The compression stocking is one of those little pieces of modern life that we don?t think about that often but when its really needed its hard to imagine life without it. There are some people, for example, who simply could not tolerate a long plane journey without the comfort of knowing that they had slipped into their compression stockings before take-off and they will be safe from the threat of getting that painful deep-vein thrombosis as a consequence of the change in pressure that your body goes through on a long flight. So here is a brief introduction to the story of the world’s oldest and most successful compression stocking business.
This is a story that begins in the improbably named Zeulenroda in eastern Thuringia, a place so unknown to the wider world that if it wasn?t for the fact that you?re reading this on the internet you might be inclined to think I was just making the whole thing up. But no, it’s totally true. So in the late 1930’s a man named Bruno Bauerfiend starts up a company in the little city of Zeulenroda that specializes in making medical compression stockings. What kind of relevance the stockings had at this time is hard to say but the facts show that there was obviously a need because within ten years the company had over a hundred employees. When Bruno died in 1945, his son Rudolf had just been released from prison in Russia and was able to take over the rains of the company. However soon after he did, the political climate of the country because of its soviet occupation meant that business was difficult and the decision was made to move the company to Germany where they are able to rebuild and become more established.
During the 1960s there were many changes brought in by the young Hans B Bauerfiend, including modifying and modernizing the production process; a move that was happening in all sorts of companies the world over as the capitalist system was sweeping around the globe and companies were trying to find ways of maximizing production rates while reducing the cost of labor and manufacturing, the effects of which we are still seeing around the world today. Hans Bauerfiend takes over the helm of the company in the early 70s and merges with another big company in the area and goes from strength to strength. There is a milestone event in the company’s history when they release the GenuTrain knee support in the early eighties. By the mid ?nineties Bauerfiend is the world’s largest manufacturer of medical grade compression stockings, among other services and since then the company has only continued to grow until now, in the early part of the new millennium they are continually being awarded prizes for the excellence in design and vision as a company.
The Bauerfiend company has a philosophy that helps to dictate every facet of the company’s operation and that philosophy is built on the idea that they are a company that makes products by people for people. From the initial design process through to development and production, Bauerfiend have total commitment to the ?made in Germany? quality promise. The company motto is ?Motion Is Life? and it is this motto that has defined the company since its early beginnings. They are actively committed to the development and success of professional sports and the company has been the official supplier to the German Olympic team since 2001, a partnership that has helped many gold medalists up onto the podium.