Introduction
There’s nothing worse than a poorly made pair of socks. You know what we mean. The ones that itch or make you sweat. The ones that slowly slide down with each step or the ones that are so tight it still looks like you’re wearing socks even long after you’ve taken them off. We love socks but it can be hard to find the perfect pair and that’s how we got to where we are today.
The Sockrates brand began in downtown Toronto, humble beginnings as they say. We were operating a high-end menswear store, a busy hub of shopping for high-quality bespoke attire, with a client base looking for new ways to express themselves through their clothes. We wanted to enhance a generally predictable business wardrobe by offering unique accessories so we set out to offer the best of the best.
Socks were a unique item in our inventory because they were affordable for all of our clients. They were the only item purchased by interns and CEOs alike. Not everyone could afford the $1000 suit or the $500 cashmere sweater but everyone could enjoy a stylish high-end pair of socks.
We hadn’t set out to manufacture them ourselves but as we became more and more passionate about the quality of the socks we offered, we couldn’t find a line that met our expectations. Frustrated with less than perfect packaging, poor quality, and designs that left a lot to be desired, we decided to produce our own. We had already been manufacturing neckties for some time so our know-how and available resources gave us the confidence to replicate our processes for socks. We were primed to fill a huge void in the market and so was born Sockrates Socks in early 2013.
What started out as a solution for our own menswear store quickly became a stand-alone unisex sock brand that would eventually be offered in over 350 retailers across North America. It turns out we weren’t the only retailers looking for great socks.
As our wholesale customers raved about our product, corporate companies around the world started to request custom runs to showcase their brands and we found ourselves discovering another layer to the world of socks and sock manufacturing.
In early 2018, we launched Sockrates Custom, a sock company focused on custom socks that could provide a factory-direct experience for corporate clientele that wouldn’t require large-scale runs. When you think about it, socks really are the perfect swag item because everyone wears them. It’s not easy to find custom items that are well priced and well made but with our product companies could feel good knowing their gifts would live on in the receiver’s drawer for years to come.
As our custom business grew our customers always made a point of telling us how much they loved our process. We control every aspect of your sock order from start to finish in our factories in China and Italy so that we can guarantee a great product and a great experience. We offer all-in pricing which includes consulting with our talented design team (over 60,000 sock designs produced in the last three years alone!), manufacturing and delivery of orders of 100 pairs or more.
We help you design your socks with a real artist using exact colour palettes, a standard we set for ourselves that is atypical of industry-wide practice. Offering smaller runs allows us to fulfill orders for anyone from small-scale companies to Fortune 500 enterprises and over the years we’ve done exactly that. We walk you through every step of the way from the moment you inquire until the day you receive your custom order (typically only 7 days to your door!).
We aren’t happy unless you are so at Sockrates Custom the purchasing experience is just as important as the final product.
We call ourselves Socktologists because we are experts in the sock field. We love our socks and know you’ll love our combed cotton and mercerized cotton socks with reinforced toe and heel too. As soon as you slip your foot into a pair of our socks you’ll never want to try another.
Designing and producing custom socks, swag socks, branded socks and promotional socks for employee gifts, tradeshow giveaways, fundraisers and more can be a daunting task. Our expertise, short turnaround time, and all-in pricing make customization and ordering easy, it’s what continues to set us apart.
FUN FACT: No matter how great your socks are….you still need to change them daily 🙂
