DeFeet International Inc.: From Defeat to Victory in Hildebran NC!

DeFeet International Inc.: From Defeat to Victory!

Hildebran NC-based sock company has been honored as 2011 Business North Carolina’s Small Business of the Year! Coming back from tremendous adversity, beginning with a fire that destroyed the facility ten years ago, Defeet’s honor is, according to competition judge Doug Slakewicz, ”a great example of a company keeping its work in North Carolina.”

The twenty-year-old company was breezing along until the facility caught fire in 2001. Devastating as that was, an addition that was still under construction was spared. DeFeet founder and president Shane Cooper explained, “We put everything we had into this company back then, and we put even more in after the fire.” Too proud to declare bankruptcy, Cooper and his team persevered through determination typical of textile workers in this part of the country. That and the conviction that “our product was way better than anybody’s on the market.

Athletes, sales reps, and DeFeet employees rallied behind the company, even when 9 months of manufacturing inactivity forced some retailers to go to other brands. Nevertheless, DeFeet International Inc. would not admit defeat.

This even though in 2005, disaster hit again, when the area flooded and a retaining wall at the plant caved in, allowing water to pour in. Despite this second blow, the company came back, and the last three years have been profitable, allowing it to grow and invest in machinery.

Cooper’s belief in keeping jobs in the United States, and most recently almost entirely in Hildebran, belie his loyalty to his company. He prides himself on producing socks in the U.S. with locally sourced materials, focusing on clean, environmentally-friendly manufacturing. Not wanting to take credit himself, he allowed the company to enter the competition to honor his employees and give the company the “lift” it deserves after years of struggle. Now that news of the award has spread, the company’s website has seen increase traffic, and cycling publications such as Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, Mountain Bike Action, and Pez Cycling News have helped pass on the good news!

Check these incredible socks out: http://www.defeet.com/ . Made in the USA!