ShipStation Story: Pride Socks
Pride Socks, a lifestyle brand empowering individuals to take pride in who they are, was founded by Rachel Smith. From her humble beginnings growing up with five siblings, raised by deaf parents, her family shared a lot of things, and one of the most commonly shared items was socks. Getting a matching pair of hand-me-down socks became a hot commodity in her household. From there, Rachel’s fascination with socks was born.
Into adulthood, when Rachel’s brother began a tube sock company, her childhood obsession with socks was rekindled. She loved the idea of old school tube socks, and wanted to create a brand that would celebrate the uniqueness of people, as well as capture a sense of pride. Knowing that rainbows symbolize hope, Rachel decided to make that her logo to serve as a visual reminder for others to never give up.
“Our products are a visual reminder of I can do this, I will do this, I am proud and I am worthy.” Rachel, Founder of Pride Socks
The Inspiration and Mission
An impactful moment that shaped Rachel’s life and business happened in high school when her coach left her a note of affirmation that read, “I am proud of you,” after she had run a difficult race in cross country. “I still have that card to this day because I realized in that moment, I had never heard the term ‘proud’ before. Sometimes it just takes someone to believe in you before you can be proud of yourself and take ownership of your life.”
Rachel came up with the name, ‘Pride Socks,’ during her time as a Special Ed teacher for high schoolers. She made it her mission to instill pride in her students. “These were kids that were told they were stupid, they can’t, they won’t… and they believed it. I created lessons that gave no other option but to succeed, and it gave them a sense of pride that they were actually feeling. They had never before felt or had that experience. That’s where I came up with the term, Pride Socks, because we all have something to be proud of.”
In the pursuit of living out their mission, Pride Socks enjoys giving back to the community through Custom For A Cause. Pride Socks collaborates with an ambassador to design a unique sock that represents something special to them. When you buy one of these customized socks a portion of the proceeds goes to one of three non-profits: Point Foundation, Ruby’s Rainbow, and ISF Cambodia.
Proudest Moments
Built on the value of celebration and pride, Pride Socks has a blog called My Proudest Moments, where individuals submit their proudest moments and ‘coming-out’ stories. The purpose of sharing these stories is so people can feel connected and be reminded that they are not alone in their journey. Proudest Moments allows people to find empowerment within someone else’s story.
“Our mission with the Proudest Moments stories–and our brand as a whole–is to empower individuals to take pride in who they are, so they live the life they deserve, and build a community of people sharing their stories. These successes allow each other to be a catalyst in one another’s journey. When people are proud of who they are, where they are, and what they do in life, they can and will accomplish their dreams,” Rachel shares.
How ShipStation Has Helped
Rachel discovered ShipStation by attending multiple ShipStation events. Before using ShipStation, a major pain point for Rachel was having to go through five different websites to fulfill her orders. “It just took forever. But when I started using ShipStation, I could integrate all of my selling channels such as Etsy, eBay, Amazon, BigCommerce, and Walmart all into ShipStation and our website. I didn’t have to log in to all of the different sites anymore to create shipping labels. The transition into ShipStation was seamless and insanely easy. The integration of five different stores into one place has been a lifesaver on time. I am 100% happy with ShipStation and what it does for me.”
A favorite ShipStation feature Rachel utilizes is the ability to Combine & Split Orders. With this feature, she can combine multiple orders into a single shipment going to the same destination. Alternatively, if she receives a single order with multiple items that need to be shipped separately, ShipStation makes this process easy by allowing her to split the order into multiple so she can create separate shipments for them. Lastly, Rachel enjoys ShipStation’s Branded Tracking page that allows her customers to track their orders. “I love the ability to track my packages and being able to customize it with my social media. It’s nice being able to see the exact location of your package at all times so you know it’s on track. I just love the personalization of the tracking and the branding on that as well.”
Growth with ShipStation
ShipStation is able to help Pride Socks continue to grow and achieve its goals:
Rachel: “ShipStation is simplifying my life and workflow. I no longer have to think about so many little tasks. ShipStation just does the work for me and all I have to do is press a few buttons and I’m done. The ability ShipStation has to simplify my workload is the biggest way for me to grow my business. Now, I can worry about marketing or advertising or other areas where I don’t have to worry about the shipping processes. It’s just there. It does the job for me.”
ShipStation has helped transform how Pride Socks does business by increasing productivity-flow and saving time on shipping. “Time is the biggest saving factor because you can’t buy back time. I am able to see on a weekly basis the analytics of how many sales each of my selling channels produced. Having this weekly analysis saves me a tremendous amount of time and for me, that’s huge because you can’t buy back time.” says Rachel.
Follow along with Pride Socks by checking out their Instagram or supporting them at pridesocks.com
