U.S. reference page
Custom apparel
statistics.
Current numbers on online shopping, apparel manufacturing, and clothing e-commerce, gathered from primary U.S. sources.
Last updated: September 23, 2026
The quick read
Custom apparel lives where personal expression, retail, and online discovery meet. These numbers give writers, retailers, event planners, and small-business owners a clean view of that wider U.S. context.
This page does not claim to measure the custom T-shirt market on its own. It brings together the closest reliable public measures, with the year and source for every figure.
$340.2B
U.S. retail e-commerce sales in Q2 2026
The seasonally adjusted estimate was up 3.8% from Q1 2026.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, released August 18, 2026 0112.2%
Year-over-year growth in U.S. retail e-commerce sales
The Q2 2026 estimate rose 12.2% from Q2 2025, before adjusting for price changes.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, released August 18, 2026 037,156
U.S. firms in online clothing and clothing-accessories retail
This is the 2022 Economic Census count for the clothing and clothing accessories electronic-shopping category.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, NAICS bridge table 047,265
U.S. establishments in online clothing and clothing-accessories retail
The same 2022 Census category counted establishments separately from firms.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, NAICS bridge table 0572,000
People employed in U.S. apparel manufacturing in August 2026
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports this seasonally adjusted employment estimate in thousands.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation, August 2026 06Read the numbers right
Context matters.
The Census Bureau's quarterly retail release is the best current view of U.S. online retail overall. It is not a custom-apparel-only number, which is why it is presented here as e-commerce context.
The online clothing figures come from the 2022 Economic Census. Census classification changed after that collection, so the figures are labeled with the exact category they describe instead of being stretched into a claim about every custom apparel business.
Apparel manufacturing employment is a broader labor measure. It helps show the size of the domestic apparel-production base, not the number of people making custom shirts specifically.
Method & sources
Built to be cited.
Every figure on this page comes from a named primary source and keeps the source's reported date. Quarterly retail figures are seasonally adjusted where the Census Bureau reports them that way. Employment is shown in the unit used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- U.S. Census Bureau: Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, Q2 2026 ↗
- U.S. Census Bureau: 2022 Economic Census NAICS bridge table ↗
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Employment Situation, August 2026 ↗
Suggested citation
Lady D Custom T-shirts. “Custom Apparel & Online Shopping Statistics.” Updated September 23, 2026. https://ladydcustomtshirts.online/custom-apparel-statistics
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