I recently ordered several Charissimas from the Cannon/Fieldcrest outlet and also from Linensource.
The Charissimas from the Cannon/Fieldcrest outlet were "irregulars", but I could not find anything wrong with them. I inspected them carefully, and could find no defects.
Five of the six Charissimas from Linensource also had no defects. One had a very noticable defect (the middle of the towel had a 1/8 in or so section with no loops, just backing- in other words, a line was running through the center of the towel)
Now I am wondering: are these towels really irregular? I can't imagine that it is terribly diffuclt to make towels. There can't be too many irregulars in a given production run.
My suspicion is that we are usually getting perfect towels at irregular prices. I can think of several reasons for this. 1) A towel is made of a very cheap material- cotton thread. there is probably something like $1.00 or $2.00 worth of material in a given bath towel. The towels are made on macine mills. The amortized cost of the machine, per towel, is probably something like $1.50. These numbers are just estimates- I know nothing about manufacturing- actually, my numbers may well be too high. Labor, utilities, administrative costs, rent for the warehouse, etc- add another $1.00 to $2.00. Our total production cost is now $3.50-$5.50. The "irregular" towels sell for $9.99. That price still yields a very healthy profit per towel.
There are certain people (myself included) who simply will not pay the full retail price for the Charissimas. They will buy something else instead. Actually, I would pay retail for car towels, but I would not for bath towels- I value my paint more than my own skin.

Once I discovered the outlet, however, I did order several Charissimas to use as bath towles. Therefore, by offering "irregular" Charissimas, they have captured sales that they would not otherwise have had. It's not like they "lost out" on the retail price- I would not have paid it; I would have bought a cheaper towel from someone else instead. But by offering towels as "irregulars", they are capturing my business.
If a production run of towels does not result in a sufficient number of irregulars to satisfy demand, therefore, it makes perfect sense for Cannon/Fieldcrest to sell regular, perfect towels as irregulars. They are still turning a profit, and are gaining customers like me who will only buy irregulars.