45 Years of Service: Thank You, Laura

Darn Tough Vermont was founded in 2004, twenty years ago. Even before then though, we were making socks in Vermont as Cabot Hosiery Mills.

There's a handful of people still here who witnessed the birth of Darn Tough all those years ago, people here from day one that are still coming into work day-in and day-out. Of those people, no one has been here longer than Laura.

Laura's about to begin a well-earned retirement. There are not sufficient words to express what she's meant.. but our President & CEO Ric Cabot took a moment to honor her with a company-wide email. With their permission, we're sharing that email, a public acknowledgement of Laura's incredible impact on our journey.

For Laura

45 years.

Almost half a century.

Any way you slice it; it’s a good part of someone’s life.

Cabot Hosiery Mills opened in 1978. Laura Baker, then Bernardini, now Laura Ducas, started a year later. I started in 1989, and Laura was there.

Back in those days we ran mechanical, belt driven machines. Socks came out of the machines connected in tubes, and the socks needed to be separated by hand, and then the open toe also seamed by hand. Laura was there. Her mom and sister were there too, for that matter, helping to seam production.

We ran 84 needle, 72 needle, and 60 needle machines. We ran 132 needle and 176 needle machines, and Laura was there.

In the early days, we knit for other mills and a few well-known designers, and Laura was there.

We had a dye house and dyed our own socks back then. We might have had 45 people, and everything was done in one building, the old mill at 35 North Main Street. Laura was there.

Our private label business took off in the 90's. We made socks for the Gap, Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch, Old Navy, and Bass Shoe, to name a few. Laura was there.

When things got tough and our customers moved their production offshore, Laura was there, too.

We were down to one shift and 35 people in about 2003, and Laura was there.

Darn Tough Vermont was born around that time. We started to grow, and the military came calling with huge contracts for the Marines and Special Forces. We kept growing, and Laura was there.

We bought more and more machines, and it was all we could do to keep up with demand. We kept growing, and we kept hiring. Anything to make more socks. Laura was there.

Laura was there when we grew into 2 mills. When our machine and head count topped 400, Laura was there.

Save for our first year, there isn't a time in our history when Laura wasn't there. She held jobs in production, administration, and finance. She worked most if not all sock sales. Nothing was ever too much for her.

Congratulations and thank you, Laura, for spending a good part of your life with us and on nearly half a century in "the hosiery." Thank you for your help in getting us where we are today.

We wish you well in your retirement.

We will miss you.

With love and respect.

— Ric Cabot, President & CEO