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Happy Socks celebrates ten year anniversary

By Kristopher Fraser

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Fashion

After a decade in the business, Stockholm-based Happy Socks came to America's fashion capital, New York City, to celebrate their ten year anniversary at the 14th Street Garage on Thursday, April 26. Highlighting iconic moments from the past 10 years, the exhibition featured imagery and product from Happy Socks’ collaborations with industry shaping artists and icons. Top collaborations featured included Iris Apfel, Ellen Von Unwerth, David LaChapelle and André Saraiva - retailers including Barneys New York, Opening Ceremony and Colette - top brands including Adidas, Pharrell’s BBC, Robert Rodriguez and Giles Deacon - and musicians such as Snoop Dogg, A$AP Rocky, Miike Snow, The Beatles and Steve Aoki. The most recent collaboration on display was Keith Haring for spring/summer 2018.

For co-founders and designers Viktor Tell and Mikael Söderlindh, New York was the perfect city for their anniversary party given how important the city has been to their business. "New York has been a big part of our business since we started, and about nine years ago we threw our big first party and we wanted to bring that same feeling back," Tell told FashionUnited. "New York is the epic center of everything, and today we're present in 90 plus countries, so it would be natural for us to be in New York City. It feels like putting a flag on the biggest city in the world," Söderlindh added.

Viktor Tell and Mikael Söderlindh celebrate ten years of Happy Socks

Their brick-and-mortar retail presence is also going strong despite the turbulent time most physical stores are facing. Their Happy Socks store on West Broadway and Prince is considered a gem for their company. While most retailers are scaling back on opening more physical stores, Happy Socks is moving full speed ahead. Their wholesale and e-commerce has been strengthening, and they plan on opening six more stores in the U.S., including three more New York stores and two in Los Angeles.

When Tell and Söderlindh first launched the company they started off as an e-commerce business, but they quickly adapted as they learned they couldn't have e-commerce without wholesale. "As our wholesale started growing, we realized if we started adding retail, our wholesale would have the potential to grow bigger. Then our e-commerce grew more. For us, we needed the three parts, retail, e-commerce, and wholesale. It was like watching a snowball grow bigger and faster," Söderlindh said.

As for the secret to their success, the founders have each other to thank. "It's been quite good to be two people," Söderlindh said. "We are quite different, Mikael is more business and I'm more creative, but it's good to be someone's opposite when you are working on something, and we're still traveling in the same direction," Tell added.

For the evening of the party DJs Axel Boman, Working Women, and Lloydski provided the soundtrack for guests to peruse the exhibit to, while sipping the evening’s signature frozen margaritas. Notable guests for the evening included Andrew Warren, Elly Mayday, Jordun Love, Adam Eli, Margie Plus, Peter Brant, and Tatiana Price.

Since launching in 2008, Happy Socks has sold more than 40 million pairs of socks to customers, distributing its colorful, playfully patterned styles to 12,000 retailers worldwide. To mark their success and this momentous moment, Happy Socks has released a very special 10th Anniversary Collection. The limited-edition box includes 10 pairs of iconic Happy Socks (a pair has been chosen from each of the 10 years since Happy Socks’ inception), as well as the specially designed 10th Anniversary Sock.

photos: courtesy of Factory PR
Happy Socks