Founded by J. Spencer Love in Burlington, North Carolina in 1923, the company is a subsidiary of Elevate Textiles and has operations in the United States and China.

In early 1924 Love began construction on the Pioneer Plant and a mill village of 70 houses known as Piedmont Heights.

[2][3] The operation initially produced cotton products without much success, but the company's situation improved once Love adopted rayon as the mill's fabric for manufacture shortly after it had been introduced to the Southern market.

Love acquired faltering textile mills across central North Carolina and fitted them with new looms that could process rayon.

[6] During World War II Burlington Mills sold nylon parachute cloth to the United States government.

[6] In 1961 Fortune listed Burlington Industries as the 48th largest American corporation, with sales of $913 million and 62,000 employees in and outside of the country.

Burlington's management borrowed $2.4 billion from Morgan Stanley to stop it and purchase the company through a leveraged buyout.

[14] The following year Ross merged Burlington with the Cone Mills Corporation to form the International Textile Group (ITG).

[15][10] ITG transformed into Elevate Textiles (a component of Platinum Equity) in January 2019, remaining the parent corporation of Burlington.

[19] In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled in Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth that employers were responsible if a supervisor creates a hostile work environment for an employee.