Thank you for taking the time to read more about me and our company. I am Vuong Hoang, a fella born and raised in the Netherlands to Vietnamese immigrant parents. My passion for socks started when I was around 14 years old. At that time I started to take basketball more seriously and focus on putting more training hours in. Up until that point, I played basketball for fun with my friends, but then I fell in love with the competitiveness and wanted to improve myself to compete on higher levels.
Between 14-20 years old, basketball was my life, it was the reason I woke up everyday: to go to school and practice. During those times, I’ve created pre-game habits, specifically for wearing socks. I would always put on my right sock first and the color of the socks was depended on my performance of the last game. If I had a good game, I would wear the same color socks the next game. My white CHAMPION crew socks were my training pair and Nike crew socks were my gameday pair. I used them until they were worn out, and I mean seriously worn out, with holes in them.
Fast forward to my life after basketball, I sadly had an abrupt end to my playing days because of injuries. I had to adjust my goals and decided to finish school and start my career in digital marketing. After a couple of years, I was lucky enough to work at the largest basketball store in Benelux. At that place, I have found my passion for sneakers and got even more interested in athletic socks. One thing I still can’t understand is: why are performance socks of well-known brands so expensive? And why doesn’t custom athletic socks exist for a reasonable price? Back then I already felt there is a market to be served.
After working in a digital marketing agency for a couple of years, I decided to move to Saigon Vietnam in 2017 to explore more about my heritage. As a child from Vietnamese parents, I grew up hearing stories about Vietnam and the war. Even though the stories were not positive, I had this urge to go back to find my identity and learn more about my culture.
While working in digital marketing agencies in Saigon, I couldn’t get the socks idea out of my head. I started to look for manufacturers in Vietnam and I was lucky enough connect with some factories through mutual friends. This was a total new experience for me as I’ve never worked in garment or manufacturing before. But I quickly realized that Vietnam is one of the top countries in the world for exporting textile and garments. So I started to design my own socks, focused on basketball players. It took a while before I had the first samples and after months of testing (by pro basketball players), iterations and adjustments, the final socks design was ready.
In 2018, we've landed our first client and from that moment on, we knew believe there is a demand for high quality, affordable, highly customizable athletic socks. We were fortunate to have welcomed charities, teams, brands and local organizations as clients in 2019. We are optimistic that we can welcome more organizations in the near future. And the most fun is: our current team are actually my old basketball team mates!
We would like to hear your ideas and welcome you with open arms to start a partnership!
Together, we can do amazing things. Together we can build your brand. Your brand is our MVP.
My goal is to truly understand our client's identity and translate that into amazing custom socks.
Sincerely,
Vuong
