Gildan Activewear Launches New Corporate Citizenship Website

(3BL Media) Montreal - March 15, 2012 - Gildan Activewear Inc. announced today that it has launched a new website dedicated exclusively to its corporate citizenship practices. The new website – Gildan Genuine Stewardship – includes the Company’s eighth consecutive Corporate Citizenship Report and contains information about its sustainability programs and initiatives, which have been developed around four core pillars: People well-being, Environmental protection, Community engagement, and Product sustainability. The website is available at www.genuinegildan.com.

The website was developed according to the disclosure and reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G3.1 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and the pilot version of the Apparel and Footwear Sector Supplement. GRI’s guidelines, which were developed by a diverse group of international stakeholders, are designed to enhance the quality, credibility, transparency, and comparability of the information in the report. GRI reviewed Gildan’s reporting for 2010 and 2011 and concluded that it fulfills the requirement of Application Level A. The Application Levels – A, B or C – indicate the extent to which the Guidelines have been applied in a company’s reporting and communicate which parts of the Reporting Framework have been addressed.

“We decided to centralize our corporate citizenship information on a web platform in order to provide our many stakeholders with more timely and user-friendly access to information on our initiatives and accomplishments in this area,” explained Peter Iliopoulos, Gildan’s Senior Vice-President of Public and Corporate Affairs. “With our new web-based reporting platform, which is available in English, French, and Spanish, we are now able to effectively and promptly share our messages, progress, and achievements with each of our stakeholders in a more modern and dynamic format.”

Gildan is continually striving to improve its global program and is proud to report the following achievements for 2011:

People

• Provided close to one million hours of employee training
• Continued the implementation of the Ergonomic Culture Maturity Model (ECMM), a world-class ergonomics program developed by the Ergonomic Center of North Carolina (ECNC) at its manufacturing facilities
• Reduced the injury and severity rates by 24% and 5% respectively
• Performed 63 social monitoring audits, including at least one visit to each of its production and third party contractor facilities
• Approximately 47,000 medical visits by our employees at our on-site medical clinics in Central America and in the Dominican Republic

Environment

• Completed the construction of its third biomass steam generation system
• Decreased its total greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 13%
• Recycled 92% of its total waste
• Reduced its waste sent to landfills by 28%

Community

• Donated more than $100,000 in scholarship grants to the Instituto Politécnico Centroamericano (IPC) in Honduras
• Donated $100,000 to Homeboy Industries, the winning charity of the first  "I Support . . ." program
• Employees continued to show their commitment to their communities by volunteering in various activities at local schools, foster homes, nursing homes, and shelters, as well as in fundraising and reforestation events

Product

• Expanded its recycling efforts by introducing a cotton waste recycling project
• Renewed its Oeko-Tex^® Standard 100 certification for all of its Gildan-branded products manufactured in Central America and the Caribbean Basin
   

About Gildan

Gildan is a marketer and globally low-cost vertically-integrated manufacturer of quality branded basic apparel. Gildan^® is the leading activewear brand in the screenprint market in the U.S. and Canada. The brand is continuing to grow in Europe, Mexico and the Asia-Pacific region. The Company sells T-shirts, sport shirts and fleece as undecorated blanks, which are subsequently decorated by screenprinters with designs and logos. The Company is also one of the world’s largest suppliers of athletic, casual and dress socks sold to a broad spectrum of retailers in the U.S. Gildan markets its sock products under a diversified portfolio of company-owned brands, including Gold Toe^®, PowerSox^®, SilverToe^®, Auro^®, All Pro^®, GT^®, and the Gildan^® brand. In addition, the Company supplies selective national retailer brands. The Company is also the exclusive U.S. sock licensee for the Under Armour^® and New Balance^® brands. In addition to socks, the Company is pursuing a strategy to grow its sales of branded underwear and activewear products in the U.S. retail market. With approximately 30,000 employees worldwide, Gildan owns and operates highly efficient, large-scale, environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing facilities in Central America and the Caribbean Basin and has begun the development of a manufacturing hub in Bangladesh to support its planned growth in Asia and Europe. More information on the Company can be found on Gildan’s website at www.gildan.com and more information on its corporate citizenship practices can be found at www.genuinegildan.com.

CONTACT:

Media Relations

Geneviève Gosselin

Director, Corporate Communications

Tel: (514) 343-8814

Email: ggosselin@gildan.com