Awty’s Transition From Bankrupt Uniform Provider

On October 21, Dennis Uniform filed for bankruptcy and abruptly shut down nationwide including the Houston location. Suddenly, Awty lost their uniform vendor of six years without any prior notice. The school leadership worked diligently to find a new uniform provider and finally chose Risse Brothers. 

Dennis Uniform is the nation’s largest uniform manufacturer and has been in business for 104 years. They provided uniforms for around 500,000 students nationwide. 

Dennis Uniform experienced financial difficulties for months prior to closing and was unable to get the financial banking to save the company, so as a result, they were forced to file for bankruptcy and closed all sites throughout the country. 

Awty announced that Dennis Uniform shut down to parents and students. They explained that they were working on fixing the situation since they were not aware of Dennis Uniform’s financial situation before it permanently closed. During the meantime, they recommended that students should utilize the Used Uniform Store if they immediately need it. 

Awty’s leadership team established a committee to solve this issue and explore new potential uniform providers. The chief financial officer at Awty, John Murphy, was the head of this board and worked with the committee to make a plan to fix the situation.

According to John Murphy, “the plan is to identify and transition to a new provider in the near future.”

On November 26, the school’s uniform committee announced that they found a new uniform provider after a month of searching for a vendor. Awty’s new uniform provider that is replacing Dennis Uniform is Risse Brothers. 

“Risse Brothers is committed to providing high-quality uniforms and excellent service to meet the needs of our school community,” stated by the committee. 

Risse Brothers is currently working on making and supplying uniforms for Awty, and they will have the entire uniform selection available online by January next year. The company is opening a new Houston store on May 1, 2025. This location will have Awty uniforms available in-person.

The uniform committee at Awty was able to quickly fix the uniform provider problem, but this was not the first time this situation has happened. 

Before Dennis Uniform, the school used Parker School Uniforms as their vendor. However, in 2018, the company suddenly shut down, similarly to Dennis Uniform. Awty had to find a new uniform vendor, so they chose Dennis Uniform at the time. 

Even before the closure of Dennis Uniform, there were many issues with the business. Online orders would take months to arrive because of the amount of demand they had and a lack of stock. 
Anna Yi commented that, “The uniform store is really inconsistent, and it was shut down because it’s not a sustainable business. The backlog was crazy.”

This could explain why Dennis Uniform struggled financially and ultimately had to shut down. Despite this sudden closure, the leadership team at Awty was able to solve this problem and find the new uniform provider, Risse Brothers.