Transforming style and mind through the power of socks

interview by Karolina Barnes, images provided by London Sock Company

In 2013, two friends, Ryan Palmer and Dave Pickard, created London Sock Company to help people add a splash of colour to their everyday. With their motto: "Great socks are not just a finishing flourish to an outfit, they are the key to walking brighter", their mission is to help customers embrace their personality and be inspired to be the best version of themselves.

Since the launch of its debut sock collection and the UK's first sock subscription service, the brand has gone from strength to strength, making its mark in the fashion industry of independent brands with a purpose.

Here we talk with them about the early days, sock collections and their special "buy a pair, share a pair" scheme in partnership with charities close to their hearts.

Can you take us back to the start and tell the story of the London Sock Company? What sparked the idea for the brand?

My co-founder Dave and I met while working for a Fortune 500 firm in the City in London. We were surrounded by a sea of monochrome every day. Lots of smart suits but very few opportunities for showing any sort of personality or style. We saw socks as an amazing way for men, in particular, to add some colour and polish to their daily wardrobes. It’s amazing how pulling on a great pair of socks in the morning actually has the power to make you walk brighter – both literally and figuratively. It may sound a bit theatrical but a little thing like socks can transform your style, and also your state of mind. They can make you feel more confident, more put together, more optimistic even.

In 2013 we started London Sock Company to offer people beautifully-made, stylish socks and a way to add a dash of colour to their wardrobe. We also launched the UK’s first ever sock subscription service, which delivers this sock style on autopilot, direct to your door every month. So much has changed since the early days when we were packing orders in our living room! Supermodel and entrepreneur David Gandy joined us as an early investor and remains involved and supportive to this day, our London-based team has grown as have our collections, we have shipped hundreds of thousands of socks to over 100 countries and you can see our pairs on the feet of celebrities all over the world. It’s been – and continues to be – a really exciting journey.

We love how you give customers the opportunity to express themselves and be confident through the colourful choice of your products. How do you choose the colours when it comes to launching new designs?

At London Sock Company we are all about the positive power of colour. Colours can influence our mood. They can transform an outfit. They can make us walk brighter. And every hue has its own power. When we think about new colours we will look at trends and how they are evolving, seeing how new shades and designs can fit into wider fashion movements. But ultimately, we see true style as timeless. New sock colours, designs and additions to our sock canon are always simple, classic and enduring. We choose colours that we know will elevate people’s looks, empower them and make them feel great. Our unique collaborations with celebrity stylists like Ilaria Urbinati (stylist to the likes of The Rock and Ryan Reynolds) and Michael Fisher (stylist to gentlemen like Hugh Jackman and Paul Rudd) also blend colour and pattern in a timeless way that goes beyond trends, championing the inspiring power of colour on individual style.

Can you describe how you came up with the designs for the Simply Dapper Collection? Were you drawn to a particular style or concept?

The Simply Dapper collection is a trio of three of our signature Simply Sartorial range. It’s our flagship collection of ribbed socks crafted from Scottish Lisle Cotton in 27 beautiful block colours. We like to think of Simply Dapper as a kind of mini capsule collection – three Simply Sartorial sock shades that can be effortlessly styled with pieces across your wardrobe, no matter the occasion, for a dash of dapper.

Routemaster Red is a vivid, vibrant red that looks as great with navy tailoring and a pair of polished black Oxfords, as it does with your favourite jeans and white trainers. East India Saffron has become one of our most iconic colours and it adds a warm, positive pop to charcoals and traditional checks, as well as navy and khakis. And then there is British Racing Green, a classy colour that adds understated elegance particularly to navy and browns – whether that’s in suits and tweeds, or chinos and trusty denim.

How important are quality and sustainability when designing and making your socks?

Hugely important. From day one, crafting beautiful socks that are truly made to last has been our priority. Socks traditionally have been a bit of a throwaway item, but they don’t need to be. There is no reason why they shouldn’t stand the test – or steps – of time. Really, a key part of thinking more sustainably about your wardrobe comes down to longevity. Buying fewer but higher-quality items each year means fewer garments ending up in landfill. Socks may seem small but they can make a difference.

Our socks come with a 12-month Sock Sure guarantee – we will replace them if you have any issues in the first year – because we are so confident in their quality. On a larger scale, as a company, we are committed to becoming a Net Zero business by 2025. The concept of ‘Net Zero’ is all about achieving an overall balance between our carbon footprint and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that we can help remove from the atmosphere. For us, the only way to do this is to take a truly cradle-to-grave approach when it comes to the carbon footprint of our products. This means that we are accounting for the emissions produced across all stages of our supply chain – from the very beginning during cotton harvesting to end of life sock upcycling. This way we can account for the true impact of our business on the environment – and we won’t miss any opportunities to make positive changes.

You have a “buy a pair, share a pair” scheme where you work with two different charities. Can you tell us more about the scheme and how and why you chose these charities in particular? Doing what we can to help others has always been important to us. When we first started, Dave and I would walk around parts of London with a backpack full of warm socks and hand them out to homeless people who needed some extra warmth.

Doing what we can to help others has always been important to us.

Our Share a Pair initiative is a natural evolution of this. With every order, we donate a pair of specially made warm socks to Crisis UK and Choose Love – two amazing charities that offer support to refugees and those affected by homelessness. Socks are a simple, transformative item for people in these situations. A little thing that can make a big difference.

Brand website: londonsockcompany.com

IG: @londonsockco

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