Introduction to Custom Socks
"One can never have enough [custom] socks" - Dumbledore
What are custom socks and why do I want them so bad?
A custom sock is a clothing item traditionally worn on the feet where the visual design, materials used, form and function can all be chosen before the sock is produced to make a completely unique sock. Custom socks can be used for lots of different purposes but the vast majority of our customers buy custom socks to use as promotional products. Promotional products are custom made products that are used for marketing or fundraising. For example, a company like Slack made promotional custom socks with us to raise brand awareness and brand loyalty. The radio station here in Austin, TX KUT and KUTX made custom socks with us for their fundraising drive. Most everyone has seen or been given a promotional custom t-shirt. It’s our belief at Sock Club that custom socks can be used wherever you use a custom shirt. In a lot of cases a custom sock makes a better promotional product than a t-shirt.
The goal of a promotional product is two fold to get people to talk about your brand and services and two to give a potential customer something they will appreciate and use. It’s easy to understand why a business would want people talking about their brand but it’s less obvious why giving someone a product for free would be beneficial to a business. We can look to Cialdini's 6 principles of influence to understand how this works. Cialdini's first principle of influence is reciprocation. When you give a potential customer something they appreciate they will feel a need to reciprocate and do something nice for your company. A quality promotional product is a great gift that grows good will for your company or startup.
Custom socks make great promotional products precisely because the recipient will appreciate them so much. The great thing about custom socks is everyone wears socks and one size fits most. You don’t have to worry about multiple sizes or a product that will never be used. Custom socks also have a ton of design space so you can make a product that is as unique as your brand. Sock Club custom socks are also completely made in America. We built our supply chain from existing mills throughout the southeastern United States. America has one of the oldest textile industries with centuries of institutional knowledge and skillful craftsmanship. When you give out a Sock Club custom sock you can be proud of the quality and where and how it was made.
So what goes into making a sock?
Making quality socks isn’t easy. Historically, the American textile industry transformed and revolutionized the art of modern sock production until the shift towards overseas manufacturing. The 80s and 90s were dominated by companies focusing on buying the cheapest producer, which lead them to imports and often a sacrifice of quality for lower costs. The American manufacturers that remain are strong, resilient, and evolving, focusing on quality and efficiency. Sock Club Custom aims to bring together that focus to provide you high-quality socks; a product that you can be proud to wear knowing it was made from top to toe in the United States.
From dirt to foot here is how a Sock Club custom sock is made. Our cotton is grown in the Southeastern United States. Our American grown raw cotton bales are sent to our spinning mill in North Carolina where the cotton is refined down to the longest, softest fibers and spun into cones of natural cotton yarn. From the spinning mill our natural cotton yarn is sent to the dye house where we develop specific dye baths for our 40 different yarn colors and any custom colors upon request. From the dye house our colored yarn is sent to one of our many knitting mills where our yarn is knit into a sock on state of the art knitting machines from Lonati and other advanced knitting machines. Finally our socks are sent to the finisher where the socks are scoured, boarded, washed, paired, packaged and boxed to ship globally delivering warmth and comfort to our happy customers.
Let's make some awesome custom socks today!
