It’s a widely known fact that giving someone socks as a gift is…lame. Take Christmas, for example. Everyone else is getting their share of stuff we want but don’t need; and then you receive a pair of bland, polyester socks. But Singapore label and online store Freshly Pressed is changing the reputation of socks and making them cool again.
Freshly Pressed was born out of a combination of a group of people who are passionate about quirky socks, as well as their talent for storytelling — they were formerly from the world of advertising. The lean team behind Freshly Pressed consists of co-founders Vincent Teo, Ling Ang and Karl Ng, who collaborate closely on branding, product design and development, operations and marketing.
Ling says, “We decided on socks because all three of us loved fun, well designed and quality socks but found that most of what was available in the market were overly expensive and lacked an interesting brand story. We wanted to create a sock brand with an original point of view and a compelling brand story that we could share with the world.”
The team believe that socks are like a secret identity — that small detail on your outfit that reveals your hidden self to the world when called upon (like when you sit or take off your shoes), letting you show a tinge of pattern or colour. “All our socks come with small details that reflect a character and story behind them. This is communicated on our website and on a character card that comes with every pair of socks — you could say our socks are a little like wearable action figures,” she adds.
Each pair of their socks is designed with a specific character or personality in mind. It might be a well-known superhero or movie character, or just someone that the co-founders know personally who has an interesting personality and story. For example:
“Taro is a close Japanese friend of ours who is a true Japanese warrior — intelligent, respectful and honourable even in the most difficult situations. We created Taro based off Japanese waves patterns to match his zen-like nature.”
“Dylan is a kid we know who is unassumingly smart, witty and ever curious. He is the only 13-year-old we know who has done 2 TEDx Singapore talks, and has a book published with his father around self discovery and belief as integral values growing up in the 21st century. We created a colourful polka dots series for Dylan, which represents the perfect blend of courage, adaptability and self-confidence.”
“Meet Wayne, who is the world’s greatest detective with the world’s coolest gadgets. We’re not saying he is Batman, but no one has ever seen him in the same room as Batman.”
“Or Flynn, who is inspired by Sam Flynn, the protagonist and creator of Tron with the sock design taking a cue from the light trails made from the light cycle battles.”
More recently, the team collaborated with GameStart Asia to produce two pairs of themed socks for the gaming convention. The sock Alex is inspired by the puzzle game Tetris, while the other sock Kaz is a tribute to the creator of the famous video game cheat code. Each Freshly Pressed sock has an inside story that makes it an interesting conversation starter. And even if you don’t get the geeky references, it’s still essentially a really nice-looking and comfortable pair of socks.
Ling tells us, “A lot of people are still getting used to the idea of wearing vibrant and colorful socks especially in a work or corporate setting. However when they wear our socks, they almost always find that the designs are not as loud as they had imagined and that the socks add a really nice and refreshing take to their outfit. We’ve had stories of customers now feeling odd about wearing black/single coloured socks!”
Looks like we’ve finally found some socks you won’t be embarrassed receiving or giving away for Christmas. May you proceed with your Christmas shopping in peace and good taste.