BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Apparel to Strategic / Industry buyers
Industry operators, larger competitors, and corporate buyers acquiring for synergies, geographic expansion, or capability fill. Typically pays a premium for clear strategic fit but discounts for integration cost and overlap.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 8.94x across 13 disclosed deals (P25: 6.05x, P75: 12.93x). Median EV/Revenue 1.22x across 37 deals. Median deal value: $97.5M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 39 deals total (39 from 2018+), filtered to Strategic / Industry acquirers of apparel businesses.
- Most active buyers
- JD Sports Fashion (4) · Steven Madden, Ltd. (2) · Randa Corporation (2) · Friedland Enterprises LLC (1) · DICK'S Sporting Goods, Inc. (1) · Gildan Activewear Inc. (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Strategic / Industry acquisitions of apparel businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Lulu's Fashion Lounge Holdings, Inc. | Friedland Enterprises LLC | $0.7M | — | 0.15x |
| 2025 | Foot Locker, Inc. | DICK'S Sporting Goods, Inc. | $4977.9M | 3.8x | 0.62x |
| 2025 | HanesBrands Inc. | Gildan Activewear Inc. | $2385.8M | 7.0x | 1.28x |
| 2025 | TYR Tactical, LLC | Safariland, LLC (:AH) | $170.0M | — | 1.84x |
| 2025 | Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Company, LLC | Bluestar Alliance, LLC | $600.0M | — | 1.11x |
| 2024 | Destination XL Group, Inc. | Fund 1 Investments, LLC | $296.2M | 3.6x | 0.65x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Strategic buyers — operators in adjacent geographies, larger competitors, or corporate consolidators — price for synergies and capability fill. They tend to discount integration cost and overlap risk but pay above market when there's clear strategic fit (key customer relationship, license, geography, technician/professional team). Multiples are competitive with PE for fee-viable deals; below PE for sub-scale acquisitions.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to apparel businesses acquired by strategic / industry buyers. EV/EBITDA outliers outside the [0.5x, 60x] band and EV/Revenue outliers outside [0.05x, 25x] are excluded from medians. Where available, post-2018 transactions are weighted; otherwise the all-time sample is used. Deal counts shown reflect deals with disclosed financials only — total transaction count for this buyer pool is typically 2-3x larger. Full methodology
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