This icon of American childhood would not have been possible without the Nelson Knitting Company, which created the first no-seam socks during the 19th century (in Rockford, Illinois). When copycat socks began to chip away at their business, a red heel was added in 1932 to assure customers that they were buying the original. As needs must during the Great Depression, mothers soon made use of this red heel as the mouth for an easy to make homemade toy that could be produced from a worn out sock. It was not until the 1950s that the Nelson Knitting Company acquired any kind of patent for a sock monkey, despite the fact that they had been including a pattern with each pair of Red Heel Rockfords for years.
1933 Kewpie Doll
1934 Buck Rogers Pocket Pistol
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