Thread: Sock makers begin publicity campaign

Greensboro News-Record


Sock makers begin publicity campaign


May 5, 2006
By Donald W. Patterson
Staff Writer



A small group of North Carolina mills has started a campaign to get consumers to buy American-made socks.

The first of what organizers hope will be numerous billboards promoting that idea has gone up in downtown Greensboro.

The billboard shows Uncle Sam holding a pair of socks under the words "Save Our Sock Industry."

And it urges consumers to look for the "Made-in-USA" label when they shop.

"We sorely need more economic patriotism in this country," said Jim Schollaert, a Washington consultant for the mills that paid for the campaign. "Our sock industry would be a good place for a grass-roots patriotic movement to start."

Schollaert said sock-making is the largest apparel sector left in the United States.

But he said employment and production numbers are declining rapidly as imports from countries such as China, India and Pakistan rise.

Domestic sock makers still hold about 30 percent of the U.S. market, compared to 73 percent in 2000.

"These are not boom times in the sock industry," Schollaert said.



His campaign will focus on North Carolina because it is the nation's leading sock-producing state and because it has suffered significant job losses in the textile and apparel industry in recent years.

"If the people in North Carolina can't connect the dots, as hard as they have been hit, then no one will," Schollaert said. "If this touches a nerve, we will probably try to get them up all over."

Campaign organizers say they're encouraged by a new law that requires a country-of-origin label on the front of sock packages.

"We think the consuming public is very much aware of what is happening to the manufacturing industry of this country," said Nim Harris, president of Pickett Hosiery in Burlington. "We think their mood is changing toward buying American-made products."


Organizers contend imported socks cost only pennies less than ones made domestically but they do little to support middle class jobs, health benefits and retirement plans.

"There is still an advantage to buying American and it is not all related to price points," said Darrell Frye, chief financial officer at Harriss & Covington Hosiery Mills in High Point. "It is about our community."

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or donpatterson@news-record.com

Buy products that are made in the USA..... but are the USA made products, made by Americans?

Good question.