Back when I worked at Oi Polloi, I’d marvel at the beauty of their luxury sock offering, then baulk slightly at the cost. “Who’s paying £17 for a pair of Salfords*?” I’d ask. “That’s like 8 or 9 quid each”, I’d add.
At no point did I not covet such items, how could I not want to treat my feet? But the likes of AnonymousIsm and socks from Folk, Universal Works and others were above my pay grade, or so I thought. Having skilfully negotiated, then employed staff discount just once, I can say with serious authority that I’ve never looked back. I’ve got ‘posh socks’ that cost me the best part of £20 a pair but they’ve been worn to death, yet not died. Can you really say that about the cut-price hosiery you sometimes employ? I’ll answer that before you do. No, you can’t.
In addition, I’ve also become pretty enlightened to the fact that if I’m wearing reassuringly expensive footwear, reassuringly expensive legwear, and a jacket with a price tag that would make your cheap Uncle choke on his turkey, why would I not then apply the same sartorial ethos to the first layers of clothing we all put on each morning? Socks and underwear are the forgotten men of the clothing scene, yet we’d struggle without them.
Fast forward to the cusp of 2022 and I’m here to demand you up your sock game. Here’s why.
When we’re not writing about Uncle-choking outerwear on here, or in print, and when we’re not working for brands we love, we work on our own brand which – as it happens – we quite like too. Hikerdelic was born of the realisation that we spent so much time telling people why we liked existing brands, it was time we had a bash at our own.
Through this, we were introduced to a New York brand by the name of Druthers. I’ll save you the job of googling how to pronounce it by telling you it’s pronounced the same as ‘Brothers’, and not ‘Drew-thers’ as I mistakenly, embarrassingly referred to it as at one point. Though we share a language with the U.S, it’s these minor quirks and differences between us that intrigue me most. I’m not just talking about their shameful shunning of the ‘u’ in ‘colour’ either. Druthers is a good example of a word that is sometimes used stateside that apparently means nothing to us in the UK. For clarity, Druthers basically means freedom, in the context of saying “If I had my druthers…”, so for example “If I had my druthers, I’d be getting lots of luxury socks for Christmas”.
You get the idea?
Seamlessly moving on, Druthers is the work of Adam Gianotti, a Bronx-born serial creative whose impressive CV takes in spells working with Zoo York, Ralph Lauren, Nike and Aime Leon Dore. Through Druthers, he employs all that experience, both good and bad, to create something he genuinely cares about. His eye was fixed on sustainability long before it became such a hot topic and his ‘only do it if it’s right’ mentality speaks to us.
What about the actual product though? Well, let’s just say the late noughties version of me would have fallen under the spell of socks like the ones Druthers makes, and if they’d been around back then, maybe I’d have been much quicker to embrace the appeal of ‘posh socks’. In reality, having worn then washed on repeat for much of the last year, I can say these are genuinely just a really great product. Yarns sourced in Japan in limited numbers, Druthers are our new favourite brand. When they’re not making nice stuff for us, they’re partnering with the likes of Bodega and Ace Hotel.
If you’re clued up, you’re already on them. If you’re not, then please make a mental note to keep an eye out next year.
For now, check out the Druthers Hikerdelic collaboration, and once you’ve done that, head to the Druthers website.
*Salford Docks = Socks
