[4] Totes Isotoner traces its roots back to the Roll-O-Radio Company, a mail-order radio kit supplier, which was incorporated in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1924.

[25] Both Flarsheim and Bollman retired in 1935, when Marx, president, purchased the entire stock of the Perfect Manufacturing Company, which was then based in Oakley, Ohio.

In 1941, the So-Lo Works division acquires a one-story factory building at Twightwee near the Little Miami River in Loveland, Ohio, from the former occupant, the George E. Smith Company, candy manufacturer.

[29][30] During the Second World War, the US Government contracts So-Lo Works to manufacture military supplies including shoe dubbing and canned food in the new premises.

[32] So-Lo Works boosts morale and productivity by engaging all workers in management decision-making and by developing welfare and recreational facilities.

[41] The firm markets the "world’s finest" Skooba-"totes" dry suits[42] a year after a high-school student and a sporting-goods sales clerk trial the prototypes in the nearby Little Miami River early in 1957.

[43][44] Divers and water skiers alike welcome these low-cost full-length seamless exposure suits, which enable them to operate all year round.

[45] In the early 1960s, Skooba-“totes” dry suits not only prove popular across the US with divers, water skiers and now cavers,[46] but also find favor with their counterparts in Australia,[47] Canada,[48] Denmark,[49] Finland,[50] France[51] and the United Kingdom.

[52] In November 1961, Bradford E. Phillips, a Western Felt Works sales representative for industrial rubber and textiles, acquires 100% of So-Lo Marx’s outstanding capital stock.

[54][55] Company president Brad Phillips’s choice of name confirms his intention to refocus on the original lucrative "Totes" product of the late 1940s and early 1950s: lightweight rubber footwear that packs up into a small pouch when not in use.

Other So-Lo Marx product lines — diving suits, rubber cement, resoling material, meat tenderizer, bicycle seats, instant gravy, plaster statuette molds — face imminent cancellation.

[56] In 1970, Phillips adds a collapsible umbrella to the Totes range of wet-weather gear, whose selling point is the ability to fold out of sight when no longer required.

Having failed twice to devise his own working prototype, he discovers that L.P. Henryson & Co. Inc. of New York has created a successful design and he buys the company to obtain its 1968 patent.

On 28 February 1972, Totes Incorporated files agreement of merger with Eastman Products Corporation, Marx Pure Foods Inc. and L.P. Henryson Company Inc.[59] In 1975, Phillips introduces a water-repellent hat after considering the time has come again for men's headgear, finding less success later, however, with his stainproof ties.

They name it ISOTONER (combining the terms "isometric" and "toning") to reflect the stretchability and comfortable fit of this commercially successful glove.

[72] MidOcean Partners, a New York based private equity firm targeting investments in the middle market, acquires Totes Isotoner in January 2007 in a $288 million deal.

[78] In February 2020, Totes Isotoner introduced "Sol Bounce" flip flops, slides and water shoes, using the Everywear technology.