Scoliosis brace & Compression socks: Usage and Mechanisms While compression treatment has been known for millennia - compression socks for swelling as we probably are aware of them today, have just been around since the last part of the 1930s. Jobst (a German tool & die manufacturer) saw that the demonstration of swimming braced his helpless course facilitated his inconvenience and put it down to the delicate tension of the water on his forbearing legs. So he tried to make a stocking-like item that would copy the delicate tension on his legs - and henceforth, the primary compression sock was conceived.