Sock Club has cut their minimum order quantity in half, lowering it from 60 pairs to 30 pairs.

“When we first started making socks with logos on them, the minimum for most other custom sock companies was 500 pairs,” said Noah Lee, co-founder of Sock Club. “As a small business owner myself, I knew that was a huge barrier for other small businesses that wanted to order socks for things like employee appreciation and corporate gifts.”

The Sock Club team found that the main reason for this was that almost all custom socks were made overseas. By keeping their manufacturing and supply chain all in the United States, Sock Club was able to introduce custom socks to the market at a minimum of only 120 pairs. Four years later, in 2018, they were able to reduce the minimum order quantity to only 60 pairs.

Katreece Hattaway, Director of Operations at Sock Club, knew that the goal was to continue to lower the minimum, but there was another challenge. 

“We do offer low minimums, but the thing that really sets us apart from our competitors is how fast we are able to make our socks,” said Hattaway. “60 pairs in five days is pretty unheard of in the industry. We couldn’t lower the minimum and compromise on our speed.”

By investing in both technology and expansion in their North Carolina mills, Sock Club was able to test adding a few orders at the new lower minimum. 

Hattaway and her team were able to identify the points that needed to be improved, but were overall confident that they could take on that expansion. “Most of the orders that we were making before the introduction of those sample orders were shipping in an average of 3 days,” said Hattaway. “We slowly added more and more orders, and we were still averaging 3 days.”

In a post-pandemic work environment, Director of Marketing Chloe Ayres saw a trend. “Prior to the pandemic, the number one reason people were buying our custom socks was to drive traffic to their booths at trade shows,” said Ayres. 

“I started noticing that the term ‘employee appreciation’, which normally got a spike in search volume around the holidays, was becoming a consistently searched term. This told me that companies were more concerned than ever about keeping their employees happy, and a major way teams all over the world do that is with branded swag.”

Sure enough, Sock Club’s orders started to shift toward smaller quantities as employee appreciation gifts.

However, 60 pairs is still far too many for some businesses. “34% of the American workforce works for a company with less than 100 employees,” noted Ayres, “and half of those people work at companies with less than 10 employees. We needed a way to reach them.”

The impact of this new lower minimum has been instant. “We had a lot of interest last year from clients that fell in love with our product, but could not justify ordering 60 pairs,” said Director of Sales, Max Williamson. “It felt really good to reach back out to those clients and make the impossible possible for them.”

Sock Club is expanding the reach of their product to areas even outside of corporate with this new minimum. “I think this new minimum will enable consumers outside of businesses to experience our product,” said Williamson. “I ordered custom socks for my wedding last year, but 30 pairs is even a small enough order that I can order them for my recreational Bocce team. The possibilities are endless.”

Conclusion

Sock Club, the leading US-based custom sock manufacturer, has reduced its minimum order requirement from 60 pairs to just 30 pairs, aiming to provide easier access to high-quality custom socks for brands and teams. By keeping production in the United States, Sock Club was able to introduce custom socks with a minimum order of 120 pairs and subsequently reduce it to 60 pairs. With the lowered minimum, the company targets businesses of all sizes, including those with fewer than 100 employees, and expects this change to extend the reach of their products beyond corporate settings.

Media Contact
Company Name: Sock Club
Contact Person: Chloe Ayres
Email: Send Email
Phone: (800) 618-4861
Address:2200 Tillery St #B
City: Austin
State: TX 78723
Country: United States
Website: https://custom.sockclub.com/