The answer to the question of where even socks go leaving us to put our best feet forward in the odd ones which are left continues to be elusive.
Blacksocks.com doesn’t have an answer to the question but it does have a solution to the problem: the sockscription.
You choose they socks you want and how often you want them and the company mails them to you. The theory is that, providing you choose the same make, style and colour you never have to worry about odd socks again because you keep getting more the same.
But why wouldn’t you just buy matching socks yourself at the local store?
Company founder Samy Liechti says:
. . . many people can also buy cheap watches but they spend thousands of dollars for quality. He’s Swiss, so I concede the point.
He boasts about Blacksocks’ yarn-testing methods in northern Italy, says Blacksocks are cheaper than other brand-name socks, and notes that delivery is included in the price.
Without years of wear, it’s hard to fully test this system.
Blacksocks has 50,000 active customers, and 100,000 former customers. “Often they have too many socks and they decide to quit the brand,” Liechti acknowledged.
Hmmm.
He may be right and I have to give him credit for making a success of a business like this which is no mean feet feat.
But my Presbyterian upbringing still struggles with the concept of paying for something which isn’t difficult to do for yourself, especially when there’s an even more frugal alternative: embracing odd socks as a natural phenomenon and wearing mis-matched ones as a fashion statement.
Homepaddock 