Calgary based social enterprise ‘Sock Rocket’ reaches 700,000 pairs of socks donated to those in need

Sock Rocket started in 2016, selling specialty socks and donating three pairs to charity for every pair purchased.

Sock Rocket’s business model is for every one pair of socks purchased, three pairs are donated to Canadian based organizations helping those in need.

Tommy Zizian, founder, says the company has evolved since it began in 2016.

“We started as a subscription business exclusively,” he said. “Then into a retail company, full e-commerce and now we’re kind of a promotions company, we make mostly custom socks for businesses and organizations across Canada who want to promote themselves in a fun way.”

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Zizian says he doesn’t know of any other sock company that’s operating on a three to one ratio and says the huge volume that the company is able to sell means he can help close to 700 charitable agencies across Canada.

“Mostly we buy from big distributors and big manufacturers across Canada and the States,” he said.

“Then we distribute those across Canada through organizations like the Calgary Drop-In Centre where we can send 40,000 pairs of socks down and then they can allocate those throughout their programing however they see fit.”

Cindy Ngo, fund development manager at the Drop-In Centre and it’s Free Goods program, says socks are always in high demand and provide a bit of dignity for clients.

“Oh, we love this partnership,” she said.

“With this quantity of donations we’re actually able to distribute all of the socks, not just through people that access our services but we partner with over 140 different agencies and we’re able to distribute socks to them as well.”

Zizian says customers like the Sock Rocket business model and giving back to the community.

“That’s the whole point of social enterprise right, it feels good for people to be involved in something like that,” he said.

“They like that their dollars are being spent more than once and we’re just trying to promote that out there to other business owners and executives, young people, and just say hey take a hard look at social enterprise, there are a lot of benefits to you, the business and obviously to the greater community.”

Zizian expects that the company will hit 1,000,000 pairs of socks donated by late this year, or early 2026.

Learn more about Sock Rocket here: www.sockrocket.ca.