For Bare Feet

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Company History

We at For Bare Feet would like to thank everyone for our 21 years of success. We look forward with great excitement to many more years together.

We have been a family run business for 21 years. Now, with our twenty-first anniversary year upon us, it's time to reflect on our past, proudly acknowledge our beginnings, and share our story with you.

Twenty one years ago, Sharon Rivenbark, a fifth grade school teacher, started a sock manufacturing company with $1200 she borrowed from her parents - enough to buy one antique banner knitting machine and some shop space in Nashville, Indiana.

The business was to be for her son, Tim, who had to drop out of Indiana University at age 18 because of a brain tumor. Doctors had told Sharon that Tim would, in time, become mentally handicapped. So, Sharon started the sock business so her son would have a place in the world, a business of his own.

The unique designs and patterns that Sharon knit into the socks were an instant success. Their appeal prompted numerous shop owners from other cities who were traveling through Nashville on vacation to request that Sharon sell the socks to them on a wholesale basis for resale in their shops.

"I started selling socks in a market that had not perceived socks as gifts before. I guess you could say I created a market that wasn't there." Sharon explained.

After Tim passed away in January of 1987, there was no question in Sharon's mind that For Bare Feet was going to be successful. "It was all I had left of my son," she said.

For Bare Feet now produces literally thousands of designs of socks for an incredible array of clients; resorts, national parks, gift stores, sporting goods chains, department stores, college bookstores, catalogs, theme parks, and internet web sites.

It is also a league-licensed producer of socks, headbands, and wristbands for the MLB, NFL, NHL, AND WNBA, plus dozens of universities throughout the US and Canada as well as Coca-Cola brand socks. In fact, the socks, headbands, and wristbands that you see the NBA players wearing on court are from For Bare Feet.

Sharon, her family, and her son's memory remain a constant force in the company's drive to be the best with the highest quality, graphics, delivery, and service.

Banner Knitter - Sharon Rivenbark, right, and her son and partner, Tim Magnuson, co-owners of the For Bare Feet shop in the Antique Alley of Nashville, make a pair of socks on the antique Banner Knitting machine the business uses.

For Bare Feet is big enough to get the job done but small enough to personally take care of each and every customer with the commitment of a family-owned, operated, and run business.

We are extremely proud and honored by the confidence that has been placed in our company for the past twenty one years. We will always strive to meet that expectation of excellence.