{"id":5767,"date":"2015-10-06T17:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T00:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=5767"},"modified":"2017-01-23T11:35:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T19:35:06","slug":"performance-socks-a-darn-tough-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/performance-socks-a-darn-tough-profile","title":{"rendered":"Performance Socks – A Darn Tough Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy grandfather was in the sock business, and my dad is in the sock business,\u201d says Ric Cabot, owner of Vermont-based Darn Tough Socks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a third generation sock maker.\u00a0People appreciate that sort of commitment from a family, a commitment to build a business and grow it. We will never sell out to a bigger corporation. We will never cash out, move overseas, and turn our backs on the families that depend on us,\u201d promises Ric Cabot. \u201cNever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabot\u2019s father Marc opened Cabot Hosiery Mills in 1978. It mostly made chunky private label wool socks in its Northfield, Vermont, factory, knitting for the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and The Limited. Ric joined the company in 1989, giving up journalism for the booming family business. Then trade restrictions changed and Cabot Hosiery tanked. Creditors were threatening to close the mill. \u201cI knew if this business was ever going to pass to a fourth generation of Cabots, something had to change,\u201d recalled Ric.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wracked my brain and I realized that we were never going to be the cheapest, but that we could make the best-fitting, most comfortable, most durable performance socks.\u201d Ric called them Darn Tough\u2014just like Vermonters. \u201cBut the name meant more than tough socks,\u201d says Cabot. \u201cFor me, it meant\u2014and means\u2014I can\u2019t let this thing fail; I can\u2019t give up. It\u2019s also aspirational. I want people to feel like they can tackle the world with Darn Tough socks on. Put Darn Toughs on your feet and you can tackle tough challenges, go the extra mile, bag a big peak. The name means we\u2019re there with you. We understand struggle. And our socks are darn tough in their own right. They perform as promised. And if they don\u2019t, we\u2019re tough enough to stand behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

To launch Darn Tough, Cabot bought the finest New Zealand merino wool and the highest-tech knitting machines with the smallest needles. He engaged the hosiery\u2019s highly trained staff, some of who had been making socks for 30 years. They experimented until they knit a high-density, low-bulk sock with more then twice the stitches of other socks. Then they gave away 3,500 pairs at the Key Bank Vermont City Marathon with an unconditional guarantee\u2014if they ever wear out, you can return them for another pair.\u00a0 \u201cA lot of people wrote us that they liked the fit, liked the feel, and reported that even though they had never run in our socks, they didn\u2019t get blisters,\u201d recalls Cabot.<\/p>\n

Though Darn Tough has seen continual growth of about 60% each year, their return rate is still just a fraction of one percent. Cabot still reads every email they get about their socks. \u201cWhen we get returns,\u201d says Cabot, \u201cwe take that data and turn it into better socks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabot now employs 170 Vermonters, and the company has just submitted plans to the town of Norwich, Vermont, to roughly triple its factory size. That means more jobs in an underemployed community of 6,200 people, many of whom are former mill workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing tough, being clever\u2014that\u2019s the Vermont story,\u201d says Cabot. \u201cWe\u2019ve done good, and we can do even better. I don\u2019t want to be a success, I just want to be successful. Success to me would imply that I\u2019ve reached the end, done the best I can do. But I still haven\u2019t made our best sock.\u201d Cabot and staff improve Darn Tough incrementally. While the knitting is fundamentally the same as when the brand started, they now use lighter yarns, higher micron merinos and wicking synthetics in their socks, all with the goal of having you forget that you\u2019re wearing them. When Darn Tough improves the fit, comfort or durability of one sock, it improves that feature in all 1,600 styles. That keeps the brand experience the same across all categories.<\/p>\n

Cabot is passionate. \u201cThe market appreciates quality,\u201d he says. \u201cYou send jobs out of the U.S. to be cheapest and you take away hope\u2014hope of bettering your life, hope for helping yourself and your family. We\u2019re just a stitch in the health and well-being of the U.S. and Vermont economy, but we\u2019re trying to boost both\u2014one pair of socks at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shop Darn Tough<\/a> socks at REI.com.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy grandfather was in the sock business, and my dad is in the sock business,\u201d says Ric Cabot, owner of Vermont-based Darn Tough Socks. \u201cI am a third generation sock maker.\u00a0People appreciate that sort of commitment from a family, a commitment to build a business and grow it. We will never sell out to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[387],"tags":[440,441,248],"internal-tag":[513,495],"class_list":["post-5767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hike","tag-darn-tough","tag-hiking-socks","tag-vermont","internal-tag-berne-broudy","internal-tag-united-states"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/hike\/performance-socks-a-darn-tough-profile","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Performance Socks – A Darn Tough Profile","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/performance-socks-a-darn-tough-profile","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/performance-socks-a-darn-tough-profile"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/10\/Blog-Darn-Tough-Socks-1-1500x960.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/10\/Blog-Darn-Tough-Socks-1-1500x960.jpg?fit=1500%2C960"},"articleSection":"Hike","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Angela Crampton"}],"creator":["Angela Crampton"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["darn tough","hiking socks","vermont"],"dateCreated":"2015-10-07T00:00:43Z","datePublished":"2015-10-07T00:00:43Z","dateModified":"2017-01-23T19:35:06Z"},"rendered":"