Sock it!

Lone socks that would have gone waste are upcycled into dolls

O ne ‘aha’ idea gave life to a lone sock and now many lone socks have huggable human buddies -- as cute monsters, cats with moustaches, octopus, little owls, and fish. As crazy as that may sound, sock company Footsy found a use for single socks that get left behind as surplus during their production -- they were rejected either for colour imperfections, patterns that didn’t work, or were just failed experiments. They usually get dumped as waste. But instead the company found a way to upcycle them into ‘sock dolls’.

“The Sock Dolls are made from our surplus stock. Instead of disposing off the surplus, which would be a huge waste, we used the surplus to create products, and it’s in line with our ‘play a little’ ethos,” says Seema Seth who started the online socks store five years ago as a spontaneous idea, with friend Pooja Mehta. Stuffed, patchworked, with buttons and googly eyes sewn on, these dolls come at Rs. 650 each. “Our first batch got sold out within 24 hours! We’re slowly adding to the collection, and will be introducing new dolls through the year,” says Seema.

 

Over the last five years, they’ve hoarded a large number of such boxes filled with single socks!

They have also created a social enterprise led line of socks, collaborated with Shen -- an initiative of Snow Leopard Enterprises in Himachal Pradesh -- to get women of this hill region to hand-knit a range of warm woollen 'snugglers' or thick warm socks this winter. “Shen, meaning ‘snow leopard’ in the local Spitian dialect, is an enterprise set up to increase income and safeguard wildlife in the trans-Himalayas. It provides training and equipment that helps participants make beautiful handmade items from the raw wool of their livestock. The money from these products helps diversify their income and lets them participate in wildlife conservation of species like the snow leopard, wolves, fox, bharal and ibex,” adds Seema.

 

The participating women receive a payment for the labour-time they invest in preparing the products, she explains. This helps supplement their income. In addition to this, Shen makes a conservation agreement with the women of each village and set a target through mutual discussion. “For example, the women of a village could commit to ensure that there is no damage to wildlife around their village, by anyone. At the end of the year, Shen reviews what has happened and based on how they have managed the commitment, they are entitled to receive an additional 'conservation bonus'.”

Their new collections of snugglers and sock dolls can be seen on www.footsy.in