Springs Cotton Mills was a cotton textile manufacturer in Lancaster, South Carolina. It was founded in 1887 by Samuel Elliott White (1837-1911) under the name Fort Mill Manufacturing Company. The mill became a leading textile manufacturer in South Carolina. After White’s death, ownership transferred to “Colonel” Leroy Springs (1861-1931), who in 1922 centralized control over his various holdings in Lancaster County by organizing the company under the name Springs Mills, Inc.

Springs' son, Elliott White Springs (1896-1959), inherited the business and expanded operations, leading the company through the Great Depression and World War II, when it was a major supplier of textiles for the U.S. Armed Forces. After the war, the renamed Springs Cotton Mills began to manufacture a variety of new fabrics, including spun rayon, for sheets, pillowcases, towels, and dress goods.

Springs introduced a distinctive “Springmaid” advertising campaign during the 1940s and 1950s that used sex appeal to advertise the line. The ads feature sexually suggestive illustrations in the pin-up style and make liberal use of double entendres. Sexist attitudes and racial stereotypes are present. They ran in major American magazines, such as the Saturday Evening Post and Fortune, however, some publications, such as the New Yorker and Life, objected to the perceived racy nature of the ads and refused to run them. The illustrations often feature winners of the Springs Cotton Mills in-house beauty contest, known as Miss Springmaid. The copy was written by company owner Elliott White Springs; it details the company’s wartime textile innovations and promotes the peacetime use of its fabrics, often using cheeky phrases and sometimes in rhyme. Many of the ads also feature a blurb promoting Springs' self-published book Clothes Make the Man (1948). The ads could also be purchased from the company as a set or in a calendar.

The company saw success during the 1950s and 1960s, becoming a publicly traded company in 1966. This was followed by a period of decline during the 1970s, particularly after a 1976 recall of Springs fabric that was treated with a carcinogenic chemical. In 1985, the company was renamed Springs Industries and acquired a major competitor, Lowenstein Corporation. Springs merged its home furnishings operations with Brazil-based company Coteminas S.A. in 2005 to become Springs Global; manufacturing operations moved to South America in 2007.