Original subtitles

[audio logo]

[triumphant music]

For the most part, they are hidden away.

But they are an essential part of our wardrobe.

I'm talking, of course, about socks.

On average, we own 17 pairs each.

That's over 1.1 billion pairs stuffed into sock drawers

all across the UK.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Whether you like them simple,

striped, or just plain silly, us Brits

can't get enough of socks--

- CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): - -spending over 700

pounds million a year on them.

And what better place to find out

how they're made then one of the UK's oldest sock factories?

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): I'm Gregg Wallace.

And tonight I'm meeting the close-knit

team who operate the weird--

But you are torturing socks.

[laughs]

- GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): - -and wonderful machines--

- Oh, crikey. - Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: Hot legs. Right?

Yeah.

- GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): - -that produce 1 and 1/2

million socks every year.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): I'm Cherry Healey.

And I'll be finding out if science--

No one's smelt me like you've smelt me.

- CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): - -can help us defeat smelly feet.

My socks are a biohazard.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And historian Ruth Goodman--

Gentlemen, I understand you're in need of some new socks.

Attention!

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): --will

be saluting the stitch that saved lives in World War I.

If you March about for ages and get nice, soft feet,

we'll get some sort of indication

of whether the kitchen stitch really works.

In just 24 hours, this factory will make over 6,500 socks.

And I'm gonna reveal just how they do it.

Welcome to "Inside the Factory."

[theme music]

[triumphant music]

This isn't the usual sort of place I find a factory.

But here, tucked away amongst residential streets

in Leicester, is the Pantherella Sock Factory.

They've been making socks on this street since 1937.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): This old factory is

unlike any I've visited before.

It's packed with amazing machines.

They turnout 3/4 of a million pairs of socks a year

for men and women.

And working alongside them is a highly skilled team.

Each sock still passes through more than 15

pairs of hands on its journey from cotton thread

to cozy toes.

And tonight I'm getting hands on too,

as I discover how they make one of their best selling socks,

the Kilburn.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Along these narrow Leicester streets,

a lorry packed with yarn weaves its way to the factory.

I'm meeting production manager Simon Ellson--

- Simon. - Hello.

How are you?

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): --just as

their latest shipment has been dropped off

at a rather unusual intake bay.

Simon, do you honestly get your deliveries

dumped on the pavement?

We do.

Why?

Because this is a residential area.

And we have to get the trucks through here

and unload them as quick as possible,

so we don't block any of the residents in.

Why do you not move somewhere more convenient?

'Cause this is not convenient.

Most of the people who actually work here actually

live around these surrounding areas.

So they will actually do go home at lunchtime for a cuppa.

And if we did decide to move, it's

like we're gonna lose the whole skill set of the factory.

So this is thread or do you got yarn?

- Yarn. - Yarn.

And where is it from?

It's Egyptian.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Cotton yarn

is made from the fibers surrounding

the seeds of the cotton plant.

Most of the cotton used in the factory

is hand-picked more than 2,000 miles away

in Egypt, one of the biggest cotton

producing regions in the world.

From there the raw cotton shipped to Italy,

where it's cleaned, spun into thread, and dyed.

Then it's packed into boxes and transported here to

this tiny street in Leicester.

Do you know how much yarn's on here, Simon?

800 kilos.

And how many pairs of socks would that make?

This delivery will make approximately 20,000 pairs

of socks.

20,000 pairs.

40,000 individuals?

Yes.

Right-o.

Well, I'd like to see how it's done.

Steady.

Steady.

All the way from Egypt, this stuff.

[groans]

[laughs]

All right.

Get back out again.

Right-o.

We're out.

Can I have a go?

Be my guest.

I used to do pallets of fruit and veg in the market.

Whee!

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Still got it.

There you go.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): As our shipment of yarn

is unloaded, our sock production begins.

Each large spindle, known as a cone,

contains enough cotton to knit 25 pairs of socks.

[upbeat music]

I've taken delivery of 800 kilos of Egyptian cotton--

enough to make 20,000 pairs of socks.

The factory is staffed by a team of 100.

Entire families from the local community

have worked here for generations.

But before I can get onto the factory floor

to start knitting socks, it's a visor, not a hairnet for me.

And I'm off to quality control to get my yarn tested

by department boss Ian Greene.

Oh, Ian, what are you doing here?

We're going to check the color to make sure that that color

of delivery that we've received is exactly the same

as the last delivery, the delivery before,

all the way back to when we started

taking that color of yarn.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The factory uses 2,000

yarns on the production line.

Ian's got samples going back years.

But there's no modern computer storage here-- just

old school filing cabinets.

I've got to ask you how many shades of gray.

Please tell me there's 50.

More.

[laughter]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): To color test

my yarn we need a sample of thread, which is measured

out by this fantastic looking contraption

called a roving machine.

It's like something out of "Wallace and Gromit."

So if I talk about this, am I a roving reporter?

You could well be.

[laughs]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): A roving

is the technical term for a thicker bundle of yarn,

which is much easier to test--

GREGG WALLACE: It's like an assault course for cotton.

Right?

- GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): - -then a single thread.

That'll give us a 60-meter roving of yarn.

GREGG WALLACE: [laughs] I don't know why this is such fun.

It just is.

It's not unlike a pasta making machine.

There? IAN GREENE: Yeah.

And now once I got my sample, what do I do with it then?

We're then gonna go and look under the light cabinet

and check it for shade.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Ian's light cabinet

contains three types of light bulbs--

daylight, shop lighting, and old fashioned tungsten.

IAN GREENE: Under daylight, all of those look fairly similar?

The one at the bottom looks slightly

grayer than the other browns.

But if we go under a store's lights--

Oh, it's green.

Because the dyes that have been

used react differently to that light

than they do with the others.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Under different light sources

we see colors differently.

Is there a name for that?

It's called metamerism.

And it's one of the things that we have to avoid.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): So is my navy yarn

an exact match for Ian's 11-year-old sample?

OK.

Fingers crossed.

And tungsten.

GREGG WALLACE: Yeah, we're fine.

I would agree.

Get in.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Now my aunt's

passed Ian's light test with flying colors,

all I need is the rest of the cotton

to knit my stripey socks.

So I'm heading for the yarn store.

If I've got to find the other seven colors amongst this lot,

I'm gonna need a bit of help.

So where is my sock guru, Simon?

Simon.

- Hello, again. - Hello.

How are you?

This place is incredible.

SIMON ELLSON: We have 30 tons here at the moment.

GREGG WALLACE: Do you know how long that would

be if we tied 'em all together?

Moon and back four times over.

Would it really?

If Neil Armstrong would have known this existed,

he might have done things differently.

Yeah.

We could have yanked him up and pulled him

back again in different colors.

Definitely.

And without his feet being cold.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): You can't win 'em all.

Moving on.

I've got to find seven colors in 2,000 bins.

Yep.

Just like a flask of tea with me.

All right.

First one is Blackberry.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Right.

I'm going in.

679.

Well, hang on a minute.

Oh, uh, Blackberry.

Where's 319?

I need another 100 yards of this.

Where is 300s?

Got it!

Got it!

1,376, Hazy Blue.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): There are 12 types of yarn in here--

Where's 2,084?

- GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): - -from luxury cashmere

to recycled cotton.

They're stored on a kilometer of coded racking.

I hate it when we run out of numbers at the end.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): That's shelves to you and me.

2 Navy, 319.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): There's

enough yarn in this store room to knit 2 million socks--

2,500.

2,600.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): --one pair

for every person in Leicester.

Wow.

Yes!

Last one.

Done it.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): At the factory in Leicester,

I've got my color-approved yarn and I'm

ready to start making socks.

I'm heading to the knitting plant.

Now, it was news to me, but socks aren't sewed.

They're knitted.

And I'm meeting knitting mechanic Mark Geary.

Mark.

Hello, Gregg.

Is this a knitting machine?

MARK GEARY: It certainly is.

It's a single cylinder sock knitting machine, Gregg.

GREGG WALLACE: It's actually a bit

smaller than I thought it was gonna be,

but it's a beautiful thing.

Oh, it's nice.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The knitting plant

covers more than 460 square meters,

and is packed with 50 knitting machines.

MARK GEARY: We're running 16 hours a day,

which gives us about 6,720 socks every day, Gregg.

That's a lot of socks.

MARK GEARY: It's a lot of socks. [chuckles]

GREGG WALLACE: Tell me how it works.

Right.

First, Gregg, we've got to put the yarn up.

I'll put the cones on.

You tie 'em up.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The machine's high tech.

Brown one goes over there, Gregg.

- GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): - -but loading is still done by hand.

Green one next, Gregg.

GREGG WALLACE: These are not unlike a set of heated rollers.

They're pretty similar, aren't they?

I use 'em regularly.

I'm sure you do.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The eight different yarns are

they laced into the machine.

It's like a big and very fiddly version of your Nan's

old sewing machine.

MARK GEARY: It takes some time.

GREGG WALLACE: And a steady hand.

I mean, you had enormous tweezers

on there, a couple of little holes to get it through.

Yes.

You don't want a bottle of wine on the night

before you're threading it up.

That's for sure, Gregg.

[laughs]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): It takes

20 minutes to put my yarn up.

But that's not all I need to knit my socks.

What's those big ones in the back?

Ah.

The big ones there, Gregg, are the nylon.

They're the magic ingredient to the sock.

They give the sock the strength and elasticity.

So then we're not cotton socks at all, we're nylon socks.

We're more cotton than nylon.

Without the nylon, the cotton socks wouldn't work?

Without the nylon, you're making a dishcloth, Gregg.

[upbeat music]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): I don't want my sock ending up

in the kitchen sink, so we're using a mix

of 70% cotton and 30% nylon.

So how many socks are we making with this much thread?

Today, Gregg, you're going to make 120 socks.

That's gonna take us around 10 hours.

GREGG WALLACE: All on the same machine?

MARK GEARY: All on the same machine.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): But before we can get knitting we

need a pattern.

To collect mine, I'm heading upstairs

to the design department to meet the woman

in charge, Carol Bielak.

She's been at the factory for 32 years.

Carol.

Hello.

How many pairs of socks do you think you may have designed?

Ooh, around 6,000 or more.

Really?

CAROL BIELAK: Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: And did you design this one, the Kilburn?

I did.

Yes.

We play around with color, with different scales of stripes.

And this one we found was really well

balanced throughout the sock.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Nowadays most

socks are designed by computer.

But Carol first drew the patent for my sock

by hand on graph paper.

In this particular sock we have 475 courses.

And courses is each row.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): My sock pattern is 10 rows navy.

So, from here, the machine will start knitting.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And the colored stripes

are all nine rows.

GREGG WALLACE: And then they go nine times

and that makes up the green.

CAROL BIELAK: Yeah.

Then 10 times again makes up the blue.

Nine times again, the green.

CAROL BIELAK: Exactly, all the way through.

Crying out loud.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): But the pattern

isn't just graph paper.

Here you will see there's 18 pages--

What?

- -of different steps to make this sock,

saying how many courses, where it

should knit the heel and toe.

GREGG WALLACE: My grandmother used

to have knitting patterns that was

a quarter of the size of that.

[chuckles]

GREGG WALLACE: So how do you get all of that information

into a sewing machine?

The knitting machine--

it's all stored on a USB stick.

Thank you, Carol.

Bless you.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And bless your cotton socks.

[laughs]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Now I've got my knitting pattern,

I'm heading back down to the knitting plant.

And there's no hanging about.

Mark's raring to go.

Green button, Gregg.

We're not a touch screen.

We're not that modern.

You ready?

This is a historic moment.

It's the first time anyone in the UK

has ever seen a great sock.

[upbeat music]

MARK GEARY: We're making the sock.

That finger has launched so many products,

it's unbelievable.

The magic finger.

From cream cakes to socks, that finger.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): This crazy contraption is spinning

at 200 revolutions per minute.

To make each sock takes two kilometers of yarn.

After it comes off the cone, it goes through the yarn guide.

Then the yarn counting sensor takes a record of the amount

of thread being used, which is kept up by the yarn

take up devices before it passes through the feeders

ready to be Fed to the needles.

Whoa.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): All the threads end

up in the center of the machine, where

the knitting magic happens.

Well, that's incredible.

In the mouth of that monster is the beginnings of a sock.

I kind of imagined it would be flat,

and the needles would go backwards and forwards

and a sock would emerge.

But this is, like, inside a tube.

The needles are housed in a cylinder.

The cylinder is continuously rotating.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The round

cylinder is called the dial.

And it's loaded with 200 needles, which knit each sock

as an individual tube.

Looking down into the mouth of a mythical beast.

And the teeth of that beast, they're all the needles.

But they're constantly doing this.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The needles

inside the machine aren't pointed

like knitting needles at home.

They are bent at the top like crochet hooks,

and are called latch needles.

As they revolve three times a second, they catch the yarn,

make a loop, and add a stitch to the row below.

The computer program tells the machine

when to feed in a new color.

MARK GEARY: In this one sock alone

we have 200 stitches on one course, 475 courses,

in total 95,000 different stitches.

No way.

Nearly 100,000 stitches in a sock?

How long do you reckon it's taking to make one sock?

MARK GEARY: It's just a tad over five minutes.

GREGG WALLACE: In the world of automated production

that sounds like a lot.

But when you consider, really, they are still knitting

needles, that is immense.

It's not bad going.

As good as my mum is, she'd never do it that quick.

[laughs]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And like clockwork,

five minutes later--

MARK GEARY: There she blows, Gregg.

Hey!

- GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): - -out pops the first ever Gregg sock.

- Wait a minute. - What's all that?

Look.

It's got a hole at both ends.

That's not a sock, that's a leg warmer.

[chuckles]

I can't believe you went through all that

and it's not sewn up at the end.

I'm a bit disappointed, to be honest.

[chuckles]

It's a beautifully made sock, although I

thought it'd be complete.

Well, what we have to do, Gregg,

is take that to another department and close the toe.

Oh, really?

So are we going to make the other 119 socks now then?

Ah.

Not before we get the sock passed by our quality control

department.

She's gonna send it back.

It's got a hole in the end.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Right now I don't have a "hole"

lot of confidence in my sock.

But I'm heading off to quality control

where I'm meeting Alla Aye.

- [knock on door] - Alla?

Come in.

Yeah.

Can you show me how to quality control my sock, please?

Yes, I will.

Now, listen.

I'm fond of this sock.

All right?

So be gentle with it.

OK.

The first thing to do is to check the pattern.

See if the pattern is the same?

Yes.

Two green, two green, two gray, two gray, two brown,

two brown, two blue, two blue, two pink, two pink, two green.

Good.

Pass.

Oh, I'll go now.

No.

Don't go yet.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Alla's

putting my sock through a battery of eight tests.

ALLA AYE: Yeah.

It's good.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The factory produces

10 different sizes of sock.

Mine needs to be a perfect 12.

Good.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): That's another tick,

but it's not over yet for my sock.

The next step is the leg lateral and the foot lateral.

We are checking it on the rack here.

The rack?

Alla is not kidding.

This instrument of torture measures the

give in the sock width-wise.

OK.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): My sock is 9 centimeters wide,

but this dastardly machine stretches it

to more than double.

ALLA AYE: It's supposed to be 23.

It's 23.

Good.

GREGG WALLACE: Why do you do that?

ALLA AYE: Because we don't want it to be too tight on the foot

or in the leg.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): It's the nylon thread

that makes the sock stretchy.

And now the foot?

ALLA AYE: Yes.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Nylon's less than half

a millimeter thick.

But this thread can stretch to twice as long as cotton yarn.

23.5.

Good.

You are torturing socks.

I love doing this work.

I've been doing it for the past 15 years.

Now we want to check the legs.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): How much more can one sock take?

Good.

I've done it?

Yes.

Get in there, sock.

[gears grinding]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): There's still a hole in my sock

where the toe should be, but that's a result.

Good.

That shouldn't make me that happy, but it has.

Good.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

[upbeat music]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): So my toeless sock has been stretched

to within an inch of its life.

She passed it.

Fantastic.

119 to go.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And now we can

crack on with the full batch.

Sock away.

MARK GEARY: Sock away.

[upbeat music]

It's just a part of life that feet smell--

some slightly more than others.

But can socks help or hinder the stinky situation?

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): There's

a huge range of socks out there, and some claim

to prevent pong altogether.

But before I put them to the test,

I want to know what causes the whiff in the first place.

I've come to Northumbria University

to meet medical microbiologist Dr. Clare Lanyon--

Hello, there.

- CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): - -who specializes

in the science of stink.

Why do we get smelly feet?

The reason we get particularly smelly feet

is there's a lot of bacteria on our feet.

We have a lot more sweat glands per square inch of our feet

than we do in any other part of the body.

So when we sweat, it creates a thin layer of water.

That layer of water likes to interact with the bacteria

and fungi on our feet.

And that's what produces the smells.

It's a dream team for odors to be produced.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): But can I

defeat this stinky dream team by choosing the right sock?

I'm going to road test three different types,

wearing each pair for a 10-hour day

before putting them under Clare's microscope.

Day one, and I'm testing 100% cotton.

I really don't feel like doing any exercise.

But in the name of science and fairness,

I'm gonna go on a run.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): Cotton is

a naturally breathable fiber.

I'm hoping that helps.

[gasps] Day two of the stinky sock challenge,

and today we're trying out synthetic socks.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): These ones aren't as breathable,

but claim to soak up less sweat.

Just one more pair to go.

And we're testing out the antibacterial socks.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): These are supposed

to kill the bacteria-causing smells using

copper woven into the sock.

After three hot and sticky days, the courier's

arrived to transport my socks to Clare's lab.

- All right. - Thanks, Gary.

Give me your number. Have a good day.

- Bye. - Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Sorry, Gary.

[upbeat music]

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): A week

later, and the tests are back.

I mean, the results are pretty shocking, really.

Oh, no.

[laughs]

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): First Clare shows me

the culture taken directly from my bare feet,

to assess the odors that they produce

naturally without socks.

CHERRY HEALEY: That's my bacteria family.

And everybody has bacteria on their feet,

regardless of how clean that you are

or how clean that you think that you're going to be.

What does it smell like?

Oh, it's very yeasty.

Yeah.

Very bready.

So, Clare, of the three pairs of socks that I lovingly donated

to you-- you're welcome--

which of them was the least stinky?

I think we should have a look.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): Clare took swabs at the bacteria

from inside each sock, which were then carefully cultured

for five days in the lab.

So which sock is the least stinky?

First up, cotton.

CHERRY HEALEY: Is this what you would expect?

I think this is exactly what we would expect to see.

You haven't got one particular organism dominating the other.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): But has

the mix of bacteria on the cotton contributed

to the aroma of my feet?

It smells similar to your skin swab.

Still got that yeasty, fermenty smell on there.

So nothing particularly bad has grown as a result of you

wearing that cotton sock.

So that's a good result for the cotton socks.

Exactly.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): So what about the synthetic sock?

CHERRY HEALEY: Oh, wow.

CLARE LANYON: Look at the comparison there.

That's very, very different.

That's really uniform.

It looks like a-- CLARE LANYON: Well--

- -just like a gel.

CLARE LANYON: --that's because there's so much bacteria

on there we can't actually see the individual colonies

anymore.

It's designed to pull the sweat away from the foot.

Mm.

But in doing so, it holds it into that material.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): But does this make

the synthetic sock smellier?

Yeah.

Are your eyes watering?

You can smell a little.

I feel really bonded to you, Clare.

Because no one's smelt me like you've smelt me.

CLARE LANYON: It is quite pongy.

[gags] Ooh, that is--

that is spicy.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): Last up, antibacterial.

CHERRY HEALEY: The antibacterial sock, I would

expect to be much cleaner.

And that is the claim of the sock.

They tend to have copper fiber woven into them.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): Metals like copper have

a natural ability to kill bacteria

by rupturing their cell walls.

CLARE LANYON: But we've got a domination

of a particular organism.

And this organism is a spore former, which means it's very

resistant in the environment.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): Bacteria which form

spores are tougher to kill.

And it looks like my anti-bac sock

has struggled to do the job.

This organism produces very smelly smells.

CHERRY HEALEY: Oh, gosh, it smells like wee.

It does smell like urine.

The sock that claimed to be antibacterial

reduced the number of bacteria that we were able to recover

post-wearing, so it didn't stop the growth of the bacteria that

created the most pungent smell.

Is there a sock that completely eliminates bacteria?

No.

And we wouldn't be able to survive and live

without bacteria in and on our body.

They're very much our friends.

The bacteria is there to regulate skin health.

It's there as part of our first line of defense.

And we shouldn't be frightened of having bacteria on our feet.

It's a good thing.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): So while all

my socks did give off a hint of a whiff,

there was a clear winner.

Cotton.

Well, can I have my socks back?

Unfortunately no, because we now have to treat

- them as a biohazard material. - [laughs]

CLARE LANYON: So, unfortunately Cherry,

they've been incinerated.

My socks are a biohazard.

I think that's where I leave.

[upbeat music]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): In Leicester, we're over 13 hours

into the production process.

And my 120 socks are still a holy mess.

Get your socks.

They're lovely.

Keep your feet warm.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): I'm meeting my mate Simon again.

Hello.

I have got a basket of socks.

SIMON ELLSON: Yes.

What on Earth is that?

SIMON ELLSON: This is our sock sucker.

A what?

Our sock sucker.

What does a sock sucker do?

It's sucks a sock inside out.

[laughter]

Why do you want to suck a sock inside out, Simon?

Because on the next process, where the toe has to be closed,

the socks have to be inside out.

GREGG WALLACE: Is there a technical name for that?

It's a sock turner, but we like to call it sock sucker.

May I?

Definitely.

'Cause that doesn't look particularly technical.

[upbeat music]

Put the top end in first.

Onto the pole.

Now let it go.

[laughs]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The sock sucker

is like a powerful vacuum cleaner nozzle.

Ah!

- Fantastic. - Brilliant.

Fantastic.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And who hasn't

lost a sock up one of them?

How many socks can an experienced sock sucker suck?

A sock sucker can suck, in a day, 9,000 socks.

That's about 20 socks a minute.

Really?

Really very quick.

Can you try me, see how many I can do?

Definitely.

Ready, steady, go.

[upbeat music]

Oh, it's getting 'em off this.

Sock suckers!

Look at that.

I'm not doing bad.

How many seconds left?

MARK GEARY: Two seconds left.

13 socks.

Yes!

That's not bad.

But pass me a sock.

They're not turned properly.

You've got no idea how crestfallen I am.

[laughs]

I thought I was doing really well.

If you don't stretch it all the way up to the pole,

it won't turn itself completely around.

So I've got 120 of these to do.

Right?

And that's my batch.

Look at me.

I've mastered this machine now.

Don't need Simon.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): No one saw that.

Right?

I don't need Simon.

[laughs]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Fun and games aside, it's

an essential part of the process to get

the socks inside out before the toes are stitched together.

Last one.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Six minutes later--

hey, presto-- 10 dozen inside out socks.

I'm taking them to the toe linking

department, where I'm meeting expert

sock finisher Sharon Izzet.

Sharon.

Hello, Gregg.

I've made a load of socks, but they need fixing.

Yeah?

'Cause they've got an hole at both ends.

That's right.

And what do you do?

I sew one of the ends up.

How do you link the two ends of the sock?

Well, if you can see all the little stitches there,

you have to thread it on the points.

You have to get the points in those holes?

Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Sharon

has to match up the stitches perfectly

from the top and bottom edges of the toe.

Wow.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): If she misses a stitch,

it'll mean the toe has a hole in it.

Well, that is really, really tricky.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And that means one ruined sock.

GREGG WALLACE: Why do you do this job?

SHARON IZZET: 'Cause I like it.

It's enjoyable to see the end product.

I've been here 33 years.

You're kidding me.

Since you were five years old?

Yeah, I wish.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The machine

revolves every four minutes.

If I wasn't bothering her, Sharon could

do four or five socks at once.

GREGG WALLACE: How old is that machine?

SHARON IZZET: This machine I've had 33 years.

GREGG WALLACE: Wow.

Good bit of old fashioned engineering.

- Right? - It is.

Yeah.

Old Faithful, I call it.

GREGG WALLACE: 'Cause I've been going since the '60s,

and I break down at least three times a month.

[laughs]

So now what's gonna happen to that sock?

It'll go around to the knives.

It will cut the excess yarn off.

And then it will get stitched up.

And then the excess thread gets cut off. And then the excess thread gets cut off.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The factory

does have knitting machines that turn out

socks with toes already closed.

But for their top of the range products--

The human touch is best.

And then when it's done the clippers,

hopefully we should have a perfect sock.

GREGG WALLACE: Look at that.

And how many socks do you do?

About 360 a day.

So how long does it take you to do each sock?

About 45 seconds.

Wow.

That's a skillful job.

It is very skilled.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Today I've knitted over 11 million

stitches to make my batch of socks,

which beats my previous knitting record by, well, 11 million.

But as Ruth's been finding out,

during the First World War, using the right stitch

could save lives.

[military music]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): More than 3/4

of a million British soldiers died during the Great War.

[whistle blows]

Charge!

[yelling]

As many as 75,000 of those casualties

could probably have been prevented

by a simple pair of socks.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): To discover the significance

of the humble sock during World War I,

I've come to this village hall in Hampshire

to meet Joyce Meader, a military historical knitting expert.

RUTH GOODMAN: What on Earth is so important about socks

in the First World War?

You only got two pairs by the British Army.

Men would wash them out in these grubby holes,

and either pop them under their armpits to dry out

or in their groin.

But that didn't help the trench foot.

What exactly is trench foot.

It's a fungal infection that looks a bit like frostbite.

OK.

And it just eats your feet away because they're

soggy all the time.

And they end up having legs and feet amputated.

[somber music]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): The trench warfare

of the First World War battlefields created

appalling, sodden conditions.

The suffering was described in letters home.

"I am wet through to the skin.

I have heard men scream with the pain.

How can you expect men to live in this?"

Trench foot was rampant, and in severe cases fatal, as it

led to gangrene and sepsis.

So all these men go through an enormous amount of suffering

for the lack of socks.

JOYCE MEADER: Yes.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Minister of War,

Lord Kitchener, drafted in an army of women

back home to knit supplies for men at the front.

But some of the homemade socks had rough seams that were

hard on the soldiers' feet.

Men are getting blisters.

And, of course, if you've got a blister then

you get infection in it.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): So in 1915,

Kitchener issued a new sock design

to knitting groups around the country to try

and solve the painful issue.

JOYCE MEADER: There is this absolutely wonderful thing

called Kitchener stitch, which is a way to finish off the toe

so you don't get a seam--

OK.

- -which can rub onto your toes when you're marching.

Nobody can find if Kitchener actually invented this.

[laughs]

It's just got his name.

If nothing, it just got his name.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Whether it was devised

by Kitchener or not, this clever stitch grafted together the two

sides of the sock smoothly.

So there was no painful seam at the toe.

So it's a stitch done with a needle--

RUTH GOODMAN: Oh.

JOYCE MEADER: --to join the two together.

Yeah.

Well, theoretically, it looks fine.

[laughs] Could I pass all my socks on to you

for you to do the Kitchener stitch?

I don't think I was cut out for 1915.

[laughs]

Attention!

[military music]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): To put the Kitchener stitch

to the test, we've enlisted the help of a band

of World War I re-enactors.

Gentlemen, I understand you're in need of some new socks.

Yes.

[laughter]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Joyce has brought along an odd pair

for each soldier--

one Kitchener stitch on the left foot, and a homemade rough seam

on the right.

Hopefully, if you march about for ages

and get nice sore feet, we'll get

some sort of indication of whether the Kitchener

stitch really works.

Indeed, yeah.

Well, thank you very much, gentlemen.

Please take it away.

[laughs]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): The men

are in the uniform of the Royal Warwickshire Infantry Regiment,

which fought at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.

They'll undertake World War I combat

drills in exact replica kit, with packs of almost 50 pounds.

Detail ready for maneuvers, Sir.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): How will

the sock stand up to 40 minutes of training

on a sweltering day?

Left, right, left, right, halt!

Eyes!

[whistle blows]

Bayonets!

Charge!

[yelling]

[music playing]

So what's the verdict?

For me, that one's more comfortable

particularly because I can feel the seam under the pads

of the toes there.

So I think that would get quite uncomfortable after a while.

It's really worked its way around, hasn't it?

You'd get blisters from that probably quite quickly.

So how are you finding it?

Can definitely see a good difference between

the Kitchener and pre-war.

This ridge here, after a mile, it will

begin to turn into a blister.

Yeah.

That is quite-- there's quite a lot there, isn't it?

A hard piece. Yeah.

Like, a hard piece--

Yeah.

- -right on the end of your toes.

Yeah. Yeah.

So what we think then is that there is a real difference in--

- in feel. - Yeah.

RUTH GOODMAN: So Kitchener stitch is actually

a thing, and a good thing.

Yeah.

I like the kitchen of socks.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): So a simple change

to a stitch showed the importance of the humble sock.

It made such an enormous difference

to the comfort and indeed the fighting

fitness of millions of Tommies.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): At the factory, I'm over 15 hours

into production of the Kilburn sock.

My batch have had their toes stitched together.

So I am heading to the wet process department

to meet factory veteran AD Markham.

He's been in socks his whole working life, as it were.

Sir, I'm told to bring my batch of socks to you.

That's right.

What happens to 'em now?

They'll go into the washing machine.

Why are we gonna wash these socks?

No one-- no one's worn 'em.

What it will do is relax the yarn,

dampen it, make it better for pressing, give a nice finish.

Just throw 'em in there with that lot?

AD MARKHAM: Yeah, straight in.

Pull down.

Mind your fingers.

The green button.

That one?

Yep.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Unlike a washing machine

at home, this cleans the socks using

steam mixed with fabric softener heated to 140 degrees Celsius.

[hissing]

Frightened the life out of me, that did. Frightened the life out of me, that did.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Washing

gets rid of any dirt the socks have picked up in the factory,

and shrinks the fibers to give them a smooth finish.

So how many socks can that handle

Up to 750 socks, 30 kilograms.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): After 3 minutes, they're done.

AD MARKHAM: I told you, finished.

Do you know, my first job when I left

school was in a dry cleaners?

Was it?

Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And ready for the next process.

Right.

Off to the ironing room.

Let's go.

I don't mind ironing.

You know, I'm pretty good at shirts.

Off we go.

I've never in my life ironed a pair of socks.

[laughs] What is that?

This is the ironing machine.

How many socks does it do?

30 legs on there.

The boards are very hot.

- Ooh, crikey. - Yeah.

Hot legs. Right?

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

I've been working out.

[chuckles]

GREGG WALLACE: You've got chef's hands.

You want to have a go then?

GREGG WALLACE: Well, you've got to be quite quick, haven't you?

Yeah.

Well, hey!

It's not easy if you're-- oh!

[laughs]

The other way around.

[laughs]

Ah!

[laughs]

That's level.

Level the toe.

Oh.

They should be together there.

He keeps-- every time I put one on he alters it.

Got to all be level.

Now that's perfect.

These lines are out lot.

[groans] Oh, get out of here.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): I can't hold up production,

so we need to ramp it up to full speed.

But this is one hot job.

Ah!

I don't like it when they move.

All right, mate, hat's off to you.

Because that is skillful and hot.

Can you show me what's in this machine?

I can.

[waltz music]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): As my socks waltz off

into the machine, the steam and the hot metal legs

give them the perfect press at 130 degrees

Celsius in just three minutes.

And the attention to detail doesn't end there.

GREGG WALLACE: There's a little clamp in here

pulling the socks up and down.

What's it doing?

Basically get them down to the right leg length

for your socks, 12-inch, so 120 socks all

measure exactly the same size.

My mum used to do that before I went into school every day.

I had to stop her when I was 17.

[laughs]

People were laughing at me.

As it's disappearing around the corner, where is it going then?

Going into a drying chamber, 145 degrees in there.

GREGG WALLACE: Why did you need to dry it?

AD MARKHAM: So it sets the shape of the sock.

No one would believe that much attention goes into something

as simple as a sock.

No, they wouldn't until they know.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): A bit like me, the socks

are too hot to handle.

So an automatic arm pulls the sock off the leg

and sends it down a slide, stacking them neatly

into piles ready to be paired.

[upbeat music]

It's been over 16 hours since my cotton

yarn entered the factory.

My socks have been knitted, tortured, and steamed.

Now they're off to the packing department

for one last test by examiner Maxine James.

I can tell you right now this one's perfect.

[laughs]

Take your tape measure.

That's a foot.

It's slightly ironic that the sock is a foot.

[laughs] Check your linkings.

Linkings.

Linkings.

That's the showing of the toe. Right?

It is. Yeah.

These are fine.

Then I'll check the heels.

Why are you checking the heels?

Just in case there's any more "oles" in the "eels."

GREGG WALLACE: Holes in an "eel."

Yeah.

You drop your H's like I do.

[laughs]

And then start pairing.

Maxine, seriously, do you have to look at every single shot

that comes through?

Yes, I do.

And how many do you do at a time?

About 10 dozen an hour.

What?

You want this to come out--

leave here absolutely perfect.

MAXINE JAMES: Of course I do.

The customer expects them to be perfect. The customer expects them to be perfect.

Even if they roll 'em up into a little ball and are throwing

'em the drawer afterwards?

Well, you shouldn't do that, really, because it affects

the quality of the yarn.

So what I would do is just give 'em a little fold like that.

Don't tell me you're going to hang 'em up.

[laughs] And then just place 'em in the drawer like that.

I can't believe, actually, that so much

of what goes on here is done by eye and by hand.

Yes, it is.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): So the Gregg socks measure

up to Maxine's high standards.

Then Yvonne Taylor takes over to iron a stamp on each pair.

Put your finger on that. Yeah.

See, on that.

Press it down hard.

That's enough.

GREGG WALLACE: You said press it down hard.

Oh, look at that. YVONNE TAYLOR: There you are.

I'm good at this lot.

YVONNE TAYLOR: They're lovely.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And a care label is stitched on.

Are you gonna stick a special one

on this saying that I made it?

No, I'm afraid not.

You're missing a trick.

I'll talk to the management.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Finally, my socks

are ready for boxing up by Marie James.

Proof the factory is a family affair,

she's Maxine sister-in-law, and must be the quickest

sock packer in the Midlands.

It takes Marie just 20 minutes to pack

my 60 pairs of finished socks.

Thank you, Marie.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And now they're

ready to head out the door.

In dispatch, my favorite sock sucker, Simon.

Hello, Simon.

Hi.

What you have here are beautifully made,

completed, packaged socks.

I did that.

Well, some of it.

[music playing]

How many pair of socks are you stocking in this warehouse?

We stock probably around 210,000 pairs at this moment.

GREGG WALLACE: I don't suppose you know the monetary value

of those socks, do you?

It's just under 3 million pounds worth.

Under 3 million quids worth of socks.

Under 3 million quids worth of socks.

- Yes. - [laughs]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The sock stocks in the factory

are ready for dispatch across the country.

In the UK most are sold in the Southeast,

but they've got lots of fans in Scotland too.

And they're shipped abroad.

They're especially keen on traditional British socks

in America and Japan.

And unlike any other factory I visited,

we're back out on the pavement.

Fabulous, my friend.

How many do you send out every day?

Roughly around 2,500 pairs a day.

So how many is that a week?

15,000 pairs a week.

15,000 pairs of socks.

Right.

Come on.

Let's go.

Let's put the kettle on, shall we?

Definitely.

It's a lot of work, all that making socks, innit?

Do you know what?

I've never, ever considered how my socks are made.

But now I've seen the level of precision and care

in this factory, I am really impressed.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Each pair of my colorful socks

contains nearly 200,000 stitches.

I love the wonderful, crazy collection

of machines that produce over 30,000 pairs a week.

And I really love that they've all been touched

by highly skilled human hands.

So from the cotton fields of Egypt

via Italy to the streets of Leicester,

that is quite a journey for the humble sock.

[theme music]