[11][14] While attending high school in the United States, Charney began importing Hanes and Fruit of the Loom t-shirts from the U.S. to his friends in Canada.

So far we have received positive feedback from those that have commented, and we're looking forward to hearing more points of view.Legalize LA was an immigration reform campaign conceived by Charney and promoted by American Apparel beginning in 2004.

The campaign called for the overhaul of immigration laws so as to create a legal path for undocumented workers to gain citizenship in the United States.

[1][2] In November 2008, after the passing of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages in California, Dov Charney and American Apparel created "Legalize Gay" T-shirts to hand out to protesters at rallies.

[28][non-primary source needed] In an interview with Vice.tv, Charney spoke out against the poor treatment of fashion workers in developing countries and refers to the practices as "slave labor" and "death trap manufacturing."

Charney proposed a "Global Garment Workers Minimum Wage" and discussed many of the inner workings of the modern fast fashion industry practices that creates dangerous factory conditions and disasters.

Charney was able to sidestep the initial lockdown measures and keep employees from unemployment benefits by reopening as an essential business making and selling masks.

These claims forced employees to go through mandatory arbitration, an internal process, and prevented lawsuits alleging workplace abuse from entering the public court system.

The termination letter given to Charney alleged that he had engaged in conduct that repeatedly put himself in a position to be sued by numerous former employees for claims that include harassment, discrimination, and assault.

[6] Paula Schneider, who took over as company CEO, stated that Charney was fired for violating sexual harassment and anti-discrimination policies and for misuse of corporate assets.

In court filings by his attorneys, it was alleged that the American Apparel CFO had planned to oust Charney, and that he was persuaded to sign a disastrous settlement that left him with no job and no control of the company, despite being the largest shareholder.

[32] Following his suspension as CEO in the summer of 2014, Charney teamed up with the Standard General hedge fund to buy stocks of the company to attempt a takeover.

Business Inside stated that Charney was unable to install a mature operational infrastructure to keep the company running smoothly, and didn't establish management bench strength for American Apparel.

[38] Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Charney repurposed his business operations to help increased demand for PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).

[39] According to the Los Angeles Times, Charney spotted shortages as early as February and this is when his apparel company began to consider manufacturing face masks.

[40] Charney was interviewed in March 2020 by a number of media outlets, speaking about his desire to turn Los Angeles Apparel into a medical equipment manufacturer during the pandemic.

Charney was able to sidestep the initial lockdown measures and keep employees from unemployment benefits by reopening as an essential business making and selling masks.

[47] Due to employees signing documents revoking legal claims against Charney or the company, many lawsuits were thrown out by the courts and had to go through internal arbitration at American Apparel.