I spent 17 years in banking. Then a former client in the medical-device business gave me a chance to build a new division from the ground up — and a doctor at Mayo Clinic gave me the idea that pulled me into an entirely different world: graduated compression socks.

I spent the better part of a year learning how circulation works in the legs and what compression actually does for it. After more than 25 prototypes and a lot of testing, we introduced the first line of SmoothToe compression socks in late 2003. Mayo Clinic became our very first customer.

2008Going Out on My Own

In 2008, I bought the SmoothToe division from my former employer and went out on my own. For the next year and a half, I ran the whole company out of my garage — packing orders, taking calls, and building something one pair at a time.

2010From the Garage to the Pros

SmoothToe started getting noticed well beyond our medical customers. By 2010, our socks were being worn by NFL teams — and one email I've kept all these years, from the Minnesota Vikings' equipment manager, still makes me smile:

A moment from our history — not a current endorsement by Mr. Favre, the Vikings, or the NFL.

Around the same time, SmoothToe also had a performance line — VO2FX — built for athletes and teams. Same knit, same know-how, tuned for the field. You'll spot the VO2FX name in a few of the clippings from those years.

The Maker Behind the Makers

As our knit earned a reputation, national brands started coming to us to make theirs. Over the years we produced private-label and co-branded compression and performance socks for names you'd recognize — specialty products built for athletic, running, and recovery markets, made to our standards and sold under other labels.

It's the part of our story we're quietest about, but proudest of: when a brand needs a sock that actually performs, they come to the people who've been making them right since 2003.

Putting Down Roots in Caledonia

SmoothToe eventually outgrew the garage, and choosing where it would grow was easy. I was born and raised in Caledonia, Minnesota — and though my banking career had taken me away for years, bringing SmoothToe here was coming home. It meant my kids could grow up in the same town I did and walk the same school halls. What began as an idea and a stack of prototypes had become a real American manufacturing business — rooted in the community that raised me, and serving customers across the country.

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SmoothToe Today

More than two decades after that first pair, we're still making compression socks in the USA. Today they serve individual customers, VA hospitals and clinics, DME providers, military markets, maternity partners, and private-label customers nationwide.

We're not the largest compression sock company in America — and we're okay with that. We're proud to be one of the few still manufacturing here at home. We knit with high-quality yarns chosen for durability, moisture management, and comfort, and we stand behind every pair with a 5-year warranty.