Southern Tide is an American apparel company founded in 2006 in Greenville,

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, by Allen Stephenson. The brand is owned by

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

-based Oxford Industries.

History

According to Stephenson, the inspiration for Southern Tide came about during college, while studying abroad in Italy. During his senior year at The University of South Carolina, he presented his concept for Southern Tide for a speech class. Following his presentation, Stephenson remembers his professor encouraging him to pursue his idea and he immediately left college. After dropping out, he researched the construction of polo shirts. The finished product became the Southern Tide Skipjack Polo.

Growth

The company's rapid growth has been recognized by several business publications. In 2011,

Forbes Magazine ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The c ...

recognized Southern Tide in its annual list of "Americas Most Promising Companies", rating the firm at #27. Also that same year, the company was ranked at #73 overall on the

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list of "The Fastest Growing American Companies". The magazine further designated Southern Tide to be the 6th fastest growing company in the "products and services" category as well as the fastest growing apparel company. As a trifecta, Southern Tide named the second fastest growing company in the state of South Carolina for 2011 by the Capital Corporation. The following two years (2012, 2013), Southern Tide made the South Carolina Fastest Growing Company list at No. 5.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.southerntide.com/ 2006 establishments in South Carolina Clothing retailers of the United States Clothing brands of the United States Companies based in South Carolina Clothing companies established in 2006 Companies based in Greenville, South Carolina American companies established in 2006