Foot Fetish in Fort Payne

The achievements of the Prewettfamily are a good example of the pioneerspirit that has helped Fort Payneto thrive through both good times andbad. The city was incorporated in thelate 1880s and became the county seatfor DeKalb County. It was during thattime that Fort Payne experienced whathistorians have dubbed “the boomyears,” since coal and iron ore werediscovered in the area. Many of thecity’s most beautiful historic buildingswere constructed during the nextdecade, including the Fort PayneOpera House and the Fort PayneDepot. After the boom went bust, theAbove: Prewett's staff chemist checks andanalyzes dye formulas while automatedpackaging machines are loaded (top).city began its economic turnaroundand got back on its feet (punintended) as a result of the burgeoninghosiery industry. Although the hosierymills remain the city’s largestemployer, Hancock reports thatDeKalb County ranks eighth in thestate in the number of manufacturingcompanies, and the area has a solidbase of diversified industry.As they have in all parts of theU.S., some Fort Payne jobs have beenlost to foreign competition. Prewettwill close its Wee Socks division inApril. CEO Bobby Cole says PrewettMills “is still focused” on keepingmanufacturing jobs in the Fort Paynearea and “will do so when at all possible.”Cole said that out of the 10largest hosiery companies in the country,Prewett is the last to move to offshoreproduction.“Fort Payne can credit its realgrowth to the hosiery industry and, ina large portion, to V.I. Prewett,” Hancocksays. “Prewett founded hishosiery business with the idea thateveryone involved was workingtogether for the betterment of thecommunity. He always said that hispeople were everything — they werehis biggest asset and his best investment.Whenever he came up with anidea for manufacturing, shipping, ordistribution, he would share it withthe other mills in the area. He used tohold meetings once a month to discussany concerns that impacted thehosiery business, and everyone wouldwork together to come up with solutions.”Durham agrees, adding, “We have avery unusual industry standard in FortPayne, and it has servedour community well.Competition is almostnon-existent. There isa lot of camaraderie, ofback-and-forth swappingbetween mills. Ifone mill has accepted alarge contract andfinds itself in need ofadditional socks tofill that contract,they will call a millacross town to help.All the mills work togetherto help each other. This cooperativeattitude in the hosiery industry here isthe real backbone of our economy. Itis a very unique situation.”This supportive philosophy isreflected in the company creed ofPrewett Mills, written by V.I. PrewettJr. in the early days of the companyand still adhered to today. In it, thefounders of the company acknowledgethat their business owes the majorityof its success its employees. The creedstates, in part, that they believe inGod, country, family, financialintegrity, hard work, and their profession.Perhaps the conclusion of thecreed expresses it best: “The ingredientwhich makes a company dynamicis not the fantastic performance of itsmachinery, but the dedicated andenergetic work of its people. Peopleare everything. They’re your biggestasset and the best thing you can investin. All of us owe a real debt of gratitudeto those pioneers who worked inthe garage and laid the solid foundationson which this company wasbuilt.”■Spring 2005 23