Hickory’s Business. Well Crafted. Legacy Award presented to Hickory Brands Inc.

The City of Hickory presented the Business. Well Crafted. Legacy Award to Hickory Brands Inc. during the company’s anniversary week kickoff on Monday, May 15.

Presented by Mayor Hank Guess on behalf of the City’s Business Development Committee (BDC), the Business. Well Crafted. Legacy Award recognizes Hickory Brands for celebrating its 100th anniversary of American manufacturing.

Hickory Brands Inc. (HBi) has been proud to bring 100 years of innovation and southern craftsmanship to the narrow textile industry from its inception in 1923 as Hickory Lace Braiding Co. and the pioneer of packaged replacement shoelace systems and dispensers as Old Hickory Shoelace. Today, HBi’s collective industrial and retail brands include product lines of cord, webbing, and braid used in the fashion, accessories, athletic, military, technical, and outdoor sporting goods industries that are manufactured by its family-owned factories in Hickory and Long View, North Carolina.

From humble beginnings in the basement of a textiles mill in Hickory, N.C., to products that would later circle the globe on the feet of the U.S. military and Olympic athletes alike, HBi has had the honor of lacing up the American workforce from fine dress shoes on Madison Avenue to the boots that brought us through the Industrial Revolution and world wars. By 1925, just two short years into its history, its founders brought Old Hickory Laces in sundries, pharmacies, and drugstores coast to coast – reported by The Hickory Daily Record, 1925.

“The Business Development Committee is proud to recognize this incredible milestone, and all the great ways that Hickory Brands Inc. contributes to the community and continues Hickory’s tradition for craftsmanship in manufacturing,” said Brandon Hedrick, chair of the BDC. “The longevity of this company is a true testament of HBi’s innovation and commitment to quality, American-made products.” 

Hickory Brands CEO Daniel Bizzell stated, “Our 100th year will be a combination of celebrating our legacy as U.S. craftsmen and craftswomen and the excitement of presenting our vision for what this business will become over the next 100 years. Textiles have once again become the building block of the future as an innovative, lightweight, flexible, and reimagined method of creating sustainable and innovative solutions for the U.S. consumer and industry.”

For more information about the Business Development Committee and its Business. Well Crafted. Awards, please contact City of Hickory Business Services Manager Dave Leonetti at 828-261-2227 or via email at dleonetti@hickorync.gov.

Pictured (left to right) are Hickory Mayor Hank Guess, Hickory Brands Inc. CEO Daniel Bizzell, Hickory Brands Inc. Sr. Vice President Julie Huffman, and City of Hickory Business Services and Redevelopment Manager Dave Leonetti.