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How has the pandemic impacted team sock sales? Ashleigh Brown: The pandemic has brought awareness to how vulnerable the global supply chain is to disruption. That is not news to anyone, but as a U.S. manufacturer we have seen demand for our products increase substantially. Christian Stagg: Early in 2021 we started to see more team business inbound and it quickly became a rush to get product in-hand. As we proceeded throughout the year, the industry experienced many supply chain issues. Shortages in raw materials for production created shortages in product availability and increased raw material costs by 40-50 percent. Disruptions and closures in the manufacturing process and lack of available labor yielded fewer products per work shift. Shipping, freight and delivery costs were also increased. This perfect storm did not allow suppliers to meet the industry demands well and created some chaos this year. Wouter de Keizer: At the beginning of the pandemic, all team sports were on hold, which definitely briefly took its toll on team sock sales for Stox. Josh Higgins: What hindered the sock business with the pandemic in the beginning has come back to sock sales quickly. There was a pent-up demand that's created a nice boost for sales. Has it put an emphasis on stock socks rather than custom? Jack Vail: We've seen stock product sales increase as a percent of total mostly due to the instant turnaround time. Custom orders can take four-plus weeks to fill and because of so many lingering uncertainties most teams didn't have that kind of time to plan ahead. Luke Griffith: We have not put an emphasis on stock socks, rather than custom, as many competitors in the custom market have chosen not to continue or were unable to maintain their operation, with the loss of sales in the market. Jesse Baldwin: I don't necessarily think the pandemic has put more of an emphasis on stock any more than custom or vice versa. There is a need for both. What are the design trends in socks these days? Is simple better or are they still decorating and getting fancy? Brad Davis: There is definitely a trend back to the basics. Baseball is still very striped focused, but for everything else we are seeing a lot more solid colors with team logos. Kevin Powers: The trend in socks continues to vary by sport. It is not so much the design, but the silhouette and way they are worn. Each sport is unique when it comes to socks. Maurice Wu: The public still prefers simple yet stylish designs. That said, our design choices revolve around functionality. Sock structure, color, material and decoration are all centered on delivering the best performance. Different activities require different performance parameters. Are there any significant supply chain issues in the sock business as we head into 2022? Brown: All industries are affected, of course. However, we feel we are less impacted than most. Freight costs have risen tenfold and some of our yarns are imported. This has put pricing pressure on us. On the positive side, we have found we are again price competitive to manufacture in our own mill as compared to importing from overseas. Stagg: Those manufacturers and suppliers who invested in themselves early have been able to find solutions to the current supply chain issues and continue to support the industry's demand overall. de Keizer: Stox are made in Italy and at the beginning of the pandemic our factories were closed for a month. This was a challenging time for us, but luckily we had enough SOCK TALK Wilson Brown Ashleigh Brown Marketing and HR Director OS1st Josh Higgins President and Owner ASICS Adam LaFollette Sales Director Kevin Powers Director of Merchandising Twin City Knitting Brad Davis VP–Sales PearSox Christian Stagg National Sales Manager West Jesse Baldwin Sales Manager Eastern Territory Drymax Jack Vail Team Sports Manager Socks Quick Luke Griffith Sales Manager Stox Wouter de Keizer CEO LP Support Maurice Wu Brand Manager SITTING AT THE TABLE sportstyle • sportstylemag.com 48 • March/April 2022 e Vendor Roundtable focuses on supply chain issues, custom versus stock and fashion trends. By Carly Russo APPAREL

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