Officers and Staff Directory

James L. Throneburg

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Founder

Jim Throneburg has nearly 50 years of experience in the sock segment of the hosiery industry via his position at the helm of Thorlo, Inc., manufacturer of engineered padded socks. Thorlo's systems approach of fitting the right engineered sock to the right shoe, the Integrated Fitting Solution, is considered the height of comfort and protection by medical authorities and consumers with active lives.  Thorlo padded socks have been shown by peer reviewed research and thousands of consumer letters to reduce pressure and the threat of lesions on the diabetic foot, to reduce arthritic foot pain and to reduce moisture as a complicating factor.

On the strength of this research and the growing need to protect diabetic feet against “unrecognized trauma,” Jim and Thorlo founded The Institute for Preventive Foot Health (IPFH), a nonprofit foundation dedicated to research and education related to all types of foot health issues. 

Jim joined Thorlo (then the Throneburg Hosiery Mill), founded in 1953 by his father Lewis, as a partner in 1960 after graduating from high school and service in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service aboard the USS Albacore, forerunner of the Polaris Class nuclear submarines.

Jim follows his father’s values of striving to “be the best” and is dedicated to the highest level of craftsmanship.  He believes in high quality, high margin products rather than the volume/price competition model that dominates the hosiery business.

Jim holds more than 25 patents in the U.S. and many foreign countries and, as such, is one of the most prolific inventors in the sock, insole and shoe industries.  The Thorlos® brand has been nominated by consumers nationwide as a prestigious “Lovemark,” an extremely high achievement, and doubly special for a sock product with little or no consumer advertising.

Jim and Thorlos have sponsored many peer reviewed research projects that have been published in numerous medical journals, and this medical research, being so persuasive, has driven the Thorlos sock brand into the preventive and therapeutic health fields.


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