No mean feet: though Gold Toe Brands rules its market, Jim Williams wants to have a leg up on the competition when import quotas end.

• Author: Russell, Thomas C.
• Position: Feature

Hey, Hot Rod, how's it going?" the president and CEO of Gold Toe Brands Inc. says, halting a tour of the sock maker's plant in Burlington to greet a maintenance worker. "Hey, Jim," the man replies. "You still playing ball?"

James Williams, 60, played freshman basketball at the University of Mississippi more than 40 years ago. He was good enough to start at guard with Don Kessinger, a two-sport star who would play shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, and still maneuvers around knitting machines with an athlete's grace. He tells Hot Rod he doesn't hit the courts anymore: He doesn't want to risk a knee injury. He's still interested in the game, though, and listens patiently as Hot Rod discusses his son's game and coaching the boy. Williams is not just being polite. He's doing a bit of coaching himself, of Hot Rod and about 900 employees at the plant.

Burlington-based Gold Toe makes more than half of the dress socks sold in higher-end department stores such as Belk, Macy's, Dillard's and Saks Fifth Avenue. Overall, it has nearly 16% of the domestic market. Last year, revenue totaled about $171.8 million, down 1.3% from the previous year but ahead of 2000 sales.

Given those figures, employees normally wouldn't be so concerned about their future. But Gold Toe's fret about two other numbers: 560 and 2005. The first is the number of jobs that the company has cut since October 2001, when it closed its plant in Bally, Pa., where the company was born. This year, it shuttered another in Newton. Burlington is Gold Toe's last U.S. manufacturing operation. If there were another round of cuts, employees know where it would fall.

The other number -- 2005 -- is even more ominous. That's the year most U.S. trade quotas are scheduled to disappear. And that's what could happen to domestic producers, many observers believe, when cheap imports made even cheaper by devalued Asian currencies flood the market. "You can have the most modern, efficient and cost-efficient production facility around, and if they are bringing in their product 30-40% cheaper just because of currency devaluation alone, that makes it very tough," says Robert DuPree, vice president of government affairs for the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, which also represents apparel makers.

It's why Williams takes the time to listen to Hot Rod and other employees he calls by name. He wants to let them know that things are OK. For the foreseeable future, he says, there won't be any more layoffs. "I come here all the time because people think we are going to close. You have to communicate with them."

Communication comes easily for him. A favorite yarn is about Gerald Ford, whom he got to know...