Hanes was founded in 1901 by John Wesley Hanes at Winston, North Carolina under the name Shamrock Knitting Mills. He died in 1903. In 1911, Shamrock Knitting Mills built a new plant at 3rd and Marshall Streets; it was sold in 1926 and occupied by a Cadillac dealership after a larger plant was built on West 14th Street. Known as Shamrock Mills, the original building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Shamrock Knitting Mills was named Hanes Hosiery Mills Company in 1914.
