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"The Sock Queen of Alabama"
... Fashion & Style ... March 29th, 2016
Fort Payne, Alabama --
“I was 12 when my parents started making socks,” Gina said. “And the realization that our family business might close made me mad.”
Click here
for NY Times article.
Her mother added: “She absolutely loves what she does. She’s on fire.”
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![]() Alabama mill comes back! Faces the challenge head on. American Made Hero! |
Click here
for February 2011 Wall Street Journal article.
Alabama Sock Town Suffers as Cotton Soars
"FORT PAYNE, Ala.- This rural town was once nicknamed the "Official Sock Capital of the World ." A decade ago, one of every
eight pairs of socks manufactured globally came from Fort Payne's more than 125 sock mills."
In 2009, he and Gina, now 31, launched a line of socks made from organic cotton , called zkano. The socks are sold at
several retailers in Alabama, Tennessee and Washington, and Ms. Locklear also sells them at some local farmer's markets.
When shoppers learn where she's from, she says, they ask, "Wasn't that the sock capital of the world?"
Most U.S. sock manufacturers—here and elsewhere across the South—have moved production overseas in the past decade,
lured by cheaper labor and lower real-estate costs. Now, with record-high cotton prices pressuring profit margins,
Gildan-Prewett, the town's largest remaining sock manufacturer, plans to close four mills here by April ..."
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At one time, Fort Payne made half of the socks produced in the USA. Today, the industry is all but gone. Gina’s parents Terry and Regina had established Emi-G Knitting in 1990, and two years ago, Gina found herself wanting to do something to help support her family's small business so she incorporated her love of green living by creating Zkano & its' expanding offering of 100% organic fashion socks into her family's business & its' growing & expanding! |
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Creator of American Made Heroes. Above event at Boston's Faneuil Hall |
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