Step into L.C. King’s chic but rugged downtown Bristol showroom, and you’ll find a mix of heirloom-quality jeans, jackets, hunting vests, button-up shirts, belts, and wallets that range from workaday-tough to fashionably on-trend. What’s more astonishing is their provenance: All are handmade on site by master sewers in one of America’s last continually operating, family-branded clothing factories, just blocks from the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.
“We provide a garment that has a story behind it with its authenticity and construction,” says president Jack King, whose great-grandfather, Landon King, founded the company to create a dapper but functional work, outdoor, and sportsman-focused clothing line in 1913. Materials are almost 100 percent sourced in the South. Items are crafted by workers that, by and large, “have been with us for decades and use many of the same machines that were in place in the 1950s,” King says. “We take our heritage seriously and show the utmost care in ensuring every piece we make is unparalleled in quality.”
Follow-through on that commitment has won L.C. King a generational following. Jack King says its routine for customers to visit the store carrying jackets, vests, or overalls they’ve owned for 30 years and ask if they can replace them with something similar.
“That just gives you a sense of pride,” says King. “We’ve taken the time to make the best garment that we possibly can, and our customers clearly appreciate our skills and efforts. That means everything.” LCKing.com
This article originally appeared in the Best of Virginia 2024 issue.
