With demand down sharply for most types of apparel (exceptions apparently being sweat pants and pajamas) in a work from home economy , it should be no surprise that prices fell sharply in 2020.

And since nearly all apparel purchased in the US comes from foreign companies, that means import prices were also way down.

For example, based on new 2020 data from the US Commerce Department's Office of Textiles & Apparel, the price per square meter equivalent (SME) for imported apparel from China dropped 20.1% versus 2019. China is by far the leading source of apparel into the US.

As can be seen in the chart below from Just Style magazine, based on the recent data released from Office of Textiles & Apparel, clothing item import prices fell for nine of the ten largest apparel export countries to the US in 2020 versus 2019. (As a note, a medum short sleeve t-shirt apparently uses about.0.7 square meters of fabric).

Source Just Style, from Commerce Dept. Data

Prices for Mexican made apparel also fell a sharp 18.2%. Prices from other countries fell less than 10%. with the exception of imports from El Salvador, which saw the price per SME rise 6.8%.

US apparel imports fell 23.5% percent in 2020 to a value of $64.1 billion, down from $83.7 billion in 2019, the Commerce Department reported last week.

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