Corgi, a long history of regimental socks

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Alan

example of the use of regimental hose

One less well known side of Corgi is the manufacture of socks for various regiments of the British Army. These socks, or hose, can only be made using traditional methods, and are mainly used on ceremonial occasions. They are made to very precise specifications, as each regiment has its own individual requirements. In fact, Corgi has been making socks for the Ministry of Defence since at least the 1940′s, using hand circular Grizwald machines, which are still used for this purpose today.

We can trace the origins of the company back to 1893, and it is quite possible that Corgi was manufacturing for the MOD, on hand knitting machines, during the Great War. Corgi’s long association with the MOD was recognized in the 1980s, when Huw Jones (the current Managing Director’s father), was consulted by the Pattern Keeping and Quality Control Department of the MOD, and helped them rewrite the master patterns on many of the basic plain and Highland Regiment Diced / Argyle stockings, and footless hose. Most of them had not been reviewed for over 80 years.

This long tradition is still reflected in the company’s full name, Corgi Hosiery Limited.

These socks are now available on our website. Made from pure washable wool with cotton added into the foot for added strength, they make a great outdoor sock. Currently they’re only available in lovat, a regimental grey green, but we’ll be making more regimental sock styles (and colours) available soon.

Socks made for walking

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Alan

Approach to Crib Goch from Pen Y Pas, over Llyn Llydaw, by Mike Peel

We’ve suggested all kinds of activities you can do in your Corgi socks (just click on the activity socks tag), now we’d like to suggest another: walking.

Take a look at these 100% natural yarn walking socks, made from the finest quality washable Shetland wool with a small amount of pure cotton added to the foot for strength.

Just the thing for a ramble in the Welsh hills…

Cool Running Socks …

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Alan

Where does he find the energy?

You may have wondered how Chris Jones, Corgi’s joint Managing Director, spends his time when he’s not knitting socks.

We can’t think why you would wonder that, but anyway, here’s the answer … he runs marathons – in Corgi socks, naturally!

Call it real life product testing. Chris tells us that by wearing Corgi socks, he can knock up to 15 minutes off his marathon times…we, however, are inclined to take this claim with a pinch of salt, and we suggest you do the same until we find a less biased tester…

Here he is at the Torbay half marathon:

Pity about the shoes, seems there may be a bit of a clash there…

As you’ll see Chris runs for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), and has raised thousands of pounds for them over the last two years.

For those of you knowledgeable about such things, he turned in a very respectable 3 hours and 44 minutes at the last London Marathon.

His next event is the Snowdonia Marathon in October, reputed to be one of the toughest marathons in Europe, climbing half way up the highest mountain in Wales over the course of the 26 miles. Naturally, he will be wearing Corgi socks, this time, we assume, in order to establish they perform just as well at altitude…:)

Corgi Socks Go Nautical

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Alan

There’s a distinct nautical flavour to Corgi’s latest offering -

think of palm trees swaying gently in the warm evening breeze, boats bobbing at their moorings in a sun-baked marina, while the sun bounces off a deep blue Mediterranean, sailing boats, gleaming white specks gliding effortlessly across a shiny azure expanse… Now we know what Corgi’s sock designers spend their time thinking about as they toil away in the Welsh hills of Ammanford… Actually I’m assuming they were just looking forward to their holidays when they came up with this Resort Sock Collection -