Does anyone know the exact year Sand Knitting Mills moved from Chicago to Berlin, WI ?





http://www.both-teams-played-hard.com

The answer is 1953.

Thanks for the info! I wasn' t asking as a trivia question, I didn't know myself...Do you know more about Sand-Knit and their history?

Sand Knit was bought by Medallist Industries which evolved the uniform division into Medallist-SandKnit which was eventually sold to MacGregor Sporting Goods. Most NFL teams wore Sand Knit until the mid-80's when MacGregor (due to bad management) went belly up. Some of the people who were left without a job decided to form their own uniform company using some of the old Sand Knit work force and bought out of bankruptcy equipment and formed Ripon which is still in business today.

At around the same time the NFL marketing gurus were devising a plan to "sell/license" the on-field rights to the uniforms to multiple companies. Companies like Puma. Logo Athletic, Nike, Wilson, Reebok, Pro Player etc. all had their name on field.

What a lot of people don't know is that the NFL now has to approve the quality, color etc. of all on field uniforms. Ripon and Wilson are the only 2 factories allowed to produce "true" on field jerseys. Don't be fooled by what you see on TV as regards to logos. All on field NFL jerseys are custom made here in the US by either of those factories, based upn the team's equipment managers choice. Ripon and Wilson make the shirts and the marketing company buys it and promotes it/sells it to the team. Nowadays Reebok has all the teams but the team choses whose factory they like better.

Here's a few facts on Sand-Knit's history:

• Sand-Knit was started by John Sand in Chicago, Illinois in 1921. Sand-Knit was a manufacturer of custom athletic uniforms, award sweaters, and jackets.
• Sand-Knit operated in Chicago until 1953 when John Sand relocated the business to Berlin, Wisconsin.
• Acquired by Medalist Industries in 1960
• Operated as a division of Medalist until 1984 when it was sold to MacGregor Sporting Goods, a subsidiary of American Machine and Foundry (AMF), Inc.
• “In 1985, AMF Inc. was purchased in a hostile takeover bid by a Minnesota-based company, Minstar, Inc. Minstar sold off most of its divisions on a worldwide basis”
• In 1990, MacGregor filed bankruptcy and vacated the former Sand-Knit factory at 290 Junction St. in Berlin.
• In 1992, Ripon Athletic acquired the building and all the machinery and equipment at this plant.

Cheers!

Patrick W. Scoggin
Endzone Sports Charities
http://endzone.pscoggin.com/jerseys.htm

Since this post, there have been many questions about Sand Knit...
Can anyone add anything?

THANKS in advance!