Fruit of the Loom is one of the oldest clothing brands still trading anywhere in the world. This guide walks through the 170-plus years from a small cotton mill in Rhode Island to a Berkshire Hathaway company with its own European factory in Morocco — and explains what that history means for the t-shirt you buy today.
Fruit of the Loom was founded in 1851 in Rhode Island, USA, by the Knight brothers; the fruit label was registered as a trademark in 1871, making it one of the oldest US trademarks. Since 2002 the brand has been owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Its European arm, Fruit of the Loom International, is based in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and produces at a factory in Morocco with 1,000+ employees. In Europe the cheapest verified retailer we found is Marmalade Co., with t-shirts from €6.95.
The story begins in 1851, when brothers Robert and Benjamin Knight bought a cotton mill near Providence, Rhode Island, and started producing cotton cloth for the fast-growing American market. At that point the company did not make clothes at all — it sold bolts of fabric to households and tailors who sewed their own garments.
The name came a little later. A merchant family, the Littlefields, sold the Knights' cloth and marked the best bales with paper labels showing painted fruit. Customers began asking for "the fruit cloth", and in 1871 the fruit label was registered as a trademark under the new US trademark law. That makes Fruit of the Loom one of the oldest registered trademarks in the United States — older than Coca-Cola.
The phrase itself is a play on the biblical expression "fruit of the womb". The loom was the machine that wove the cloth; the fruit was the reward for the work.
For its first 70 years Fruit of the Loom remained a fabric company. The switch to finished clothing happened in the 1920s and 1930s, when licensees started sewing underwear, work shirts and later t-shirts under the fruit label. By the middle of the 20th century the brand had become a household name for affordable, hard-wearing cotton basics — underwear, tees and socks — sold in department stores across America.
Ownership changed several times during the 20th century. The company went through a series of mergers, a period as part of Northwest Industries, and in the 1980s a leveraged buyout led by financier William Farley, who moved the headquarters to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where it still is today.
The late 1990s were difficult. Heavy debt from the buyout years, expensive US production and a shift of the whole industry to cheaper manufacturing abroad pushed the company into bankruptcy protection in 1999. In 2002 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought the operating business out of bankruptcy for a reported sum of roughly USD 835 million.
Buffett's reasoning was simple: the brand was known by almost every American, the products were bought again and again, and the financial problems were about debt, not about demand. Under Berkshire the company got a clean balance sheet, long-term ownership and no pressure to pay dividends — which is one reason it could keep investing in its own factories rather than outsourcing everything.
Today Fruit of the Loom sits inside Berkshire's consumer group alongside Russell Athletic and Vanity Fair Brands, and its products are sold in 100+ countries.
170 years of cotton know-how at a fair price — Marmalade Co. is our verified cheapest official retailer, with t-shirts from €6.95 and €7 DHL delivery in 2–3 business days.
See the Fruit of the Loom range →Most European shoppers meet a slightly different Fruit of the Loom than Americans do. The European business, Fruit of the Loom International, is headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and runs its own catalogue, size charts and product codes (Valueweight T 61-036, Original T 61-082, Classic Hooded Sweat 62-208 and so on). Its official website is fruitoftheloom.eu.
The European catalogue is built around blank garments for printing and embroidery, which is why the brand is the standard choice for club hoodies, company t-shirts and merchandise across the continent — see our guide to Fruit of the Loom for printing.
Production for Europe happens largely at the group's factory in Morocco, a short sea crossing from Spain. According to the retailer Marmalade Co., which buys directly from that factory, the site employs over 1,000 people and takes the product from yarn through knitting, dyeing, cutting and sewing under one roof, with automated cutting and water-saving dyeing. That vertical set-up is unusual for a basics brand and matters for both quality consistency and price.
| Milestone | Year | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1851 | Knight brothers, Rhode Island, USA |
| Trademark registered | 1871 | One of the oldest US trademarks |
| Headquarters | 1980s–today | Bowling Green, Kentucky |
| Bankruptcy protection | 1999 | Debt from buyout era |
| Berkshire Hathaway ownership | 2002 | Approx. USD 835 million |
| European HQ | today | Kaiserslautern, Germany (fruitoftheloom.eu) |
| European production | today | Own factory in Morocco, 1,000+ employees |
| Markets | today | Sold in 100+ countries |
The cluster of fruit — red apple, green and purple grapes, currants and leaves — has changed surprisingly little since the 1800s. It has been redrawn and simplified several times, most recently into a flatter, cleaner version, but the composition is the same one a shopper in 1900 would have recognised.
The logo is also the subject of a well-known "Mandela effect": many people are certain the fruit used to sit in a brown cornucopia (a horn of plenty). It never did. The company has confirmed that no official version of the logo ever included a horn, yet the false memory is so widespread that it is regularly used as a textbook example of collective misremembering.
Three practical things follow from the brand's history:
Fruitotl.com is an independent guide and is not affiliated with Fruit of the Loom, Fruit of the Loom International or Berkshire Hathaway.
Want to try the brand with 170 years behind it? Marmalade Co. buys directly from the Morocco factory, offers a price guarantee and 5–10 % quantity discounts.
Shop Fruit of the Loom at Marmalade Co. →Fruit of the Loom traces its origins to 1851, when the Knight brothers began producing cotton cloth in Rhode Island, USA. The fruit label was registered as a trademark in 1871, which makes it one of the oldest registered trademarks in the United States. The company has therefore been trading under the same name for more than 170 years.
Since 2002 Fruit of the Loom has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company led by Warren Buffett. Berkshire bought the business out of bankruptcy protection for a reported figure of around USD 835 million. Headquarters remain in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with the European business run from Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Most of the European catalogue is produced at the group's own factory in Morocco, which handles knitting, dyeing, cutting and sewing on one site and employs more than 1,000 people. Because Morocco is close to Spain, transport to European warehouses is short compared with production in Asia.
The name plays on the biblical phrase 'fruit of the womb'. In the 1800s the Littlefield family, who sold the Knights' cloth, marked their best bales with painted fruit labels, and customers started asking for the fruit cloth. The loom refers to the weaving machines; the fruit is the result of the work.
No. Despite a very common false memory, no official version of the logo has ever included a horn of plenty. The logo has always shown a cluster of apple, grapes, currants and leaves. The mistaken recollection is so widespread that it is often cited as a classic example of the so-called Mandela effect.
Yes. In Europe it is one of the most widely used brands for blank t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies, especially for printing and embroidery. Prices from official retailers start at around €6.95 for a t-shirt and €20.95 for a hoodie at Marmalade Co., the cheapest verified option we found in 2026.
