How Can Happy Socks, Which Produces Only Colored Socks, Sell Over 100 Million Euros Annually?

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, ten years ago, people's stockings were always the same. Although they were thick and thin, the styles were slightly different, but they could not escape the monotonous black and white business atmosphere.

Nowadays, socks are not only a necessity of daily life, but also play an important role in accessories.

Sensory

With different costumes, express their unique aesthetic taste and aspirations.

Swedish socks

Happy Socks is one of the hosiery brands that are leading this trend.

It was founded by co founder Mikael S derlindh (concurrent CEO) and Viktor Tell (Creative Director) in 2008.

This is the humble company that only produces colored socks. Its retail sales in 2016 reached 100 million euros.

Create happy works of Art

In the past, people seldom saw people wearing socks in work clothes at work. This is even more prominent in men.

Last year, the New York Times published a text entitled "End of the office dress code end office dress code". It quoted the new New York Municipal Human Rights Act, and opposed employers forcing men to wear necktie to work. They called for loosening the rules of dress in men's office.

Mikael S o derlindh and Viktor Tell discovered the demand for printed socks and the blank of the market before deciding to start Happy Socks. The original intention was to turn a common object in everyday life into a fast music art with color, design and quality.

Mikael S o derlindh, who has worked in the advertising industry for 10 years, has sensitive business instincts and rich experience. He understands the importance of creativity more than anyone else.

Before Viktor Tell became a fashion designer, he was a famous graphic designer and illustrator of GoerTek GoerTek. His passion for color and the character of queer spirits provided him with an endless stream of inspiration for the design of Happy Socks.

Happy Socks's socks use countless designs, colors and patterns to match every mood, style and wearing environment of the wearer.

Since 2008, Happy Socks has sold over 40 million pairs of socks in more than 90 countries and 1.2 retailers worldwide.

By the end of 2017, Happy Socks had owned 50 self operated stores.

Over the past three years, sales of Happy Socks and EBITDA have increased by more than 50% per year.

Mikael S derlindh derlindh even said they have made profits since they were founded for third months.

The good momentum of development of Happy Socks has attracted the attention of many investors.

In January of this year, Pan European growth private equity fund Palamon Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Happy Socks.

The value of the paction for Happy Socks is 725 million SEK, plus 40 million kronor growth capital for Happy Socks Socks, and Happy Socks's valuation is 765 million krona.

Clear positioning, no fear of competitors

But in today's hosiery market, Happy Socks also has many strong competitors:

The US socks brand Stance is one of them. They used to be the official sponsors of NBA and MLB, and had close cooperation with the big players such as Rihanna, the popular queen of heaven.

Bombas, a hosiery start-up company with "buy one donation", has achieved annual sales of 50 million US dollars this year.

And Kim Kardashian's younger brother Rob Kardashian, such as Arthur, George Socks, and so on, is also eating the market share.

Mikael S o derlindh is not worried about this. He said: "fierce competition on the market can make Happy Socks stronger.

Our brand represents creativity, art, design and fun. The positioning is very clear.

Although the company of Happy Socks is growing, their style has not changed. They are always creating a kind of fashionable product that makes people feel friendly.

Expand category

Although the positioning of Happy Socks socks at the beginning of the establishment is a gender neutral style, the marketing and social media promotion of Happy Socks has made female consumers feel too masculine and street oriented, and female products account for only 30% of the total business.

This autumn, Happy Socks launched a more fashionable female stocking line Hysteria for women's market. It has a wide range of fabrics, including artificial cotton, nylon, cashmere and mercerized cotton, most of which are very thin in length and ankles, so that women can wear high-heeled shoes and narrow shoes. The color and style are also more suitable for women's wear.

Paula Maso, head of Hysteria design, said: "Hysteria is very independent, has its own Instagram, has a unique retail display and advertising shooting program.

Hysteria will show a more lifestyle, planning and high-end experience.

In addition, Happy Socks now has socks and sports socks and men's and women's underwear series. It has launched 3 different styles of underwear: tight pants and loose panties for men; tight triangle underwear highlights the beauty of women's health.

Happy Socks believes that every consumer should wear his favorite socks and underwear.

Retail market deployment

In terms of brand retail deployment, Happy Socks has also made new moves recently.

In September of this year, after ending the franchise of United Legwear Legwear, the Happy Socks decided to open its direct business in the US market next year and expand its business in North America.

Happy Socks will open a new New York flagship store on Broadway West Street 448, which is not far from the first store opened in 2013 (the original store is now a Hysteria flash store).

The new store, which covers an area of 518 square feet (about 48 square meters), will sell Happy Socks's full range of products, including men's dress socks Dressed, socks Hysteria, and some joint venture series.

Happy Socks retail operations manager My Johansson said: "this store is to let consumers understand Happy Socks, access to consumers.

We will then organize a series of interesting activities in the store.

Happy Socks plans to open two stores in Losangeles and New York next year, but the location is not yet known.

Other store stores and franchise stores are also planned for Happy Socks.

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Cautious and big name joint name

Co operation is one of the cornerstones of Happy Socks's early brand development.

Happy Socks has collaborated with street singer Billionaire Boys Club, a famous American singer and fashion designer Pharrell Williams, founded by the legendary designer of the design field and the Japanese trend designer Sk8thing (Nakamura Shinchi Lang, who served as A Bathing Ape designer).

In addition, he has worked with Adidas Originals to create a series of fashion sports shoes.

Happy Socks has also worked with fashion retailer Opening Ceremony to design New York s Fashion s Night Out Out series, including socks designed with American style as inspiration.

Happy Socks is also impressive with Paris's boutique retailer Colette and KESSELSKRAMER London's three party. It draws on the best fashion elements in Paris and London and integrates them.

During the Christmas season in 2009, Happy Socks and the Barneys New York, an old luxury department store in the US, launched a series of personalized and colorful socks, which are sold only in Barneys department store.

In most cases, Happy Socks will provide a pamphlet with blank socks to allow partners to design freely, and then deliver their design to the factory for production.

Mikael S o derlindh said: "we will cooperate with any person or brand who can represent something or stand at the forefront of a fashion.

If you compare Happy Socks to a person, he must be sociable, friendly and outgoing. He will always find new friends and go out to eat together.

However, cooperation can also be risky.

Terry Richardson Richardson, a famous American designer who worked with Happy Socks in 2011, is notorious for her recent series of allegations of sexual harassment.

Originally planned to launch a series of cooperation with YouTube star PewDiePie in December this year, it has also been criticized for its anti Semitic and racist comments on its own channel.

Mikael S o derlindh said that the risk of such cooperation would be reduced in the future, and they plan to establish cooperative relationships with more well-known brands and personalities.

The top priority is the 6 double limited series of tribute to the 1968 The Beatles's "Yellow Submarine yellow submarine" animated movie.

The Hysteria series is also moving cautiously into the field of cooperation.

"In the first few seasons, the brand plans to work with women artists and creatives in small projects in the social media, asking them to read and match socks instead of stocking," says Paula Maso.

At first, we should not rely too much on co operative joint names. First of all, we must have a recognized style. This is the main marketing strategy and the core belief of the company. "

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