Page Industries Ltd., located in Bangalore, India are the exclusive licensees of JOCKEY International Inc. (USA) for manufacture and distribution of the JOCKEY^® brand Innerwear/Leisurewear for Men and Women in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

The company was set up in 1994 with the key objective of bringing the world renowned brand “JOCKEY^®” to India. Its promoters, Genomal family, had then been associated with JOCKEY International Inc. for 44 years as their sole licensee in the Philippines. Page Industries became a public company in March 2007 and is quoted in the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India.

In the early 1990s, when globalization was just unfolding in India, innerwear was a low involvement category for consumers. There was no organized international innerwear brand retailed in India. Page Industries Ltd identified this need and introduced a wide range of quality products for men and women employing modern global marketing and distribution methods.  

The company commenced operations in the year 1995 with the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of Jockey^® products. As of the end 2008, the company employs over 6,000 people with manufacturing operations spread over three plants in Bangalore totaling 500,000 square feet of space. Page Industries commands wide spread pan India distribution encompassing over 16,000 retail outlets in 1,100 cities and towns and has revolutionized the innerwear market by launching exclusive JOCKEY^® outlets across India numbering 50 as of end 2008.

In 2005 and 2009, the company was awarded the “best licensee of the year” by Jockey International Inc., as recognition for its outstanding achievement in establishing and strengthening the JOCKEY^® brand as a market leader in India.

In August 2008, Page Industries’ promoters Genomal family and Jockey International USA celebrated their golden anniversary of association and both groups renewed their commitment to an even more exciting next 50 years.

1880: Samuel Cooper's sons, Henry S. Cooper and Charles F. Cooper, became major stockholders in Cooper, Wells and Co. The company moved ahead, sometimes by chance, but always with a sharp eye for new markets.

1890s 1892: Samuel T. Cooper passed away at the age of 68. It was a great shock to the people of St. Joseph, Michigan and beyond. The St. Joseph Herald newspaper wrote, "...his pleasant voice, his familiar figure would be heard and seen no more with us on earth." The death of their father moved the Cooper brothers in profound ways.

1892: Older brother, Henry S. Cooper, left the company for a position with the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan. Willis and Charles Cooper remained in the line of work they knew best and took leadership positions with the Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company in Illinois.

1892: The Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company continued to grow and moved to the larger mill across the northern border in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kenosha was ideally situated between the burgeoning markets of Chicago and Milwaukee and the Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company wanted to be there to satisfy consumers' need for comfort.

1895: Willis Cooper quickly made his mark at Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company and was made General Manager with broad influence over manufacturing and sales. He also acquired an ownership share. Willis installed younger brother Charles, who had grown up around spinning and knitting, as General Superintendent in the plant.

1896: As the Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company grew, the Coopers acquired significant stock in the company. True to Samuel Cooper's original commitment, the Coopers insisted on the finest quality cotton and long-fiber wool for their products.

1897: The Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company adopted the brand Black Cat, which became recognized across the country for first-class stockings and hosiery for men, women and children.

1898: Willis and Charles Cooper continued to increase their financial share of the Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company, and they moved the company into an ambitious new direction: Men's Underwear.

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.

1912: The new Cooper union suit is branded as the Kenosha Klosed Krotch. By this time, the innovative Kenosha Klosed Krotch union suit had risen to the top of the underwear market. The design was patented, and the company sold all the union suits it could make and had to license other companies to manufacture the garment to keep up with the seemingly endless demand.

1912: One of the Cooper Underwear Company's most significant contributions to the underwear industry in addition to underwear, was advertising. Henry Cooper was a pioneer in advertising. That year, Cooper hired Joseph C. Leyendecker, illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post, to create the "Man on the Bag" image, which became a staple of the company's brand identity. The "Man on the Bag" illustration is considered a classic American advertising image.

1912: Cooper Underwear Company separated completely from Black Cat hosiery.

1917: America entered World War I.

1918: Cooper Underwear opened a new plant in Manistee, Michigan to increase production capacity during World War I. The armistice in November would mean an oversupply in the textile industry and hard times for Cooper Underwear.

1919: Shortly after the war, the Kenosha Klosed Krotch finally went into eclipse. Reasons were many - some logical, others unforeseen. The mass production of cast iron bath tubs made daily bathing commonplace in most middle class homes. Among the advantages of routine bathing was that a full-body suit of undergarments was no longer necessary to keep outer garments fresh.

1920: Young veterans of WWI were now returning stateside with a preference for the woven boxers and a sleeveless ribbed knit "skivvie shirt" - styles that were military issue during the war. Boxers and skivvie shirts gave the wearer a sense of freedom that the Roaring Twenties would only encourage.

1921: The Cooper Underwear Company entered the hosiery market, introducing a full line of stockings for men, women and children. The line sold well and added considerably to company revenues.

1924: Henry Cooper died in 1924, leaving Robert, his son, alone at the helm to try to pick up the company's pace. Robert's cousin, the orphan son of the late Charles Cooper, had long exhibited a passion for the company. Ralph had worked his way from factory hand to a management position and sought to take a more active role in turning the company around.

1928: Ralph Cooper assembled a plan to borrow money, buy a majority interest in the company from Robert and other family members, and blaze new trails. Robert would move to California and run the distribution side of the company for the Western states. It was an agreeable solution except that it came on the eve of the country's worst financial panic ever: the Great Depression.

1928: Arthur Kneibler was hired by Cooper Underwear to head the sales and marketing team. Not long after he joined the company, he became known as the originator of one of the great milestones in the history of underwear, the Jockey® short.

1929: The Cooper Underwear Company, which had long used "Cooper's" in its marketing materials, changed its official name to "Cooper's, Inc.", reflecting more diverse product offerings while emphasizing its family origins.

1929: Cooper's developed the Singleton. This was a more interesting new-style union suit with short legs and a sleeveless top. The Cooper's Singleton was packaged in cellophane bags - a first in the underwear trade - and this turned out to be a true selling point in modern self-service apparel stores. The Singleton and its innovative packaging helped the company get through the Great Depression.

1930: During the Great Depression a large infusion of much-needed cash came to Cooper's from Ralph Cooper's brother-in-law, Gilbert S. Lance. Lance was a member of the Simmons family, owners of the Simmons Mattress Company which was also based in Kenosha. Gilbert Lance's money along with Ralph Cooper's passion for the business joined and the heartfelt commitment of the Cooper's employees set the company on a new and successful course.

1930: Harry Wolf Sr. became an independent auditor of Cooper's beginning a relationship with the company he would one day own.

1934: Mid-1934 Arthur Kneibler received a post card from a friend visiting the French Riviera. It showed a man in a bikini style swimsuit. A light went off in his head. Kneibler saw not a swim suit but underwear for the common man. Kneibler had been pondering something new and innovative in underwear, and this post card was the inspiration. The underwear industry's biggest breakthrough ever was born - the Jockey® brief. Unlike any underwear before, it provided men with "masculine support," available at that time only through the use of an athletic supporter, sometimes called a "jock strap." To discretely describe the function of the new-fangled underwear, Cooper's branded it the Jockey® (JOCK-ey) brief.

1934: The Jockey® short was a premium product and needed a premium image to set it apart. Kneibler decided to package Jockey® shorts wrapped in cellophane. He remembered the success of the Singleton; due in part to the attractive, clear package that brought underwear to the front of the store along with belts, hats and other men's fine accessories.

1935: In January 1935, Cooper's was ready to launch the Jockey short. Chicago's popular Marshall Field & Company agreed to an elaborate display in the store and windows including posters and a full-size cutout in the window featuring a model wearing the seemingly risquè (for the times) garment. Jockey would definitely attract attention. By noon of the product's debut, the store had sold out its stock of 600 packages and, in the next two weeks, sold 12,000 more. This performance was repeated in many stores across the country. The Jockey® short became an instant sensation.

1935: The Jockey® Y-Front® brief was invented and became Cooper's hottest item. The Y-Front® brief become another important innovation in the history of underwear. The Y-Front® brief evolved from the knowledge that the main support in the original Jockey® brief, which had no opening (fly), was carried by the seams that ran up the front of each leg. The Y-Front®, in effect, improved upon the support of the original Jockey® brief.

1935: The success of the Y-Front® brief enabled the design of Jockey products with longer legs - Midway®, Overknees and Long silhouettes. Cooper's coupled this product success with a period of creativity in marketing, merchandising and innovation that the industry hadn't seen since the debut of the Kenosha Klosed Krotch in 1909.

1936: International markets began to express interest in the company's innovative products and Cooper's signed its first international license agreement with the J.R. Moodie company in Canada. That same year, European export agents began placing orders for Cooper's products.

1938: At a retail convention in Chicago, Cooper's hosted one of the first Underwear Fashion Shows, featuring "The Cellophane Wedding." Always eager to challenge convention, but not good taste, Cooper's Cellophane Wedding demonstrated that the well-dressed man - with his bride at his side - had Jockey® underwear on underneath. Pictures appeared in every major newspaper and magazine across the globe.

1938: Cooper's signed a license agreement with the Lyle & Scott Company in Scotland to manufacture cotton briefs and undershirts. Lyle & Scott implemented the Jockey selling program - fixtures, stride forms, size charts and sales booklets such as Cooper's handout entitled "Retail Selling Made Easy."

1938: Also that same year, Cooper's signed a license agreement with MacRae Knitting Mills in Australia. MacRae had recently developed a brand of swimwear that itself was destined for greatness. The company's chairman, Alisdair MacRae, knew the look of a winning brand and was immediately ready to sign an agreement with Cooper's.

1939: A Cooper's salesman invented a countertop dispenser to organize sizes and styles of underwear. It highlighted the array of styles for the retailer. The salesman commented, "Man, did that contraption ever sell Jockey® underwear." Cooper's quickly developed this fixture for distribution to retailers across the United States.

1940: To protect and promote the Jockey® brand name, Cooper's commissioned well known sculptor and painter, Frank Hoffman, to produce the Jockey Boy image that symbolized pride in the brand. This original bronze figure was just short of one foot in height, and it was reproduced to precise dimensions in the point-of-purchase figure. It served as the company's trademark for five decades.

1941: America enters World War II.

1942: Cooper's contracted with Swiss licensee, Vollmoeller Knitting Works, located in Uster, just north of Zurich. Even before WWII, Swiss men developed an affinity for Jockey® shorts. When wartime trade blockades ended the importation of luxury items like American underwear, the demand went unfilled. That is when Hans Vollmoeller negotiated the licensing agreement with management in Kenosha, the details of which were settled by mail and Teletype.

1945: During WWII, Jockey contributed to the military effort, making parachutes and keeping men on the war front, as well as the home front, comfortable in a full range of Jockey® styles.

1946: Jockey was a champion on its way to becoming a legend. No claim was too great, including an endorsement from baseball's home run king, Babe Ruth. Athlete endorsements would remain an important merchandising tool for the company in years to come.

1947: The Jockey® brand name was stitched into the waistband of the underwear for this first time. Jockey highlighted this industry first with ads stating, "Look for the Brand on the Band" - two famous trademarks - "Jockey®" and "Y-Front®."

1948: In a search for a new mill to make woven boxer shorts, Cooper's worked with Giffin Manufacturing, in the town of Carlisle Kentucky. Cooper's became one of Giffin's first customers. Harry Wolf liked the quality of Giffin and soon made a minority investment in Giffin to ensure long-term Cooper's production at the plant.

1950: While licensees in Europe thrived, Cooper's sought other partnering opportunities in South America and signed Licensee Agreements with companies in Argentina, Columbia and Peru.

1951: Cooper's expanded operations to Millen, Georgia, its first plant in the deep south. In this mill, workers cut fabric, sewed Jockey® shorts and undershirts, and packaged them for distribution.

1954: Cooper's advertised in the first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.

1956: Cooper's opened another plant in Belzoni, Mississippi. In addition to cutting fabric, sewing Jockey shorts and undershirts, the new plant also knit cotton into fabric at the front end of the process. The new plants in the South were highly efficient because they were equipped with modern machines and highly-skilled labor and management.

1958: Cooper's introduced Jockey® Skants^™ briefs, the company's first foray into fashion underwear. These low-cut briefs were thoroughly modern and demonstrated that European styling was already influencing consumers and retailers in the United States. Jockey® Skants^™ garments enjoyed substantial success among a growing market of American males who were not squeamish about fashion.

1958: Cooper's purchased its first TV advertising. The humorous spot was read live by Jack Parr on the Tonight Show. At first glance, it looked like a debacle, but it became a hugely popular ad for Cooper's.

1960: Harry Wolf Sr., a prominent Chicago businessman, becomes president of Cooper's.

1960: With international licensees in Australia, Europe, and South America. Asia was the next logical step. In 1960, Cooper's signed a license agreement with a key partner in the Philippines.

1961: European licensees produced classic style briefs with a lower, more modern cut. The Jockey® Low Rise brief was born and became a huge success in Europe.

1961: The Jockey® Half-boy trademark was introduced.

1965: The next major step in modernizing men's underwear came in this year. With the success in Europe, Cooper's introduced the Jockey® Life® Low Rise brief in the United States. Within a few years, the "Jockey® Life®" line accounted for 25% of Cooper's business.

1969: Cooper's management recognized a revolution in the world's social customs and a new value was placed on self-expression. This opened new horizons to Cooper's, not only in underwear, but in some lines of sportswear that Cooper's decided to market as well.

1971: Cooper's Inc. changed its name to Jockey Menswear, Inc.®

1972: Jockey Menswear, Inc. changed its name to Jockey International, Inc. The newly named company would use its famous trademark to make its mark in sportswear and "activewear" designed for athletics.

1972: Jockey International, Inc. established a new line called Trophy® - fashions for the Golf Course.

1975: By 1975, Jockey's sportswear line accounted for one third of the company's sales.

1975: With global demand for Jockey underwear quickly growing, Jockey International, Inc. signed license agreements with companies in Thailand and Egypt to manufacture and sell Jockey products in their respective countries.

1976: The Jockey® Elance^®® collection was launched and so began the company's long leadership in fashion underwear for men. Elance^®® garments were sold in innovative clear tubes that highlighted the colors and fashionable design of Elance^®® bikini and Poco® briefs.

1978: Donna Wolf Steigerwaldt, daughter of Harry Wolf, Sr., took the helm at Jockey International, Inc. This was the beginning of a new global age at the company. From the moment Donna Wolf Steigerwaldt introduced herself to the employees in Kenosha, she instilled confidence from top to bottom. She said she was intent on maintaining Jockey as a family company...and that she did.

1981: Jockey captured its first designer license and established a line of men's underwear for Yves St. Laurent.

1982: The introduction of Jockey for Her made the most famous name in men's underwear the most comfortable name in woman's underwear. Donna Wolf Steigerwaldt sensed that women would appreciate the comfort of cotton. Her intuition was right - Jockey for Her was a triumph.

1988: Jockey for Her was such a success that the next logical step was women's hosiery. Jockey for Her hosiery was introduced in 1988. Production was up to 300,000 pieces per week in the first few months of production.

1995: Edward C. Emma, formerly head of Jockey® retail stores, is named President and Chief Operating Officer of Jockey International, Inc.

1996: Jockey developed the Life® brand for Wal-Mart. It found a prominent place in Wal-Mart stores as the premium underwear offering for the discount retailer.

1997: Jockey bought its British licensee, Courtalds Ltd., as the foundation in an effort to consolidate European operations.

1997: Jockey launched the first generation of its Web site.

1998: The popular "Let 'em Know You're Jockey" advertising campaign in Times Square coincided with the opening of a new showroom in New York's Fashion District.

1999: Jockey® Sport is introduced with moisture management technology. Jockey® Sport utilizes advanced technology fabric that is designed to rapidly wick and move moisture away from the body to help cool you better and faster.

1999: Jockey launched retail capabilities on Jockey.com®, which helped bring loyal customers to the most modern sales channel of all.

2000: Donna Wolf Stiegerwaldt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer passed away after more than 12 years at Jockey's helm.

2000: The sales and marketing of Jockey products began in China with the signing of a new licensee in this key emerging market.

2001: Debra Steigerwaldt Waller succeeded her mother as Jockey's Chairman & CEO, continuing the family tradition with the mission of translating that legacy into timely strategies that perpetuated and built upon Jockey's rich heritage.

2001: Jockey celebrates 125 years of innovation and success since the founding of S.T. Cooper & Sons.

2004: Jockey embarks on a mission to develop underwear in an innovative new way, ultimately becoming the 3D-InnovationsT collection.

2004: Jockey launches Jockey Person to Person®, an exciting direct sales business and the newest division of Jockey's diverse business portfolio.

2005: Jockey introduces the Swirl Icon^™ which represents Unity, Renewal, Energy, Motion and Beauty.

2005: Jockey launched Jockey Being Family^™, its corporate citizenship initiative, to help strengthen adoptive families for more successful futures.

2006: Jockey launches its 3D-Innovations^™ garments in most major metropolitan areas across the United States. A successful nationwide launch soon follows.

2007: The 3D-Innovations^™ collection is launched around the world.

2007: Jockey launched its first retail catalog.

2007: Jockey launched its "Out of Line" television ad. The new commercial encouraged people to remain true to their real selves and the provocative ad brought a fresh, inspiring look to the next generation of Jockey consumers.

2008: Today, Jockey International, Inc., is a leading manufacturer and marketer of comfort apparel products sold in major department and specialty stores across the country. The products are also available in more then 120 countries around the world. Located in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the 132-year-old company is committed to quality, comfort, fashion, innovation and value. As Jockey grows in size and sophistication, the simple commitment to serve its consumers' needs continues to be the company's hallmark.