We seldom reflect on the many different types of footwear that are available. What’s more, our feet come in different shapes and sizes, too, which makes it even more difficult to shop for others. Still, although we live in an age of mass production, there really is something out there for everyone.
While shopping for the right size and type of shoes for others is a bit of a challenge, things get easier when it comes to socks. What makes socks particularly interesting, from a marketing perspective, is that you can buy custom athletic socks in bulk. You see this all the time when someone is designing uniforms for a team.
Socks As A Branding Medium
Besides helping create a sense of team unity, bulk athletic socks serve another purpose—they are a perfect way of branding.
Branding affects everyone. It creates a sense of solidarity among team members and it creates a symbol for customers, fans, or supporters.
Team branding is important when you are serving a specific audience, building team spirit to practice a skill, or trying to create a clear set of identifiable values. Through the power of branding symbols, every member of a team, whether it is a sports team or some other type of group, feels that they represent a value, that their team stands for an established code of conduct.
How to Make A Statement with Team Socks
High-quality socks, like those made from antimicrobial yarn, offer a lot of branding opportunities. While most club owners think of branding their teams with jerseys, socks are even more amenable to branding. You can use a variety of custom colours, lengths, logos, and texts.
Text in particularly works remarkably well with socks. You can add them to the outer and inner brim of a sock. You can add them to the bridge of a sock. You can add them to the toe of a sock. And you can add wide letters to the back of the sock.
While we often associate bulk socks with team sports like baseball, softball, basketball, football, and volleyball, they can also be used for more individualistic sports too, like lacrosse, wrestling, golf, and track and field.
Besides their use in sports, bulk socks also work well for groups that want to raise awareness about a cause. For instance, pink socks with awareness ribbons can be used to raise breast cancer awareness.
How to Customise Socks for Your Team or Group
When buying socks in bulk, you have to make three decisions: decisions about what colours or combination of colours to use, decisions about what images or text you want to use to represent your brand, and decisions about what range of sizes you should buy.
Choosing Your Colours
A good place to start is to choose your colours. You don’t have to choose a single colour but can choose a blend of colours. For instance, the bulk of the sock can be in red, with the toe area and the back of the sock in blue. In all, you will be able to choose from more than thirty-five different hues.
Deciding on Your Branding Symbols
Next, you should choose the logos and text that you want. An image of your mascot or logo will be most prominent when placed close to the outer brim to the side of the sock. Your choice of logo isn’t based on an image dyed into the socks. They are actually knitted into the socks. Incidentally, when choosing text, you don’t have to just rely on names and slogans. You can also use words about values, like “strength,” “focus,” etc.
Getting the Right Sizes
Finally, you will need a variety of sizes. Extra small is a 4, small is a 7, a medium is a 12, large is a 16, and an extra-large is an 18.
In conclusion, team branding makes a difference to your team and its audience. And one excellent and seldom used medium to showcase your brand symbols are team socks. Ultimately, it’s about using the right colours, images, and words to establish value. Instead of just relying on jerseys, uniforms, hats, headbands, armbands and other common articles of clothing, you can go one step further and use bulk socks to make a statement.