The Day Our 10 Yellow Socks Made Portugal Laugh (And Led Us to Italy)

When we launched the brand, we didn't have a complex business plan, but we did have an obsession: a yellow sock. Feeling confident, we called the factories in Portugal, the temple of European textiles.

The conversation was fluid until we reached the topic of numbers:

"It’s a magnificent project! What quantity are we starting with?"

"We want excellence. We’re starting with 10 pairs."

The silence that followed lasted an eternity. Then, an explosion. A thunderous laugh echoed from the other end of the line. 

"But my friends, the machines consume more electricity just starting up than the value of your 10 pairs! Come back and see us when you’ve added three zeros."

Curtain call. We found ourselves with our design under our arm and a slightly bruised ego. But you don't drop a fixed idea that easily.

So, we hit the road again, heading for Italy.

It was in a small workshop in Piedmont that we finally found a listening ear. There, they looked at us with a raised eyebrow, that famous mix of artistic disdain and fascination for chaos. 

"Dieci? Solo dieci? You’re crazy... but your yellow is splendid."

Between two cups of strong espresso, these artisans took on the challenge. They saw the attention to detail behind the absurdity of the order and agreed to fire up the machines for our first 10 pairs.

Today, our socks are produced in much larger series, but we’ll never forget that journey. We might have started as a joke in Portugal, but we ended up with Piedmontese craftsmanship on our feet.