The lesson here is, if you find an item of clothing that you really like, buy another one right away. Keep one in reserve or rotate them to make them last longer.
American companies that rely on foreign suppliers are constantly looking for a better deal and "quality fade" may just signal a switch to a cheaper vendor, or the same vendor going cheap at the end of a contract.
The other problem is that people inside companies feel that they have to be constantly dinking around with stuff to justify their jobs. The dinking doesn't always result in a better product.
