dive into understanding variables which effect priceLearn how to get hats, hoodies etc. embroidered for your clothing brandSave money on digitization of your designsThe type of designs you can embroiderExamples of embroideryWhich suppliers to useWho has the best pricingOur #1 Secret Supplier who has apparel for pennies-on-the-dollarSales & MarketingeCommerce WebsiteSocial MediaInstagramFacebookTwitterSearch Engine OptimizationSelling Your Shirts on Other PlatformsAmazonEtsyeBayKeeping in touch with your customersEmail Marketing Campaignand more....
3. CLO Basic Apparel Training: Course 1/5-CORE CONCEPTS
The CLO Basic Apparel Design Training is made up of a series of courses that will build upon each other. By the end of this course, you will be able to arrange, sew and simulate a garment from a pattern that you have imported. Upcoming courses will cover things like Garment Modification, Fabrics & Materials, and Presentation. After attending this Core Course you will have built the foundation for using CLO. You will then be able to complete a more complex course of learning CLO. This CORE Course will lay the foundation for the courses that come after as well as courses that delve into things like Accessories and Home & Interior Design. In Section 2, you will become familiar with the CLO workspace, how to edit the User Settings, and how to navigate and select objects in the 2D & 3D windows. In Section 3 you will learn about the CLO Avatars and how to arrange and sew patterns to create garments. In Section 4, you are introduced to the visualization process in CLO with discussions about using Simulation and Particle Distance to show more accurate virtual garment draping. In the Final Section, you will work through some practice garments to review and expand your knowledge in CLO. As you progress through the video lessons, you will be given quizzes to test the retention of the knowledge. Be sure to take notes as you go. Let's get started!...