(machine clicks)
- I remember being aware even like at a very young age,
that, ya know, things were kind of tough for our family.
At that time my parents just starting,
they just had a few machines.
I remember being like, "how does that work?"
I just knew how important it was for our family,
those socks.
Making socks felt very much like,
just who we are, ya know?
It seemed like every single mill was closing around us.
And,
I became aware at that time
of the importance of supporting
everything that I possibly could that's made in America.
(atmospheric music)
My mom and dad named the business
after my younger sister, Emi.
Her name is Emily and G for Gina.
When I was a teenager my parents,
every time I would go into a store,
the first thing that they would do
is run over to the sock racks.
And turn it around,
and see who made the socks.
And where they came from.
And a lot of times it said made in Fort Payne, Alabama.
My sister and I were so annoyed.
We're like, "do we have to look at socks like every time?"
But now I know why they did that,
because I do the same thing now, so. (giggles)
Fort Payne, Alabama was known
as the Sock Capital of the World.
One out of every
eight pairs of socks
manufactured globally came from
our small town in Northeast Alabama.
Kids at school, their parents either
worked in the mill and had for years,
or their parents had a mill,
or had some sock machines.
There was just this insane buzz
and energy
in town.
(train whistle blows)
And that was because of the hosiery business.
Not just people making socks,
but people selling yarn,
and all of the other businesses involved
that supported the hosiery industry.
My parents were finally able to purchase their own home.
And I remember that being like a really special moment.
I was a business major,
and,
I did
one of my class projects on the mill.
So I think that is when my wheels started turning.
But there wasn't a job that made sense
for me to come home to.
I knew I wanted to be a part,
just didn't know how at that time.
(atmospheric music)
But during that time things were changing in the industry.
In 2005,
when the CAFTA,
Central America Free Trade Agreement was signed.
Slowly but surely after that,
about, you know, 100 and 40 plus mills
really began to shutdown,
because of production moving to Central America.
And, you know, you can't help but wonder,
"when are we gonna close?"
I mean, that was scary,
and, ya know,
things got quiet.
(atmospheric music)
I knew people that were losing their jobs.
There were friends whose parents had mills,
like my parents,
and they were closing.
My dad's brothers lost their mills.
And,
I felt,
I felt alone.
I felt like we were alone,
and I felt like America wasn't
aware.
Not that they didn't care
that, you know, that manufacturing jobs were going away,
but just that there wasn't awareness out there.
(atmospheric music)
When I graduated, I looked to other things.
My first job out of college
was working at a ski shop in Birmingham.
And then I got into real estate,
probably a year after that.
It wasn't for me,
but I want to be excited about what I do for a living,
and I want it to matter to me.
Finally one day,
you know, it just kind of all,
it literally
hit me.
So traditionally in Fort Payne,
you knit a sock for other companies.
You knit it,
and then you seam the toe,
and then you ship it out the door,
and you're finished.
Being really young,
and right out of college, looking at socks.
You know, how could we
start something
on our own.
Not just make socks for other people,
but make socks for ourselves.
That we don't have to worry
that our business will be taken away.
From that thought to becoming in my mid-twenties,
extremely passionate about organic living.
To just wanting to do something for a living
that just really mattered to me every single day.
So I think my dad and my mom were probably super surprised
when I came to the them with my idea
of making organic cotton socks.
They were like, "what?"
"No."
(acoustic guitar)
(drink pouring)
- Thank you.
(Gina laughs)
- I remember talking to you about it briefly.
At that time,
the
industry
was beginning to,
tank a little bit.
- Yeah. - And I knew,
you know, y'all were having struggles
with the business at that point.
I remember thinking,
"Why can't we make socks for these people?
Do you remember me talking to you about that?
- Yeah, we didn't think outside that box,
plus, you know we weren't set up to do packaging, and.
- Right - You know,
bleaching, and dyeing,
and, you know, all that.
Well first off, I didn't know anything about organic.
Anything, let alone organic socks.
(Gina laughs)
We talked about it, and thought,
"you know, that may be something we could start."
I Just really thought it was time to try something new.
- Yeah. - You know?
- So in
2008,
we decided that we would
launch our own brand,
and that it would be a line of,
very simple, you know, athletic,
and kind of basic, organic cotton socks.
And it's called Zkano.
(upbeat music)
Starting a brand, it was a hundred percent different
than what, you know, my parents background was.
I remember one of my first thought was,
"We need a logo."
Then it was like okay, "what next?"
"Packaging, yes, yes, we need to get packaging."
"Wait, who does that?"
"We need barcodes. I don't know how to do that."
We would learn one little thing,
and then it's like, okay what's next?
We'd figure that out,
and we'd learn it,
and that's how it was every step of the way.
(upbeat music)
And it was important me that,
because our socks are made in the USA,
I wanted our cotton to be grown in the U.S. as well.
I wanted to know the people who grew our cotton.
After some work, we found a grower in Texas.
And I know our farmer.
(upbeat music)
(machines clanking)
In 2013
we launched
another brand
which is called Little River Sock Mill.
It's named after Little River Canyon,
A national preserve that is in our backyard in Fort Payne.
With our Zkano line we had probably,
somewhere around,
50 to
80 active skews per season,
and with Little River we now have,
well over 300.
(machines clanking)
We're makers of this.
We don't just source this out.
We make our socks.
(acoustic guitar)
There's some challenges there.
I feel personally spread pretty thinly.
Times are always tough.
(acoustic guitar)
I'm in Fort Payne, two to three days a week,
sometimes more depending on the season.
I go to my parent's house on Monday mornings,
and then I come home to Birmingham
on Wednesday evenings.
(acoustic guitar)
I'm married, and, you know,
it can be hard to leave your husband some weeks.
I've only been married for coming up on five years.
My husband and I haven't started a family yet.
And I'm, at this point in my life,
I'm not exactly sure how to start that next step.
I've started these brands from the ground up,
and as silly as it may
sound,
they kind of feel like children to me.
And they mean, like, everything to me.
I guess I'm a little afraid, you know,
starting a family means that I have to take
some of my focus off of something that means so much to me.
And that's a little scary, yeah.
I can't quite get my head around that yet.
(keyboard typing)
Our employees are very much like family to us.
We have a few that have been
with us since the very beginning.
They all love it as much as I do.
You know, they all want to see it succeed.
And everybody knows what needs
to be done in order to make something right.
I'm happy to say that in the next
few weeks we will be
starting
construction
on a little sock shop at our mill.
I love that it's gonna be at our mill,
because, you know, it just so speaks to like who we are.
It means a lot to me that we are still
making socks at my family's business in Fort Payne, Alabama.
It means a lot that,
I'm in some small way helping to, you know,
carry on that sock heritage in town.
(uplifting orchestral music)
And I feel really good about it.
I'm lucky.
(uplifting orchestral music)
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