Looming success.

• Position: NC TREND: Triad Region

Memphis has cotton, Atlanta has Coke and Greensboro has Cone, the textile company that has influenced American culture for 125 years. Cone's anniversary this year is a big milestone for a company that dominated U.S. denim manufacturing for generations before its failure to stymie foreign competition prompted a filing for bankruptcy protection in 2003. A testament to the staying power of its signature Levi Strauss & Co. 501 brand jeans, about 220 workers at Cone's White Oak plant still produce denim for International Textile Group. Cone's relationship with San Francisco-based Levi's dates back to 1915. Vulture investor Wilbur Ross formed UG in 2004 after acquiring Cone and Greensboro-based Burlington Industries. Last year, ITG reported net income of $17 million on revenue of $610 million. While much of its production is in China and Mexico, it also has North Carolina sites in Burlington, Raeford and Cordova.

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White Oak, its most famous plant, once stretched the length of four football fields, used 3,000 looms and employed more than 5,000 people. Now, the plant's looms cover maple floors in a space the size of one football field.

"When the looms are running, you can feel...