Coronavirus Diaries From the C-Suite
I’m Running My Multimillion-Dollar Business Out of My Car Because of Coronavirus
American Giant’s Bayard Winthrop on how the pandemic has upended the apparel manufacturer, from cutting costs to converting factories
Coronavirus Diaries From the C-Suite is a new Marker series where leaders share how the pandemic is impacting their businesses.
Eight years ago, when Bayard Winthrop founded American Giant, a San Francisco-based manufacturer of T-shirts, hoodies, and other apparel, he never imagined he would be running the business out of his car. But with the coronavirus lockdown, that’s where things are right now for the 50-year-old CEO. Partly because of the chaos created by having three children—ages 3, 5, and 9—now at home, Winthrop is working out of his Tacoma pickup truck, parked in front of his house in the Castro so he can tether to his home Wi-Fi. (His three-month-old puppy, Dash, is often with him in the passenger seat.) His main focus is preserving as much cash as possible as sales slide for American Giant, which employs more than 120 people at its corporate headquarters, two cutting and sewing plants in North Carolina, and retail stores in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco…
