As I keep doing this (somewhere around 156 MINIon Badges so far) people have asked me about the significance of the MINIon number… “Do all the numbers actually mean something?” The answer is “Yes.” In some cases, I have no idea because the MINIon has been drawn for a specific person, and they gave me the number. It has meaning for them, and that’s all that matters. As for the rest, each number is related to the actual MINIon. Which has started to become a more difficult task than drawing the monkey. Today’s MINIon is a pretty good example.
From that bastion of knowledge known only as “Wikipedia”:
John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant to the United States, patented the sock-knitting machine in 1868, and began knitting socks on an automatic machine Rockford, Illinois as early as 1870. On September 15, 1880, the Nelson Knitting Company formed, producing the “Celebrated Rockford Seamless Hosiery,” selling them under the name of the “Nelson Sock.” The iconic sock monkeys made from red-heeled socks, known today as the Rockford Red Heel, emerged at the earliest in 1932, the year the Nelson Knitting Company added the trademarked red heel to its product. In the early years, the red-heeled sock was marketed as “De-Tec-Tip”. Nelson Knitting was an innovator in the mass market work sock field, creating a loom that enabled socks to be manufactured without seams in the heel. These seamless work socks were so popular that the market was soon flooded with imitators, and socks of this type were known under the generic term “Rockfords”. Nelson Knitting added the red heel “De-Tec-Tip” to assure its customers that they were buying “original Rockfords”. This red heel gave the monkeys their distinctive mouth. During the Great Depression, American crafters first made sock monkeys out of worn-out Rockford Red Heel Socks.
In 1955, Nelson Knitting was awarded the patent for the sock monkey doll. Events leading up to this included Helen Cooke of Aurora, Colorado receiving the patent in 1953. However, her patent was proven invalid after she sued a Stanley Levy for selling the dolls when it was discovered that sock monkeys were being made before Cooke received her patent in 1953, such as the doll crafted by Grace Winget of Rockford in 1951. Winget gave the doll to Nelson Knitting as evidence that sock monkeys had been made before 1953, which forced Cooke to give up her lawsuit and transfer the patent for the doll to Nelson Knitting in 1955.
So what number should this MINIon be? 1868- the year John Nelson (no relation) patented his sock-knotting machine? 1880- the year the company was founded? 1953- the year the Sock Monkey was patented was established or was that 1955? or 1932- the year the Nelson Knitting Company started putting red heels on their socks… you know which won. This is what happens with every MINIon, I draw it, and then hope I haven’t used that number before. If I have I look for another number that might work. The Logan’s Run MINIon ended up with two numbers 0029 & 2274, I changed my mind after making one badge… don’t ask me why, I just did, and you’re not the boss of me.