Where do Nike, Lululemon and Gymshark make their clothes?

None of the three owns a factory. Nike’s latest annual report says Vietnam, Cambodia and China made about 34%, 15% and 12% of Nike Brand apparel in fiscal 2026. lululemon says 7% of its products were made in Bangladesh in 2025, behind Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Gymshark publishes a factory list rather than shares, and it includes five garment factories in Bangladesh.

Where do these numbers come from?

Search results for “what manufacturer does Nike use” are full of guesses. This article uses only what each brand has published itself, with the date of each document, because a factory list from 2019 tells you little about 2026. The documents are:

• Nike: the Form 10-K annual report for fiscal 2026, the year to 31 May 2026, and the Nike Manufacturing Map, marked “data as of Jul 2026”.
• lululemon: the Form 10-K for fiscal 2025, filed on 17 March 2026, and its public supplier list dated May 2026.
• Gymshark: its 2025 Factory List, linked from its own factory list page, and its Modern Slavery Statement for FY24-25, dated December 2025.

Nike and lululemon file annual reports with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and both describe their supply base there. Gymshark is privately owned and files no such report, so it publishes factory names and locations but not how much each country makes. Where a brand has not published a figure, this article says so rather than filling the gap.

Where does Nike make its clothes?

Nike’s 10-K states that nearly all of its footwear and apparel is made outside the United States by independent contract manufacturers, many of which run several factories. For apparel, the fiscal 2026 figures are:

• As of 31 May 2026, contract manufacturers operated 321 finished goods apparel factories in 34 countries.
• Nike Brand apparel was made by 64 contract manufacturers.
• Factories in Vietnam, Cambodia and China made about 34%, 15% and 12% of Nike Brand apparel.
• Two apparel contract manufacturers each made more than 10%, and the top six together made about 54%.

Footwear is far more concentrated: 95 factories in 11 countries, with Vietnam, Indonesia and China at about 52%, 27% and 16%.

The answer to “what clothing manufacturer does Nike use?” is therefore not one company but 64, and Nike names the factories on its Manufacturing Map. When we checked the map on 22 September 2026, it showed 570 finished goods factories in 37 countries and territories across all Nike, Inc. products, footwear and equipment included, employing 1,196,879 workers. It listed no factory in Bangladesh, either for finished goods or for materials. The 10-K does not name Bangladesh either. We have not found a Nike statement explaining why, and we are not going to guess.

Where does lululemon make its clothes?

lululemon’s 10-K is direct: “We do not own or operate any manufacturing facilities.” Its figures for 2025, measured by cost, are:

• About 51 product vendors. Five of them made 47% of its products, and the largest made 15%.
• 40% of products were made in Vietnam, 18% in Cambodia, 11% in Sri Lanka, 11% in Indonesia and 7% in Bangladesh, with the rest elsewhere.
• About 65 fabric suppliers, the top five making 48% of its fabric. The fabric itself came 34% from Taiwan, 29% from China Mainland, 10% from South Korea and 10% from Vietnam.

That second list matters as much as the first. A lululemon legging sewn in Cambodia may well be made of fabric knitted in Taiwan or China. The report names its concentration in Taiwanese fabric as a geopolitical risk.

lululemon’s public supplier list, dated May 2026, names two facilities in Bangladesh. Both are Tier 1 facilities, and both sit in the Chattogram Export Processing Zone. One of them states a workforce of between 12,501 and 13,000 people. So lululemon’s 7% from Bangladesh comes from a small number of very large factories, not a wide spread of small ones.

Where does Gymshark make its clothes?

Gymshark does not publish production shares by country. What it publishes is a factory list, naming each supplier, factory, process and address, split into tiers: Tier 1 for making the finished product, Tier 2 for processes such as printing and dyeing, and Tiers 3 and 4 for fabric, trims and yarn. Counting the Tier 1 garment factories on its 2025 Factory List by the country of the factory address gives this picture:

The same list names a further three Tier 1 accessory factories in Bangladesh, including a towel maker. Bangladesh also appears lower down the chain, with Tier 3 fabric mills and Tier 4 spinning mills in Gazipur.

A count of factories is not a share of production. A 5,000-worker factory and a 50-worker one each count as one line, so this table shows spread, not volume. Gymshark’s Modern Slavery Statement for FY24-25 adds context. It lists Bangladesh among six countries it treats as higher risk, with China, Jordan, Cambodia, Egypt and Pakistan. It says it cut its Tier 1 production factories in those countries from 29 to 21 during the year, and that it is a signatory to the International Accord, under which its Tier 1 factories in Bangladesh are inspected for fire, building and electrical safety.

Nike, lululemon and Gymshark side by side

Because the measures differ, the rows are not directly comparable. What they do show is a pattern: all three rely on Vietnam first, all three spread production across many countries, and neither listed company reports any single manufacturer making most of its range.

Why doesn’t Nike appear to make clothes in Bangladesh?

People ask this because Bangladesh is the second largest supplier of apparel to the EU, after China. Eurostat figures compiled by the Istanbul Apparel Exporters’ Association put EU apparel imports from Bangladesh at €17.0 billion from January to October 2025, up 9.6% on a year earlier.

The published record only tells us what Nike’s map shows, not why. What the three brands have in common is technical sportswear: synthetic stretch fabrics and performance finishes. lululemon’s fabric, for example, comes mostly from Taiwan and China Mainland. Bangladesh’s strength has traditionally been cotton knitwear, denim and sweaters, as our country comparison explains. lululemon’s 7% and Gymshark’s five garment factories show that technical sportswear is made in Bangladesh too, but mostly in a small number of large, specialised factories, several of them in export processing zones.

If your range is performance activewear in synthetic stretch fabric, look at where the fabric comes from before you choose the country that sews it. If it is cotton jersey, fleece or denim, Bangladesh is one of the strongest places in the world to make it. Our activewear page sets out what is made here and what fabric it uses.

What can a small brand learn from these supplier lists?

• Nobody big owns the sewing lines. All three brands design, specify and control, and pay others to make. A small brand that works with a partner factory is not doing something second best; it is copying the model.
• Know which factory makes your product. These brands publish factory names and addresses. You should at least know yours, in writing, before production, and see its audit reports. Our guide to verifying factory certificates shows how to check them.
• Fabric is its own supply chain. lululemon reports its fabric origins separately from where garments are sewn, because they are different countries. Ask where your fabric is knitted or woven, since that affects price, lead time and duty rules of origin.
• Concentration is a choice. lululemon’s top five vendors made 47% of its products; Nike’s top six apparel manufacturers made about 54%. Depth with a few suppliers gives leverage and consistency; a second source gives resilience.
• Factories are shared. Comparing lululemon’s and Gymshark’s lists, one Chattogram factory appears on both. The factories that serve large brands serve several of them at once, so the brand name on a factory’s client list tells you less than its audits do.
• Near-market production has a role. Gymshark lists garment factories in Turkey, Romania, Portugal and the UK alongside Asia, the kind of split that suits quick replenishment close to European customers.

Can a small brand use the same factories?

Usually not directly, and it is worth being realistic about why. A facility that lists a workforce of more than 12,500 people is planned around the volumes of brands like these. Their lines are booked by long-term customers, and a first order of a few hundred pieces is unlikely to get attention there. Rather than chase a famous brand’s factory, look for a factory whose size matches your order, that makes your product category every day, and whose audits you can read.

That is the job of a buying house. We place each order in an audited partner factory and name it in writing before production. For t-shirts the minimum is 1,000 pieces per style. Smaller runs, from 100 pieces per style and colour, go through our small-run route. Our guide on how to find a clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh covers the rest of the search.

What to do next

Write down three things before you contact any factory: the product and its fabric, the quantity per style, and the markets you will sell into. Then compare factories on audits and product fit, not on the brands they claim to supply. When you are ready, send us your tech pack or a reference garment through the contact page, and we will tell you which kind of partner factory suits it, and why.