Jockey Men's briefs were first sold in Chicago's Marshall Field & Co. in 1935.

In 1876, Samuel Thrall Cooper founded S.T. Cooper & Sons, the predecessor of Jockey International, Inc. Samuel Cooper started his hosiery business in St. Joseph, Michigan, to help lumberjacks who were suffering from their poor quality socks . . . laying Jockey's foundation for "Satisfying the Human Need for Comfort."

By 1878, S.T. Cooper & Sons produced nearly 2,500 pairs of seamless stockings daily. Over the next 25 years, Cooper's sons (Charles, Henry and Willis) became skilled in the business. In 1897, they introduced the Black Cat brand of hosiery for men, women & children. In 1898, the brothers moved the company and eventually moved the company into an ambitious new direction . . . Men's Underwear.

In 1900, the brothers incorporated the Cooper Underwear Company and began producing White Cat underwear. The new Cooper Underwear Company mill, which manufactured White Cat union suits, was completed in 1902. This location still serves as the longtime headquarters of Jockey International, Inc.

In 1912, the patented Cooper union suit, branded as the Kenosha Klosed Krotch, rose to the top of the underwear market and was sold faster than it could be produced.

Cooper hired Joseph C. Leyendecker, illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post, to create the "Man on the Bag" image . . . a staple of the company's brand identity and a classic American advertising image.

The Saturday Evening Post created the "Man on the Bag" ad image.

Cooper Underwear hired Arthur Kneibler in 1928 to head its sales and marketing team.

In 1929, the Cooper Underwear Company officially changed its name to Cooper's, Inc. That year, Coopers' developed the Singleton, a new-style union suit with short legs and a sleeveless top, packaged them in cellophane bags, a first in the underwear trade and a huge selling point in modern self-service apparel stores.

In 1934, Arthur Kneibler received a postcard from the French Riviera showing a man in a bikini-style swimsuit. This simple postcard inspired the creation of the one and only Jockey brief.

He saw this garment as a potential prototype for a new kind of men's support underwear. In September 1934, Cooper's produced an experimental prototype, men's brief style #1001. In response to its introduction, competitors labeled the new underwear style as a fad. 

On January 19, 1935, Marshall Field and Company, the premier Chicago department store, unveiled a window display featuring the new brief. That day, Chicago was experiencing a severe blizzard, and the skimpy men's underwear in the window contrasted with the wintery conditions outside. 

Under these circumstances, Marshall Field &Co. managers were ordered to take the briefs out of the window display. When the workers assigned to carry out the order were delayed, the new underwear style stayed on display, prompting an unexpected demand surge for the product. More than 600 briefs were sold before noon at 50¢ apiece.

Over the following three months, Marshall Field & Co. sold 30,000 briefs, and Jockey briefs began "Changing the Underwear Habits for Men Nationwide." 

The Jockey Y-Front brief was invented later that year and became Cooper's most sought-after item. The success of the Y-Front brief was followed by the design of the Jockey Midway Brief.

Cooper's signed its first international license agreement with the Canadian J.R. Moodie company in 1936. That same year, European export agents began placing orders for Cooper's products. During the remaining century, licensee agreements were signed in Australia, Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.

At a retail convention in Chicago in 1938, Cooper's hosted one of the first Underwear Fashion Shows featuring "The Cellophane Wedding."

A Cooper's salesman in 1939 invented a ground-breaking countertop display and dispenser to organize sizes and styles of underwear.

1946 ushered in one of the company's most important merchandising tools...endorsements from star athletes… one of the first being home run king Babe Ruth. In 1947, the Jockey® brand name was stitched into the waistband of the underwear for the first time.

Cooper's advertised in the first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine in 1954.

The Jockey Low Rise brief was born in 1961 and became hugely successful in Europe. Cooper introduced the Jockey Life Low Rise briefs to the United States in 1965.

In 1971, Coopers, Inc. changed its name to Jockey Menswear, Inc., and then changed its name to Jockey International, Inc. in 1972.

Jockey launched the first generation of its Web site in 1997. Jockey increased its retail capabilities in 1999 with the launch of Jockey.com.

Today Jockey International, Inc. is active in more than 120 countries, marketing underwear, socks, thermals, sleepwear, activewear, sportswear, and loungewear, in men's, women's and children's ranges.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The World's Largest Catsup Bottle, Brooks Old Original Tangy Catsup, Collinsville, IL.

The World's Largest Catsup Bottle stands proudly on IL Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois. You just can't miss it. 

This unique 170-foot water tower was built in 1949 by the W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant. Today's painted label is "Brooks Rich & Tangy Catsup."

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The Brooks brand name was retained by each new owner. Brooks product line earned a  surpeior reputation for quality and consistancy over many years.

It all started in 1891. A group of Collinsville businessmen raised $5,000 ($148,000 in 2023) and created the "Collinsville Canning and Packing Company." The struggling little plant went through a few different owner-operators until 1907, when the Brooks brothers, Everett and Elgin, purchased the business. They operated under the name of "Triumph Catsup and Pickle Company." Soon the name became "Brooks Tomato Products Company." 

By 1919 Brooks Tomato Products Company with its office in the Kneedler Building on Main Street in downtown Collinsville. Everett W. Brooks was the President.

In 1920, the brothers sold to the "American Cone and Pretzel Company" of Philadelphia. 

The G.S. Suppiger Company purchased the Collinsville processing plant. This move expanded the operations 3-fold. Suppiger also gained copyright ownership of the popular Brooks brand names and logos in June 1933.

Twelve-foot-high Brooks Catsup
Bottle adorned with neon slowly
rotates on a pole. c.1949

The catsup factory had great success, surviving the Great Depression and growing by leaps and bounds through the 1940s. The plant produced much more than catsup, including chili beans, spaghetti, hominy, soups, and other sauces. 

It was renamed the "Brooks Tabasco Flavor Catsup" and became extremely popular. So much so that the McIlhenny Tabasco Company threatened a lawsuit claiming the term "tabasco" was their copyrighted property. Not wanting to fight a costly legal battle, the Suppigers changed the name to "Brooks Old Original Tangy Catsup."

The company promoted its product well. In Belleville, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, Jumbo 12-foot high Brooks catsup bottles, adorned with neon, slowly rotated while perched on a sign pole. Brooks advertised in Sportsman's Park, home of the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns baseball teams. 

 

At one time, it was America's № 1 seller among tangy catsups and the best seller in Metro (includes the Belleville, Illinois area) St. Louis, Missouri. Brooks outsold all other brands combined, 2 to 1.

The G.S. Suppiger Company purchases the Collinsville processing plant. This move expands the operations 3-fold. Suppiger gained ownership of the popular Brooks brand names in June 1933.

In 1947, W.E. Caldwell Company of Louisville, Kentucky, was contracted to build a 100,000-gallon water tower. Final drawings were approved in 1948, and the World's Largest [Watertower] Catsup Bottle was completed in October 1949. 

A water tower was needed for plant operations and to supply water to the new fire protection sprinkler system. Gerhart S. Suppiger, then president of the company, suggested the tower be built in the distinctive tapered shape of their catsup bottles. Everybody was amused by the idea.

A 100,000-gallon water tower, 70 ft─1in high, made of a riveted steel tank. The tank shall sit atop 100-foot legs at the south edge of Collinsville, Illinois.

In 1959, Brooks Foods merged with P.J. Ritter Company, and the Suppigers sold their share of the company in 1960. Catsup bottling operations were moved to Summit, Indiana, in 1963, and the old factory was used as a warehouse. 

Old-timers mourned for the sweet smell of catsup that no longer wafted through town. 

Brooks Foods, Inc. became a division of Curtice-Burns, Inc. of Rochester, New York, in February 1967.

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile makes its first visit to the Brooks Catsup Bottle on June 18, 1987.

In 1993, Curtice-Burns, Inc., the then-parent company of Brooks Foods, decided to sell the property. The water tower's future was in jeopardy, and the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group was formed.  

Brooks was willing to deed the tower to the city of Collinsville, Illinois, but the city declined the offer citing the cost of repairing and repainting the structure was far too much for the city's budget. The Preservation Group started a nationwide "Paint It!" campaign and began to raise the needed funds. 

In 1995, due to the efforts of the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group, this landmark roadside attraction was saved from demolition and beautifully restored to its original appearance.

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The water tower catsup bottle was inducted into the National Register of Historic Places in August 2002. The landmark had already been world-renowned for some time.

Recognized worldwide as an excellent example of 20th-century roadside Americana, the World's Largest Catsup Bottle regularly garners international attention and attracts visitors and tourists daily. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.