One of the memories seared into my brain of growing up in the early ’80s was my dad wearing tube socks. He wasn’t a roller skating wizard or a basketball player, but when he would take me to the zoo or the lake, he had a weekend wardrobe that consisted of shorts that were way too short for any gentleman to be caught in today, matched with Gold Toe brand tube socks and a T-shirt. During the week it was back to black socks and suits, but one thing that always stuck out in my mind was the gold toe on all of his socks. I remember him getting new pairs in his Christmas stocking, and there was that logo on a ’70s-brown background. I never really thought of the brand much since then, so when I received an offer to meet the team behind the company, I was eager to learn more.
To give some context, Gold Toe’s history is far richer than tube socks. Presidents, astronauts, and actors, as well as millions of American men women and children, have worn the brand since the early 20th century.
German immigrants founded Great American Knitting Mills in Pennsylvania in 1919. When a cousin of one founder’s wife later joined the company, he used his engineering background to develop the “linenized toe.” Linen proved to be significantly stronger than cotton and more resistant to fraying and holes (which was a big deal during the Great Depression). In 1934, a department store executive mentioned that consumers were unable to distinguish the sock with the linenized toe from others. In response, Great American Knitting Mills began wrapping a gold thread around the linen to differentiate its sock from the competition. The Gold Toe sock was born, and since that time, Americans everywhere have been asking for “the ones with the gold toe.”
Today, the brand has expanded to include apparel offerings, such as underwear and T-shirts. Gold Toe is proud of their innovations, like AquaFX moisture control, Perfect Fit spandex, comfort seams, and reinforcement yarns. Since Gildan, a Canadian company, bought Gold Toe a few years ago, their offices are now based in Charleston, South Carolina. I made the drive out to their HQ and met an energetic, young team of men and women who are injecting great design into the brand, from plaids and polka dots to hula girls and Fairisle prints.
New for fall 2017, Gold Toe has introduced Fresh 24/7, a unique approach to reactive odor control technology that has been incorporated into multiple Gold Toe men’s styles. Fresh 24/7 works on a microbial level to prevent odor at the source and not only helps keep your feet fresh, it also protects shoes from being ruined by foot odor.
But the very best news? They want to give one lucky reader 52 pairs of socks! So enter below and feel free to use the old quote, “Sock it to me!”
