Obituaries : Joseph Haggar; Founder of Apparel Firm

Joseph Marion Haggar Sr., the Lebanese immigrant who founded the Haggar Apparel Co., the nation’s largest manufacturer of men’s slacks, sport coats and suits, died Tuesday at a hospital here.

Haggar, who may have coined the word “slacks,” was 94.

Haggar founded his company in 1926, 19 years after coming to the United States, and was honorary chairman of the board at the time of his death.

Haggar Apparel, which added a line of women’s clothing three years ago, was credited with such innovations as “wash ‘n’ wear” slacks in 1958, permanent press slacks in 1965 and “double knit” slacks in 1968.

Haggar also pioneered the assembly line manufacture of clothing, as well as standard sizes for men’s clothing.

“Joe Haggar pioneered the pants business in Dallas (and) built the largest pants manufacturer in North America, if not the world,” said Stanley Marcus, chairman emeritus of Neiman-Marcus.

Kept an Interest

Known to employees and business associates as “Mr. Jim” and “The Chief,” Haggar continued to go to the company headquarters in Dallas daily until last May, even though he had turned over management to his children and grandchildren years earlier.

Haggar was born in the village of Jazzin, Lebanon, on Dec. 20, 1892. His father was killed when he was 2 and he left his impoverished family at age 13 to join an older sister in Mexico. Two years later he went to New Orleans, where he worked at odd jobs. He later moved to St. Louis, where he entered the clothing business as a sales clerk at a dry goods store.

He developed his “one-price policy” of selling clothing at the lowest possible price for the lowest commission, saying that “fast nickels are better than slow dimes.”

He moved to Dallas in 1921 and was a traveling salesman of overalls across Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico for five years before opening his own garment-making business with four employees and two sewing machines. Haggar Apparel now employs 7,000 people in 16 plants in Texas, Oklahoma, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.