FAQs
The minimum, the price, the lead time, and what survives being knitted into a sock.
Ordering, price and payment
What is your minimum order?
Societal Socks has a minimum order of 100 pairs per design. The minimum is per design rather than per order, because one run is one design in one size, so a school with eight houses is looking at eight runs of 100.
In exceptional circumstances, on large orders spanning many houses, we are happy to enter multi-year supply contracts to reduce the minimum.
How much do custom socks cost?
Societal Socks prices custom socks at £4 a pair for 100 to 500 pairs. The design work is included in the order: there is no setup fee and no artwork charge.
It does not go up because your design is complicated, and it does not go up because you want more colours in it. Send us what you have in mind and we will put the order in writing before anything is knitted.
When does production start?
Sock production starts once your invoice is paid. You sign off the design first, we invoice you, and the socks go on the machine when that invoice is settled. The 7-8 week lead time runs from there.
Do you charge for design or set-up?
No. The design work is included in the order: there is no setup fee and no artwork charge, and revisions are unlimited.
Why is your minimum 100 pairs when other suppliers say 30?
Because the design work, the stitch grid, the mock-up and unlimited revisions are inside the price rather than charged for separately, and a run is set up on the machine for your design and nobody else's. A supplier with a lower minimum is balancing that arithmetic somewhere else, and it is worth finding out where.
The design is also knitted rather than printed. A printed sock can be made in almost any quantity because the sock already exists and the artwork goes on top of it. A knitted one is built out of its own stitches. It survives the wash, and a run is a run.
Can we get a sample before ordering?
Yes, a physical sample can be approved before the full run is knitted. Ask us for the terms and the extra time when you enquire.
What is included, and what is not?
Included: the design work, the redraw onto the stitch grid, the mock-up, unlimited revisions, and the knitting. There is no setup fee and no artwork charge.
Not included: selling the socks for you, taking payments from your buyers, or handling returns from them.
Design and artwork
What do you need from us to start?
Your colours, your crest or logo, and a rough idea of numbers. A photograph of a tie, a scarf or a spare shirt works better than a logo file for the colours, because it carries them as they really are rather than as a brand guide says they should be. If you have no artwork at all, we will design something from scratch with your guidance.
How quickly do we see a design?
We send mock-ups within 24 hours of getting your colours and your artwork. Revisions after that are unlimited and included.
What do we get to choose?
More than most buyers expect. Whichever height you pick, all of this is yours: six colours in one design in total, the base colour among them (two or three read better on a sock than six do); the stripes, meaning how many bands, how wide, in what order and where they sit on the leg; a crest or logo knitted into the calf, the ankle, the foot or the sole; a wordmark, a motto, a set of initials or a year; the cuff, matching or contrast; the heel and the toe picked out in a second colour; and a custom label with your own name on it.
One rule is worth knowing before you brief us. Where the cuff matches the body of the sock, stripes carry straight through it and the whole leg reads as one block. Where the cuff contrasts, the stripes start below it and the cuff becomes a band in its own right. Both look good; they just look like different socks.
Will our crest work on a sock?
A crest is not shrunk onto a sock, it is redrawn on a stitch grid, because shrinking keeps every element and makes each one smaller, which is precisely backwards. Bold enclosed shapes survive: a shield, a chevron, a cross, a key, a lion reduced to its silhouette. Block capitals at a decent size survive, and stripes survive down to a single stitch.
An 8pt motto does not, and it is not a matter of trying harder: at sock scale the cap height of that text is a couple of rows of stitches. A founding date under a shield goes the same way, as does a thin outline around fine detail. Gradients do not exist here at all. The whole process is set out in how a crest goes on a sock.
Can you match our colours?
Yes. Send a photograph of a tie, a scarf or a spare shirt and we match to that rather than to a colour code. A design can use six colours in total, and the base colour is one of the six. Two or three usually read better on a sock than six do.
Are the designs knitted or printed?
Knitted into the fabric, not printed on top of it. A printed design sits on the surface of a sock that already exists, which is why it can be made in almost any quantity and why it eventually cracks. A knitted one is built out of the stitches themselves, so there is nothing to crack, peel or wash off.
The socks themselves
Which height should we pick?
Crew, unless you have a reason not to. It is our most popular sock, tried and tested, and it is the height most adults in the UK wear most days. It gives you a clear panel on the calf for a crest, room for stripe bands round the leg, and a cuff, heel and toe you can colour separately.
Other heights and constructions are available. Go longer, 14cm and above, if the sock is match kit and has to clear a shin pad or meet a playing kit, or if the crest needs the room. There is a sports construction for anything that gets trained in, and a ski build for the mountain. The comparison is written out in crew, long, sports or ski: which custom sock do you need.
What is the sports construction, and why is it not cotton?
Our sports sock is knitted at 53% polypropylene, 33% polyamide and 14% elastane, with a reinforced extended cuff so it holds its position instead of creeping down inside a shoe. It is cushioned, with padding where the foot actually lands.
Polypropylene does not absorb water, it moves it. A cotton sock soaks up sweat and then holds it against the foot for the rest of the afternoon, and that is how you end up with a hot wet sock and a blister. The polyamide is there for abrasion resistance, because a sock inside a shoe is basically being sanded all day, and the elastane holds the shape. We make the sports socks for Shiplake College on exactly this construction.
Is there anything more technical than that?
Yes. Further up the scale there is a trekking build: a polypropylene-led yarn with Coolmax, Thermolite or merino, and a terry sole for cushioning. Our production holds Coolmax certification.
None of it is a compression sock, and none of it is a medical or CE-marked product. That is a different trade.
What is the everyday sock made of?
For anything that is worn rather than played in, a cotton rich sock: an 82% cotton blend with enough elastic and polyamide to make sure it fits, lasts and is comfortable. Knitted in Europe, same as the sports build. What separates a good sock from a cheap one is set out in how to spot a good sock.
What sizes do you make?
One adult size, fitting UK foot sizes 5 to 13, which covers roughly 95% of adult feet in the UK. Every run is one design in one size, so nobody collects a shoe size.
Where are the socks made?
Every pair is knitted in Europe.
Will the design survive a hot wash?
It is knitted into the fabric rather than printed on top of it, so there is nothing to crack, peel or wash off. That matters for something that goes through a school laundry or a shared machine at 60 degrees.
Timing and delivery
How long does the whole thing take?
The lead time is 7-8 weeks, from the day your invoice is paid to the day the socks arrive. Everything before that (design, revisions, sign-off) runs at your speed, and mock-ups come back within 24 hours.
How far ahead should we start?
Count back 7 to 8 weeks from the day the socks have to be in hand, then count back further for however long your side needs to agree a design, find the artwork and get the invoice paid. Work backwards from the date, not forwards from today.
Where do you deliver?
Tell us where the run has to land and we will confirm the delivery arrangement and any carriage with your quote.
Schools, clubs, universities and fundraising
Do we have to collect shoe sizes?
No, and it is the main reason people order socks rather than clothing. We knit one adult size and it fits UK foot sizes 5 to 13, roughly 95% of adult feet in the UK. There is nothing to collect, nothing to guess at and no size to get wrong.
Can a school split the minimum between houses?
Each house is its own design, and the minimum of 100 pairs applies per design, so eight houses means eight runs of 100. In exceptional circumstances, on large orders spanning many houses, we are happy to enter multi-year supply contracts to bring the minimum down. If none of your houses individually reaches 100 pairs, that is the conversation to have with us.
How does a repeat order work?
A repeat order is a fresh run of the same design, ordered the same way you ordered the first one. Schools find that 100 pairs maps neatly onto one year group, so it works as an annual order rather than a one-off.
What should a fundraiser sell them for?
That is your decision. Get a quote from us first so you know your cost per pair, then set a resale price that leaves the margin your cause needs.
Private shops
What is a private shop?
A page of our own making, put together for one school, club or company: their designs, their prices, nobody else's. It is not on the website and it is not in Google. The passphrase is the only way in.
How do we get one?
Tell us who it is for and we will set it up and send you the passphrase. Get in touch and say what you want in it.
We have lost our passphrase.
Email enquiries@societalsocks.com and we will sort it out. The door itself is at private shop.
Still not answered?
Ask us. Send your colours, your crest and a rough idea of numbers at the same time and we will come back with a mock-up as well as an answer.