Turned Boring White Socks → $100K/Month Goldmine

🏖️ Creative Entrepreneur fun one-liner:

Why did the entrepreneur take up archery? To hit their targets with precision!

Onto Today’s story….

This is the journey of two college seniors, who launched a customized sock brand that took off on campus.

Their main idea was that Socks were boring, and they offered all kinds of fun designs on Socks.

They are making $100K/Month

Here is how they did it.

Taylor Offer and Parker Burr met by chance, in their final year at University of Massachusetts during an entrepreneurship class.

Both were interested in starting their own business.

Taylor had a side hustle selling t-shirts.

They were brainstorming for ideas and got one they liked.

They decided to team up to make stylish socks and sell them on campus.

They quickly sprang into action.

The same day, they bought 200 pairs of plain white socks at Ross.

Digging out the heat press Taylor used for his t-shirt side hustle,

they worked late into the night pressing wild patterns and designs onto each pair.

The very next day, they set up shop with their vibrant creations at a folding table on campus.

Within hours, their entire inventory was sold out.

They made $2,000 in one day.

Spurred by the burst of interest, Taylor and Parker amped up their late-night sock pressing operation.

As word spread, customized FEAT Socks became the hottest item on campus.

Students would chase down the dynamic duo across campus,

when they spotted their now-iconic backpacks bulging with inventory, clamoring to snag the latest designs.

By the end of senior year, they'd sold an astounding 20,000 pairs of socks, out of their DIY dorm room factory.

They pressed the socks manually in their dorm room up to 4 AM every night, even hiring friends for $10/hour.

However, manually pressing each pair for hours on end, severely limited how many they could produce.

Since they got some money coming in, they found a US-based supplier, who could manufacture them.

They finished college and like many kids out of college,

Taylor was pressured to get a real job.

So, he got a job offer at LinkedIn in San Francisco.

He was just a kid from UMass, and this job offer seemed like an opportunity he could not pass up.

However, with FEAT's early traction, they felt compelled to keep going.

So they kept going, while Taylor started working at LinkedIn.

Now they needed money to expand.

One time a friend of theirs wore FEAT socks to the gym.

A person saw the socks and enquired about it. The friend connected them to Taylor and Parker.

Through sheer luck, that person liked their idea and decided to invest $250k.

Even though Taylor went to work at LinkedIn, he was working on FEAT Socks on nights and weekends.

Meanwhile, Parker got a warehouse in Boston and went full time on FEAT Socks.

On the weekends, they would go to retail trade shows.

And through this, they met David Falk, a renowned sports agent who had many NBA clients.

They had dinner with him, and asked him if he could become their advisor in exchange for equity.

David opened up his Rolodex and set up a meeting with Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman,

a rising star in the 2016 games with massive influencer potential.

Aly won gold medal during the Olympics.

She posted pictures with their socks on Instagram. This boosted their Instagram follower count by 5x.

Website traffic also increased and sales exploded to $20k/month. Their Instagram community grew 5x over.

They doubled down on social media marketing, snapping up thousands of followers daily across Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

Taylor also quit his job and came full-time.

Always on the hunt for the next big thing, they wholeheartedly committed to do vlogging on YouTube.

They teamed up with influencer Logan Paul and created two videos.

These videos became a hit and they sold $500k worth of socks.

They worked hard to get into big box retail stores, and brought on some great people to help them.

They thought that selling in retail stores would help them grow.

They also decided to sell directly to their customers.

They also decided to outsource most of the operational duties of their business.

Instead of paying someone to do customer service, they just outsourced it to a 3rd party agency.

They were not masters at fulfilling and shipping. So, they outsourced all of their non-core duties.

“The only thing we want to be the best at - is having a kick-ass brand. “ Taylor says.

They started focusing heavily on branding and marketing.They also got influencer partnerships and did paid ads to grow.

They started introducing many products like tees, shorts, pants and Joggers.

Customers loved these colorful products.

They changed their name to Feat Clothing.

The founders both worked well together.

Taylor says that they have been in some stressful situations, since they started, but they never had a serious disagreement or argument.

Today, FEAT pulls in $100k in monthly recurring revenue.

This income mostly comes from direct online sales,which are mostly driven by social media and influencers.

But in Taylor's mind, they're still just getting started.

Taylor wants to transform FEAT into something like Chubbies, a trending brand where the fun culture,

and their playful activities make their products more popular.

Small changes to known products, can unlock massive demand, instead of big new radical ideas.

These two entrepreneurs just took a familiar product, socks, and made them fun and colorful.

They built a 100k/Month business around this simple idea.

Taylor says…“You need some irrational confidence” to build a successful business.

9 Reasons why they succeeded:

1. Improved a boring product

Socks were seen as a boring household product,

before FEAT made them colorful and stylish.

They took plain white socks and pressed wild patterns,

and designs to make them vibrant and fun.

This customization and personalization unlocked massive new demand.

2. Leveraged their existing skills or assets

Taylor already had a heat press machine from his t-shirt side business

and he knew how to use it properly.

Instead of buying a new machine,

they could use this to quickly test the socks idea.

It allowed them to start pressing colorful sock inventory,

the same day they had the idea.

3. Sold first, optimized later.

Instead of worrying how they will do mass sock production,

FEAT started selling their initial small batches immediately.

They pressed socks manually in their dorm room to sell the next day on campus.

Rapid sales and feedback guided them to optimize the business operations later.

4. Got Feedback fast.

They personally sold their socks at a folding table around campus.

They also engaged with students directly,

to tell their story and also got feedback.

This created buzz and soon students would chase them down,

for the latest sock designs.

5. Validated their idea would work

Once they got the idea, they sprang into action,

purchasing 200 plain white socks and using a heat press to design them.

The next day, they sold all their vibrant socks on campus, making $2,000.

Encouraged by this success, Taylor and Parker expanded their sock pressing operation.

6.Turn down big opportunities if the economics don't make sense.

Even after chasing Nordstrom for years, they declined due to low profit margins

Nordstrom wanted to buy pairs at $3 that FEAT sold for $12 — very little profit

They realized their target audience;

people like them wouldn't buy from Nordstrom anyway.

7. Outsourced non-core business functions

Instead of managing their own warehouse and shipping, they outsourced fulfillment.

This allowed them to focus on their core business functions,

like product, marketing and brand building.

Similarly, customer service was cheaper and easier to outsource.

8.Focused on influencers

After Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman endorsed their socks,

Instagram followers jumped 5X

She posted wearing their socks which instantly added major credibility

Sales skyrocketed to 20k/Month thanks to this influencer marketing

9. Prepared for Luck to happen

When they needed money to expand, they were not sure how to get.

One time a friend of theirs wore FEAT socks to the gym.

A person saw the socks and enquired about it.

Through sheer luck, that person liked their idea and decided to invest $250k.

Hope you liked the story and the strategies which made them successful.

Keep Zoooming!

Yours “Making you Win” Vijay Peduru