About Us

Gelal Socks is a privately owned company, established in 1966, presently managed by the third generation of its founders.

Proven to globally lead the creation and development of all types of socks, Gelal demonstrates exemplary flexibility, producing a wide range of socks from technical or end-use purpose-created socks with specific functions and properties, to exciting lifestyle socks, even basic socks for men, ladies and children!

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HISTORY

Start of the Bekmezci family business, trading socks in the local market

1966
1983

Establishment of GELAL as a socks manufacturing and trading company

First exports to Europe

1987
1988

Establishment of new, owned manufacturing premises in Istanbul.

Start of exports to the U.S.

1989
1990

Establishment of own liaison office in U.S. to support sales 

Establishment of own liaison office in U.S. to support sales 

1990
1990

Establishment of own liaison office in U.S. to support sales 

Shift of strategy to focusing on fewer yet larger accounts; consolidation of Client Base

2004
2006

Relocation to new, owned, purpose-built manufacturing premises in Istanbul

Substantial investment to increase the manufacturing capacity especially on football socks

2009
2012

Further focus on consolidation of the Client Base    

Start of new purpose-built manufacturing premises at Cankiri (near Ankara) Certified at GOLD level according to the United States Green Buildings Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) “Green” Standard

2012
2016

Istanbul Factory: Remodelling all areas to better meet Lean Manufacturing standards and maximise efficiencies

Construction of new, owned, purpose-built manufacturing premises, at Cankiri, operating under a self-invented disruptive workflow process with spectacular efficiency result

2017

GELAL IN NUMBERS

Manufacturing space in m2

100000

Employees

1390

Knitting machines

1820

Capacity (mil. pairs)

128

Capacity 2024 (mil. pairs)

200

Sock pairs manufactured until now:

Sustainability & Environment

Sustainability is the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.

The Three Pillars of Sustainability:

  • Environmental Sustainability is the ability to maintain rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely.
  • Economic Sustainability is the ability to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely.
  • Social Sustainability is the ability of a social system, such as a country, to function at a defined level of social well-being indefinitely.
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Certifications & Awards

We believe in continuous improvement and we are determined to be competitive by applying controlling and quality systems. For this reason, Gelal is participating in a number of Compliance Platforms to keep up and improve our sustainability and our principles.

All the effort and persistence for continuous improvement has been rewarded with a number of certifications, among them the most important are the following:

ISO Certifications

ORGANIC COTTON CERTIFICATES

Oeko – Tex Standard 100

Workplace Standards

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