THE MILL

Inman, South Carolina · Since 1901

The Supima cloth in our Oxford is woven by Inman Mills, a family company that has been spinning and weaving in Spartanburg County, South Carolina for a hundred and twenty-five years, with a Chapman at the helm from the first turn of the first spindle.

James A. Chapman, 1901

In 1901 James A. Chapman raised $150,000 to found Inman Mills. Production began at the Inman Plant the following year, and in 1916 the mill was wired for electricity.

In the company's own words, Chapman founded more than a mill — he founded “a family legacy so tightly woven into the history of Spartanburg County that it would be impossible to imagine life without it.”

The first air-conditioned cotton mill

In 1934 the Chapmans bought the Riverdale mill. In 1952 Riverdale became the first air-conditioned cotton mill in the world — a quiet piece of engineering history, and one that says a good deal about a company that has never been content to stand still.

Three plants, two towns

The postwar decades were a building period. The Saybrook Plant went up in Inman in 1960, the Ramey Plant in Enoree in 1965, and the Mountain Shoals Plant, also in Enoree, in 1980. Those three plants are the company today, alongside a subsidiary, Eastbank Textiles, in Macon, Georgia — more than seven hundred people in all.

A second century

Inman began core spinning in 1994 and celebrated its hundredth year in 2002. Since then it has moved into mattress fire barriers, specialty flame-retardant fabrics for the military, and its own patented Texim® composite products — technical work that sits alongside the shirting cloth our Oxford is cut from.

Generation after generation of the Chapman family have led the company since its founding. Their own summary is plain, and worth quoting as they write it: “Over the years, Inman Mills has kept our dedication to quality and innovation at the forefront of our business.”

How our Oxford is made

Every hand that touches the cloth can be named — the mill that wove it, the shirtmaker who cut it, and the town each of them sits in.

Drawn from the Inman Mills company history, inmanmills.com.