| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Oshkosh, Wisconsin |
| Number of locations | 179 (April 2011)[1] |
| Products | Clothing |
| Parent | Carter's |
| Website | www.carters.com |
OshKosh B'Gosh is a children's apparel company founded in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1895. It is currently a subsidiary of Carter's.
Originally a small-town manufacturer of adult work clothing, it has become best known for its children's clothing, especially bib overalls. The original children's overalls, dating from the early twentieth century, were intended to let parents dress their children like their fathers. According to the company, sales of the product increased after Miles Kimball, an Oshkosh-based mail-order catalog, featured a pair of the overalls in its national catalog in 1960. As a result, OshKosh began to sell their products through department stores and expanded their children's line. Children's clothing made up fifteen percent of the company's sales in 1979; by 1993 that number was 95 percent.
Oshkosh B'Gosh clothes are no longer made in Oshkosh. Steady downsizing of domestic operations and a massive increase in outsourcing and manufacturing at Mexican and Honduran subsidiaries saw the domestic manufacturing share drop below 10% by the year 2000.[2] The company was sold to Carter's, another clothing manufacturer in 2005 for $312 million,[3] though it still operates under the original name and maintains a corporate headquarters in Oshkosh. Today, the company sells accessories, jeans, pants, shirts, sweaters, t-shirts and tank tops, and its trademark overalls. The company produces clothing for babies, infants, toddlers, kids (4-7), and youth (5-12). For a time, OshKosh also made clothing for men and women, but stopped making adult sizes because of poor sales. The company also has over one hundred outlet stores in the United States of America.