A Guinness Book verifiable world’s largest collection of iconic Sock Monkeys started humbly during an RV road trip when Arlene and Michael Okun stopped at a Cracker Barrel for a mealtime refuel. In the restaurant general store, Arlene spotted a cute little stuffie made from a sock with bright red lips, lanky rope-like legs and a floppy tail.
“It became a mascot on the road, and we took thousands of pictures of him during our travels across the country and world,” says Arlene, logically naming the toy: Sock Monkey.
Photos: Indre Cantero
Now there’s the Sock Monkey Museum and gift shop in Long Grove, Illinois. Guests enter the two-story space in the main floor gift shop and are greeted by Sock Monkeys galore. “When you are shopping, you are amongst the collection,” Arlene says.
Visitors can sign the old-fashioned guestbook at the counter, pay a humble admission ($4 kids, $6 adults, under 4 are free) for a tour of upstairs that includes a personal walk-through and option to watch a 10-minute “sockumentary” in a little theater room. This museum and gift shop’s tagline: “Not your grandparent’s museum, but maybe your grandparent’s socks!”
Q. How did Sock Monkeys enter the plush toy scene, and why a museum in Long Grove?
A. The original sock has ties to Illinois and American history. It’s an Illinois folk art. The socks came about because John Nelson, who started Nelson Knitting Company in 1880, introduced a seamless work sock that was so comfortable it was revolutionary.
Other companies in Rockford started copying them, so he trademarked a red heel in 1932 to set them apart. During the Great Depression, parents didn’t have money to buy toys for their kids, so they used what they had in the house — these worn-out work socks with a red heel that became the monkey’s smile and bottom.
In 1955, Nelson Knitting realized people were using their socks for more than just footwear and they included instructions in every pack of socks for how to make a monkey. That’s when they got more popular.
The original factory closed its doors in 1992, selling the business and Red Heel sock patent to Fox River Mills, which carries on the legacy in Iowa. Our museum and gift shop lives on to tell the story of the Sock Monkey and create new memories.
Q. How did you expand your collection to Guinness-sized proportions?
A. Our collection is more than 2,200 and growing. The oldest Sock Monkey you can find with a red-heeled mouth is from 1932 and we have one named Luno. We know his date because he was donated by a woman whose grandmother made him.
There are at least five different brands of Sock Monkeys here, including Pennington, Schylling, Plushland and our own custom stuff-able Sock Monkeys that visitors can create.
Q. How do you turn old-fashioned memories into new experiences in the museum and shop?
A. When people come here, it’s fun to watch them set their phones down, talk and laugh. We have workshops so you can build your own Sock Monkey, and we offer other animals, too. We have a vendor who knits homemade sweaters for them. Plus, you can take home a Sock Monkey sewing kit with pre-marked, pre-sewn socks with everything you need except scissors.
We organize birthday parties, and visitors who stop in can take home a new Sock Monkey memory with our apparel, hats, stickers, magnets, greeting cards, children’s books, drinkware, bracelets, pins and badges. We host scout groups that like to take those home. We keep the price points affordable, which makes me feel good. We give back a donation of proceeds to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.
