Sock Club

Creating the Perfect Pair

“Sock Club has pretty humble roots.” The company was founded in Austin, TX by Noah Lee and Dane Jensen who both worked full-time jobs at the time. The idea to start a sock subscription company wove itself in after the two brainstormed business ideas. “We wanted a recurring revenue model,” says Noah. They paired up Dane’s web development skills and Noah’s experience in finance and started Sock Club.

Noah and Dane studied up on all things socks. “We learned a lot about manufacturing socks, designing socks, and delivering customer service that included shipping socks all over the world,” says Noah. With all that information, they pushed themselves to expand, fast. So, they began designing custom socks for companies. “We do a good mix of creating fully customized socks and running the sock subscription, where we make really awesome, colorful designs.”

Weaving in Efficiency

Sock Club quickly outgrew making socks in house and moved manufacturing to a facility in North Carolina. They switched to ShipStation around the same time. “ShipStation lets us do something a little bit unique,” Noah says. He says they cut out an entire shipping process by bringing their fulfillment directly to the manufacturer. “We were able to teach individuals who had been shipping pallets or truckloads, “ Noah says. In a couple of days, they processed “individual packages and use software that they had never used before.” ShipStation made the transition seamless and set a consistent process for the future. “When you have a piece of software like ShipStation it makes the usability pretty straight forward.”

“It’s a much friendlier platform than many of the other shipping software that is around.”

Max Williamson, Operations Manager, says that ShipStation provides a lot of freedom. “We’re able to ship a lot quicker with a lot more hands off and across multiple carriers.” He says that having access to several carriers helps them get the best shipping rates. “We don’t have to use different software from each carrier to do that, we can have it all in one program.” Max adds that various selling channel integrations like Shopify, Amazon, Celery, WooCommerce, LemonStand and custom stores help them deliver to a diverse client base.

“Our shipping process has gone from my living room being filled with boxes of socks to effectively shipping across the world,” Noah says. He says having an efficient shipping software enabled their subscription business model. “ShipStation has empowered us to streamline our subscription shipments so that we can focus on growing the business.”

Cotton in the Cloud

ShipStation is a cloud based shipping software and Max says that enables them to run things the way they do. First, they configure automation rules from Austin. From there on out, every order is automatically mapped when imported. Finally, their shipping manager prints batches of shipping labels from over 1,000 miles away. “Our partners in North Carolina can easily load orders into ShipStation and then go and ship them out from that facility.”

“The ShipStation mobile app has allowed me to work on orders away from my desk.”

“The mobile app has been helpful.” Max says he can process his eCommerce orders on-the-go. He uses ShipStation Mobile to print shipping labels, packing slips, and update orders. Max and his team can keep track of their orders, even if they’re away from the computer. “The ShipStation mobile app has allowed me to work on orders away from my desk. I can be on vacation and see something come through that I know that I have to take care of right away. I can do it right there on my phone.”

Intertwining In the Brand

“I’ve enjoyed being able to use the branded tracking page,” says Max. “It’s made a nice landing page where someone can go in where it represents our brand and be able to track their order.” He says the links to their social media on the page helps customers find their brand faster. Including contact information makes it easy to get in touch with customer service.

“I’ve enjoyed being able to use the branded tracking page.”

“At Sock Club, customer support is one of our core foundations,” Max says. “ShipStation has helped us improve our customer service through our shipping process.” He says that having shipment history and tracking help them answer questions fast. “We have a detailed record of every order that’s shipped somewhere, as well as the delivery status.” He says the branded returns portal makes it simple to create a return label fast and log customers’ reasons to ensure they’re delivering quality product.

Knitting Together the Future

Noah gets excited when discussing what’s ahead for Sock Club. “We might be a little crazy,” he says, “but we think we’re going to be the largest producer of textiles in the United States.” He says their goal is to continue to provide great experiences that are stitched into their product. “We stand for doing things that make us proud and the people around us proud.”

Noah and Max both come from a long line of business owners. “My grandfather was an entrepreneur who started many manufacturing facilities,” Noah says. “He would’ve been very proud that we’re producing socks. And proud that we are doing things differently.” Max’s grandfather, uncle, and dad all worked in the hosiery industry. He smiles, “I’m third generation making socks now.”

“We’re just trying to make the world a little bit of a better place through colorful socks.”

Noah clarifies that the business isn’t about socks but providing an experience. “It’s a gift experience, it’s a love experience, it’s something other than socks, and we bring that to life. That only happens through creativity.” He expresses that his design team is the heart of the business and will be the driving force for projects in the future. “Creativity is the most important part of our business model.” Noah is proud of how far Sock Club has come. He loves that they’ve been able to make a sustainable product that provides jobs and living wages to “really incredible people.” Despite their ambitions, Noah has a pretty humble goal. “We’re just trying to make the world a little bit of a better place through colorful socks.”