Pete Searson, cofounder of Tellason , vividly remembers the day his business partner, Tony Patella, received the call from a sales rep.

“He said, ‘Hey, Tony, are you sitting down?’ He literally said that. And Tony goes, ‘You’re going to tell me [White Oak] is closing, aren’t you?’ The rep says, ‘How did you know?’ And Tony was like, how could they not be closing?”

Searson and Patella visited the storied Greensboro, N.C.-based mill for its 110th anniversary in 2015. There, they learned that Tellason, the niche “Made in USA” brand they had founded six years prior, was the famous mill’s fourth-largest customer in the entire operation. “And they were proud of it,” Searson said. “We thought we’d be their 40th customer.”

Revered globally for his historic ties to Levi Strauss & Co. and its A

See Full Page