FORT PAYNE, Ala. — Renfro Brands’ sock plant closure in Fort Payne eliminated 455 jobs on Dec. 27, 2025, dealing a heavy blow to one of northeast Alabama’s last remaining hosiery hubs.
The apparel maker notified the state on Oct. 28 in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filing that the layoffs would take effect Dec. 27 at its Fort Payne facility. The plant, which produces socks and legwear for brands such as Dr. Scholl’s and Merrell, is one of the city’s last sock mills after the local industry began a steep decline around 2008.
Local leaders say the closure — coming during the holidays — will ripple far beyond DeKalb County, affecting families and small businesses across northeast Alabama and adding to a steady drumbeat of industrial job losses facing workers from the Tennessee Valley to Birmingham. The Fort Payne Career Center, the city’s economic development officials and area employers have organized job fairs and outreach efforts in recent weeks to connect laid-off workers with openings in other local industries.
Renfro said in a statement that it will consolidate its domestic manufacturing in Cleveland, Tennessee, where it plans to invest in expanded operations and create at least 75 jobs. Current Fort Payne employees will receive priority consideration for those positions, but most of the 455 workers will be left to seek new jobs in a region where similar manufacturing work has steadily disappeared.
The company will maintain a presence in Fort Payne through warehousing and distribution facilities expected to retain about 50 employees, far short of the manufacturing workforce being cut. For a community long branded the “Sock Capital of the World,” the shutdown underscores how corporate consolidation and global competition continue to pull blue-collar jobs away from rural and small-town Alabama, even as city officials tout diversification and new employers to keep their tax bases afloat.