Williamson Dickies : a History of Dickies Workwear

Dickies Workwear: The History of Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Company, Fort Worth, Texas. Incorporated: 1922

Dickies Early History

Dickies Workwear is regarded as the worlds number one workwear manufacturer dating back to 1922 fort worth Texas, the Dickie's brand started out
life as the U.S. Overall Company in 1918 making bib and brace overalls,
co-founders 'C.N. Williamson and E.E. "Colonel" Dickie' respectively,
started there business careers in the vehicle and harness industry
within the small town of Bryan, Texas. Later in 1922 a consortium made
up of Don Williamson, his father and cousin purchased one hundred
percent of the overalls company at a one third each basis. The company
then became known as Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Company. E.E Dickie
& C.N. Williamson, During World War II the U.S. Government sought
to sequester the company to produce millions of military uniforms much
needed to aid the war effort. These efforts did not go unnoticed after
the war with many veterans praising the quality and durability of the
uniforms, these where the first building blocks that turned the company
into a world leader.

After world war two the factories that made military apparel now turned their attention to producing civilian wears such as overalls, work trousers and general
work clothing. The reputation of Dickies by this time was nationally
renowned, this in-part was owed to the servicemen and women that had
returned to there home towns and city's spreading the word of their war
stories and enriching the brand with a certain pride and history that
Americans had grown to love and cherish.

Dickies History Through 1950-60

By the latter part of the 1950s the company known as Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Company became an international company now expanding into
Europe and the middle-east. Texan oil workers who where contracted to
work in middle eastern oil fields had brought along their Dickie's khaki
pants knowing that the brand would not let them down. The khaki pants
most commonly known as "chinos" had become the company's most successful
to date. Soon popularity skyrocketed around the globe leading the
company into new avenues such as the laundry industry. Don Williamson
was very much the 20Th century entrepreneur so when Dickies looked into
new ways of doing business Don was leading the way.

New ideas seemed to come quite naturally but not without failures here and there, in the early days the volume of Williamson-Dickie's laundry
business increased so quickly that it was decided a permanent crease on
garments such as work trousers would save vast amounts of time and
money, to wash then press such clothing was very time consuming. To make
this a more profitable and cost effective venture Dickies contacted
Harris Laboratories who had pioneered a permanent wave for hair, when
Dickies asked if they could do the same for work pants Harris
Laboratories where confident they could achieve this.

So began the year long research project, Harris had developed a treatment to add a permanent crease into Dickies work trousers, unfortunately the
joy was short lived as the work pants became brittle and weakened after
only a few washes. Determined not to be stopped at the first hurdle the
company continued amid fears the Dickies image of robust, strong and
reliable workwear would be damaged if they could not find a speedy
solution. Dickies and Harris set about merging polyester with cotton to
give the work trousers strength and durability, finally success and the
finished product can still be found around the world today.

After the rather shaky start to the permanent crease Williamson-Dickie issued an unconditional guarantee on quality and durability of all the
company's work clothes produced thereafter. This guarantee has become
the cornerstone on which all Dickies work clothes are made even today.
The 1960s where fast approaching and so was the new look Dickies brand,
Don Williamson the entrepreneur had not finished yet and so set about
building the company's international presence. In 1960 Dickies built a
manufacturing plant in Belize formerly "British Honduras" but sadly the
entire plant was destroyed during hurricane Hattie. Shortly after the
plant was rebuilt and expanded to accommodate the demand in England and
Europe. The plant made jeans and a variety of work clothes from trousers
to general use clothing. The efficiency had grown in the latter part of
the 1960s enabling goods to be shipped from Belize into the U.S. cost
effectively and increasing profits accordingly.

Dickies History Through 1960-1980

During the late 1960s through to 1980s competitors of Dickies had started to import into the United States from the Caribbean. Garments made
elsewhere such as the Caribbean could dramatically undercut Dickies
prices on many of its popular selling products, by this time the market
was very competitive. Senior executives at Williamson-Dickie had
realised that these competing firms must be using the (American Goods
Returned) Tariff Act, to allow them to reduce the duty on import fee's
paid on each garment and thus allowing them to sell there items at a
much lower price than Dickies could.

Williamson-Dickie where understandably unhappy by the loop hole being exploited by it's rivals, the competing firms where having the garments made in the
Caribbean but using American fabrics shipped from the U.S. the Tariff
Act for re-importing goods was such that so long as the fibres and
fabrics had came from the states they only had to pay for the duty on
the value of foreign labour when importing them back into the states.
The provisions of such where detailed in sections (806. 30 and 807) that
allowed American clothing companies to make there products elsewhere
and then have them returned to the United States for re-sale.

Williamson-Dickie and three other American clothing companies stood together to lobby for change to the Tariff Act concerning re-importing goods; the change
allowed American apparel companies to manufacture clothes in either
Mexico or the Caribbean using the same provisions set out in the
previous Tariff Act. They successfully got the change and this then made
a huge American clothing industry within Mexico and the Caribbean,
in-part due to very low labour costs in these regions. Dickies and other
firms where now able to remain competitive against low cost imports
from China, Korea and Taiwan.

In the early 1970s Williamson-Dickie acquired shares in the General Diaper Corporation, (General Diaper Company was founded in 1932 by Morris A. Bonoff) one of
the largest diaper manufacturers at that time. By April 1977 Dickies
owned almost 30 percent, later to become 58% in the same year of what
would later become 'Blessings' the Company although a majority owned by
Dickies remained a separate company.

The Diaper Company was moving into the disposable diaper market this was somewhat of a new era within the industry. As part of this new venture the Diaper
Company had opened two additional industrial laundry factories located
in New Orleans and Houston respectively. With the introduction of
Williamson-Dickie the firm also acquired a plastics company that
primarily made film and plastic products for the health care industry
and also a dental supply firm. The ever expanding company gave scope to
diversify and move into new markets, this only strengthened the revenue
potential of Williamson-Dickie and helped increase its share in the
workwear and clothing markets.

Williamson-Dickie was now in a very strong position moving into the latter part of the 1970s and well placed to dominate the market entirely. The Dickie's brand grew
from strength to strength during this period gaining more and more
popularity amongst the general populous, the company had now expanded
its range of products to include garments such as matching uniform
shirts, blouses, work trousers and accompanying jackets, boiler suits,
overalls, jeans, bandannas, caps, safety boots, thermal underwear,
sweatshirts, socks, gloves, painter trousers and belts. In the late
1970s the company began to open shops in and around the southern parts
of the U.S, these stores where primarily aimed at corporate businesses
and government departments such as the post office and police
department. These stores provided uniforms, footwear, holsters and
matching accessories including specialist underwear for use with the
military and police uniforms.

By this period the co-founders had retired and all family members had left the business, the entire managerial structure at Williamson-Dickie had been replaced
with the next generation of leaders who where equally as hungry for
success and ready to prove there worth and they wasted no time in doing
so. One branch of Dickies, the Industrial laundry service was now spread
across the south, southwest and west coast with 14 separate facilities,
the company soon became the leader of hiring & laundering uniforms,
so much so that practically everyone knew someone who was using the
service. Dickies ability to cater for all was a major contributing
factor as to the success of the service with practically all industries
from fast-food, catering, policing, fire services, lab workers and a
host of others using Dickies for all there hired uniforms.

As the 80s approached Williamson-Dickie now with a stronghold in both the workwear and laundry industries was looking at new ways to reinvent
itself, this was always something of a Dickies trade mark, this ability
to carry on and progress tirelessly until the desired achievement was
reached. Part of this reinvention was during the 80s when the General
Diaper Company was transformed into the new 'Blessings Corporation'
still using many of the manufacturing facilities that once made diapers
but now producing plastic products for the healthcare, dental and
agricultural industries. To accompany the niche within the healthcare
industry the company added a publishing division to run alongside the
Blessing Corporation.

The publishing division was aimed mainly at new mothers providing informational materials such as books and pamphlets, the publishing company known as Baby Talk (thought
to be the first publication of its type in the United States) was later
down sized from two dozen to only 3 staff. The Geri-Care Division which
made healthcare products for the elderly such as incontinent pads, bibs,
linen, aprons, bedspreads and sharps to name only a small selection.
Geri-Care still exists today with big name clients such as
Kimberly-Clark accounting for over 45% of its business in 1996.

Dickies History Through 1980-2000

The Blessings firm later moved its headquarters from New York City to New Jersey in 1978. In 1987 The publishing division was sold to Parenting
Unlimited, an investment group, in 1988 and 1989 Blessings had turned
down a take over bid from Dickies, shortly after in 1994 Blessings later
sold of its Geri-Care division for virtually nothing in exchange for
tax relief after seeing profits for the division fall year on year.

Throughout the 1980s Dickies Industrial Laundry business was a thriving entity in itself and profits sawed accordingly, Williamson-Dickie "Dickies"
reported a staggering 15% annual growth rate almost every year. The
company's manufacturing facilities dotted mainly around the southern
states were also now starting to show tremendous growth in New Jersey,
California and further afield in the Caribbean.

With the beginning of the 1990s came a massive shift in culture, music and of course fashion, as with any cultural shift so comes more competition,
more so than ever in the 90s. Many work wear and apparel companies
where international at this time and cheaper imports from China, Taiwan
and other nations where making the clothing industry fearlessly
competitive, some smaller companies simply could not keep up and many
went under. Dickies however seemed to find a new demand from the least
expected place the 'Hip-Hop' & 'Rap' Scene, some well known stars at
the time had encompassed the Dickies brand turning regular chino pants
into hip-hop fashion and cultural gang dress, one of the earliest known
hip-hop groups to use Dickies chino trousers was N.W.A an American hip
hop group from Compton, California. Many youngsters soon developed a
love for Hip-hop fashion and indeed the music giving Dickies a much
needed boost against long time rivals such as Lee, Wrangler and Levi's.

Dickies had often lost out on a market share of the denim and urban fashion sector but now had a strong following and were ready to capitalise on
it. As always with Dickies marketing and advertising where tools they
knew well. Dickies were quick to launch a new advertising campaign
starting with Parade and People magazine, radio and the national press.
While Dickies saw the opportunity to leap from work wear to street wear
as a great transition they were also stead fast in protecting their hard
fought battle to maintain the number one spot within the work clothing
industry. Some changes were made to the facilities to accommodate the
new product lines and Dickies then set about opening its first factory
store based in Orlando, Florida, in the mid 90s.

The first store was to be a flagship for Dickies not just featuring its famous workwear but its new lines of street, urban and sportswear as
well. As part of the new marketing push Dickies also approached various
DIY and hardware stores to stock its coveralls, painters work trousers
and accessories. Not content with the cheaper imports still eating away
at its market share of the workwear sector Dickies decided to move into
the Asian market and bring the battle for domination to its cheaper
counterparts. The Asian market accounts for 60% of the world's current
human population; during the 20th century Asia's population nearly
quadrupled making this region vastly important for any international
business.

Dickies alone could not just move to Asia and expect success they needed a competent distributor to spread the word and the brand throughout the continent, they approached Japanese
firm Itochu to fulfil this role. Itochu where contracted to distribute
to Japanese customers being as Japan was one of the more affluent of the
Asian nations this was the best place to establish a presence on the
Continent.

The popularity of Dickies by the late 90s was immense the brand was now not just about workwear they now had real pull in the fashion world also. Many of Dickies products were featured
in glossy magazines showcasing this authentic brand in all its glory.
Dickies clothing was also sold in expensive fashion shops alongside the
likes or Armani and Levi's. Hip-hop & rap artists along with movie
stars and fashion models where all wearing the brand, all of a sudden
Dickies was an iconic brand almost overnight. With the increase in
popularity so did sales increase on an average of 10% per annum, this
trend continued throughout the 90s with profits up year on year.
Although Dickies were pleased with the success of their brand they kept
operations pretty much as they had been and continued to make the great
quality clothing they had always been known for.

Although Williamson-Dickie had kept the manufacturing process and facilities pretty much unchanged they where keen to exploit this new iconic image
and expand on the range of products they had. Dickies primarily an
apparel maker did not want the expense of building new facilities to
produce varying products, instead they looked again at there licensing
possibilities, Dickies had used a small number of manufacturers under
license in the past to make some types of footwear, socks and smaller
articles of clothing that carried the Dickies brand, now they were
looking at completely new products.

Deals where made which allowed companies such as watchmaker M.Z Berger to produce Dickies branded watches; Amerex to make outdoor wear such as jackets
& coats; sports wear manufacturer; Hampton to produce sports shirts,
shorts and finally; Yak Pak to produce work bags and backpacks.
Williamson-Dickie were careful who to select to make these goods as they
wanted most of all to maintain the quality and craftsmanship people had
come to expect from them, other deals were done to make varying
products which carried the Dickies name but nearly all of Dickies
workwear was still made in the same factories it had always been made
in.

Wanting to focus more on its traditions and core business Williamson-Dickie sold off its majority share of Blessings Corporation in 1998 and invested the money back into the main business
of work clothing. In 1999 Dickies acquired California-based; Workrite
Uniform Co. Workrite; specialists in flame-retardant workwear were
considered the No1 safety clothing manufacturer to many industries such
as oil, gas and hazardous chemicals, this was a perfect match for
Dickies, they maintained; Workrite as a separate branch of the business
continuing to make safety wears such as flame-retardant overalls,
trousers and gloves.

Dickies later acquired Kodiak a Canadian footwear company in 2008 Kodiak have a fine history within the safety and none safety footwear market together with Dickies they
continue to go from strength to strength year on year.

This article was written by Daniel Doherty on behalf of MammothWorkwear.com and there Dickies Workwear range including Overalls, Safety Boots & Work Trousers.

2010 by Mammoth Workwear Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed without consent from the author.