1900: The Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company was expanding and needed experienced management. Willis and Charles called their brother Henry Cooper to join the company. Henry returned and was awarded stock in the Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company.
1900: The Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company renamed itself the Chicago-Kenosha Hosiery Company. Its potential as the Cooper family's next business seemed very promising indeed. Through tenacity and determination, the promise would soon become a reality.
1900: The Cooper brothers realized their dream and incorporated as the Cooper Underwear Company. While the brothers remained active with Chicago-Kenosha Hosiery Company and Black Cat hosiery, they rented excess space in the Chicago- Kenosha hosiery mill to manufacture what they branded as White Cat underwear. The Cooper brothers also began building a separate mill next door to the Black Cat mill.
1902: The new Cooper Underwear Company mill for the manufacture of White Cat union suits was completed next door to the Black Cat mill. This location on 60th Street and 23rd Avenue in Kenosha, Wisconsin remains today as the longtime headquarters of Jockey International, Inc.
1903: The infamous Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago claimed many lives including those of Willis and Charles Cooper. Henry Cooper becomes the sole head of Cooper Underwear.
1909: While the public was enjoying the promise of comfort, fit and quality of Cooper White Cat underwear, the company was also listening to its customers. In listening, the company was quick to focus its attention on an unsolved problem with "union suits." The union suit bunched and bulked and the buttons, plain and simple, began rubbing many American men the wrong way. The Cooper Underwear Company produced the union suit of American men's dreams. The Closed Crotch union suit was made and took America by storm. The innovation was simple and ingenious and eliminated fabric where the traditional union suit tended to bunch. Tedious to describe, the Closed Crotch was a delight to wear and a historic advance in underwear at that time.
