But particulars of production are critical. Neuville Industries Inc. Labor makes up perhaps 20 percent, maybe a bit more, of costs, he estimates. That limits the savings from going abroad for lower wages. At Neuville's Hildebran, N.C., factory, computer-controlled machines whir with little human intervention, pulling yarn off large spools and knitting it into socks. But the few workers in the knitting room are critical.
Fixers are a key reason socks are still made in the United States.
The socks business isn't cut off from the global economy, though. When low unemployment made even unskilled labor scarce, a wave of immigrants arrived. Neuville relies heavily on the Hmong who fled Laos and resettled in the rural North Carolina hills. Renfro Corp. relies on Hispanic immigrants. This confluence of forces bought domestic socks producers time, but there are signs of the inevitable.