Munsingwear

Munsingwear was a Minnesota-based underwear company from which Original Penguin developed. The company was established as Northwestern Knitting Company.[1] It also was known as PremiumWear.[1]

History

The company was started by George D. Munsing, who came to Minnesota from New York in 1886 to set up a textile factory, along with Frank H. Page and Edward O. Tuttle from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] Munsing had been superintendent of the Rochester Knitting Works and had experimented with knit fabrics and ribbing, developing a process to plate silk on wool, thus making woolen long underwear — essential in cold climates — "itchless": much more comfortable. Munsing came to Minnesota to set up his factory, which manufactured products for women and men, because it was in the coldest region of the U.S., and the market for warm underwear presumably was going to be the best there.[2] Munsing also thought that the many Scandinavian immigrants in Minnesota would make it a suitable location. The mention of underwear was taboo in American society at the time.[3] Patent attorney Amasa C. Paul served as Northwestern Knitting Company's president when it was incorporated on February 15, 1887, and Munsing was the vice president.[1] The Northwestern Knitting Company's ad for its products in the September 1897 issue of Ladies' Home Journal was the first to display underwear on a live model.[4]

United States v. Munsingwear

Following World War II, the United States sued Munsingwear for alleged violations of a price-fixing regulation, seeking, in separate counts, an injunction and treble damages.[24] While the case was being held on appeal, the commodity involved was decontrolled and the case was rendered moot. The Supreme Court vacated the lower court's ruling, sent the case back to the lower court, and had them render the case moot. This practice has commonly become known as a Munsingwear vacatur.[25]

Vassar Swiss Underwear Company

Vassar Swiss Underwear Company began operations in 1900 and was purchased by Northwestern Knitting Company in 1912.[26] The founders were George E. Rutledge, Emil A. Basener, and Frederick S. McCoy. The company started in Chicago, but soon moved operations to Rochelle, Illinois. Shortly after the sale, Northwestern decided to ramp up production and moved Vassar Swiss back to Chicago, building a new plant, named the Vassar Swiss Underwear Company Building.[26] Construction was completed in April of the following year.[26] Vassar Swiss prospered in its new location. Rutledge, now a vice president at parent company Northwestern, joined with other company designers to improve his original union suit design.[26] In 1923, the company constructed an addition on the western portion of their building, by the same architect, to house their box factory and shipping.

Over the next four decades, the company shifted focus and products. Union suits became less popular, and briefs soon became the company's leading product.

Archival material

The Minnesota Historical Society has a collection of over 3,500 pieces of Munsingwear, donated by the company when it shut down its factory in North Minneapolis, together with company papers, photos, salesman's samples, and premiums.[28]

See also

• Northwestern Knitting Company Factory building

Further reading

External links

• Minnesota Historical Society, "Underwear: A Brief History"