Monkey Sock Around
by LeeAnn McLaneGoetz McLaneGoetzStudioLLCcom
Title
Monkey Sock Around
Artist
LeeAnn McLaneGoetz McLaneGoetzStudioLLCcom
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Monkey sock Around
Michigan
John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant to the United States, patented the sock-knitting machine in 1869, and began manufacturing work socks in Rockford, Illinois in 1890. The iconic sock monkeys made from red-heeled socks emerged at the earliest in 1932, the year the Nelson Knitting Company added the trademarked red heel to its product. In the early years, the red-heeled sock was marketed as "De-Tec-Tip". Nelson Knitting was an innovator in the mass market work sock field, creating a loom that enabled socks to be manufactured without seams in the heel. These seamless work socks were so popular that the market was soon flooded with imitators, and socks of this type were known under the generic term "Rockfords". Nelson Knitting added the red heel "de-tec-tip" to assure its customers that they were buying "original Rockfords". This red heel gave the monkeys their distinctive mouth. During the Great Depression, American crafters first made sock monkeys out of worn-out Rockford Red Heel Socks.
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November 26th, 2011
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Comments (4)
LeeAnn McLaneGoetz McLaneGoetzStudioLLCcom
Thank you Elisabeth Ibeh for featuring Monkey sock by LeeAnn McLaneGoetz McLaneGoetzStudioLLC.com
Kym Backland
LeeAnn, I enjoy your work very much. I love sock monkey stuff so much, so I clicked on this. I appreicate you posting the story about the Nelson Knitting Company story. I didn't know this, so this was a much added surprise to read this.
LeeAnn McLane-Goetz
Around 1951, the Nelson Knitting company discovered that their socks were being used to make monkey dolls. This company became involved in a dispute over the design patent on the sock monkey pattern. They were awarded the patent in 1955, and began including the pattern with every pair of socks. The sock monkey doll was then used in promotional campaigns celebrating the widespread application of their product by inventive homemakers in the field of monkey manufacturing.
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