A brief history of the Sock Monkey
Children and adults alike have enjoyed sock monkeys for over 100 years.
John Nelson immigrated to the USA from Sweden in 1852, stepping off the train in Rockford and patenting the first sock knitting machine in 1869. Incorporated in 1880, The Nelson Knitting Co. was the first world wide to manufacture socks this way.
These sturdy and comfortable work-socks were worn mainly by farmers and factory workers. Nelson Knitting was an innovator in the mass market work sock field, creating a loom that enabled socks to be manufactured without a seam in the heel. They were so popular that the market was flooded with imitators, and socks of this style were generally known as the slang term “Rockfords”.
The Red Heel® socks were first manufactured in 1890 by the Nelson Knitting Mills in Rockford, Illinois.
During the depression (the original crafter is unknown), mothers began crafting these socks into toys for their children; monkeys, elephants, dogs, etc. Old rags, hose, kapok, cotton, and even dried grain were used as stuffing. A worn out pair of father’s work socks were quickly darned and given new life at a time when luxuries were not something to be had.
In 1920, with the surge in the sock monkey’s personality, Nelson began including an instruction sheet for making the monkey with each pair of their socks. And in 1932 to assure it’s customers that they were buying “Original Rockfords”, they added the red heel stripe.
This red heel gave the monkeys their distinctive ionic mouth.
Nelson Knitting Mills was purchased by Fox River Mills in 1992. Fox River Mills continues the tradition of including the original directions with the purchase of every pair of Red Heel® socks even today.
(or)
For an estimated twenty thousand years, sock monkeys and humans have existed in a symbiotic relationship with one another.
This relationship began with the monkeys’ search for their favorite food, lint, which was produced in vast quantities in the prehistoric dryers of humans. Lured by the lint, hungry sock monkeys began to wander into laundry rooms. Humans did not like lint, so they encouraged the monkeys to stay. Slowly over thousands of years they adapted to living in our homes. The monkeys lost their ability to hunt and can no longer live in the wild. Their ferocious lint grabbing claws have atrophied into plush little stumps.
In fact, today’s sock monkeys rarely even move.
Sources:
http://www.wildaboutsockmonkeys.com/history/html
http://www.supersockmonkey.com/catalog/history.html
http://www.sock-monkey.com/sockmonkey.html
http://media.www.spectatornews.com/media/storage/paper218/news/2007/11/05/Showcase/History.Of.The.Sock.Monkey-3076934.shtml
John Nelson immigrated to the USA from Sweden in 1852, stepping off the train in Rockford and patenting the first sock knitting machine in 1869. Incorporated in 1880, The Nelson Knitting Co. was the first world wide to manufacture socks this way.
These sturdy and comfortable work-socks were worn mainly by farmers and factory workers. Nelson Knitting was an innovator in the mass market work sock field, creating a loom that enabled socks to be manufactured without a seam in the heel. They were so popular that the market was flooded with imitators, and socks of this style were generally known as the slang term “Rockfords”.
The Red Heel® socks were first manufactured in 1890 by the Nelson Knitting Mills in Rockford, Illinois.
During the depression (the original crafter is unknown), mothers began crafting these socks into toys for their children; monkeys, elephants, dogs, etc. Old rags, hose, kapok, cotton, and even dried grain were used as stuffing. A worn out pair of father’s work socks were quickly darned and given new life at a time when luxuries were not something to be had.
In 1920, with the surge in the sock monkey’s personality, Nelson began including an instruction sheet for making the monkey with each pair of their socks. And in 1932 to assure it’s customers that they were buying “Original Rockfords”, they added the red heel stripe.
This red heel gave the monkeys their distinctive ionic mouth.
Nelson Knitting Mills was purchased by Fox River Mills in 1992. Fox River Mills continues the tradition of including the original directions with the purchase of every pair of Red Heel® socks even today.
(or)
For an estimated twenty thousand years, sock monkeys and humans have existed in a symbiotic relationship with one another.
This relationship began with the monkeys’ search for their favorite food, lint, which was produced in vast quantities in the prehistoric dryers of humans. Lured by the lint, hungry sock monkeys began to wander into laundry rooms. Humans did not like lint, so they encouraged the monkeys to stay. Slowly over thousands of years they adapted to living in our homes. The monkeys lost their ability to hunt and can no longer live in the wild. Their ferocious lint grabbing claws have atrophied into plush little stumps.
In fact, today’s sock monkeys rarely even move.
Sources:
http://www.wildaboutsockmonkeys.com/history/html
http://www.supersockmonkey.com/catalog/history.html
http://www.sock-monkey.com/sockmonkey.html
http://media.www.spectatornews.com/media/storage/paper218/news/2007/11/05/Showcase/History.Of.The.Sock.Monkey-3076934.shtml
