A fun product makes for a serious business. When I first heard about Sockrates, Shmuel Moses’ custom socks business, I was intrigued. After learning how Shmuel built a seemingly niche business from scratch to millions of dollars in sales a year and growing at a rapid pace, I was impressed.
Shmuel started out in the retail business, selling high-end ties and accessories out of his store in Toronto. As the business world turned towards the casual, he started selling fashionable socks out of his store and couldn’t keep up with the demand. After a series of unfortunate events in his store and upon the suggestion of his wife, Sockrates Custom socks was born.
The way it works is that a customer uploads a logo, and a team of designers will work on several designs, allowing for unlimited revisions. Once a final design is approved, the socks are woven in his manufacturing facility in Italy and sent all over the world, all within seven days.
Sockrates has produced socks for companies such as Google, Pepsi, Disney, Microsoft, Dell, Starbucks and thousands of smaller companies and private customers around the world.
We spoke about several ways to appeal to online shoppers, how Shmuel responds to requests from family and friends for free socks, and why he is especially fond of his sales team (it’s not because they make him a lot of money). Shmuel’s simple, straightforward approach to business will inspire you to take yours to the next level. Enjoy! -Nesanel
I was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and moved to Toronto shortly thereafter. (Today, I live in Boca Raton with my wife and children.) My parents are both from Mumbai, India, and are members of a community known as the Bene Israel. Our family lived in India for 2,000 years and were all very traditionally observant Yidden. We have some interesting traditions that have been handed down through the generations. My father came to Canada when he was 20 years old. Years later, he wanted to marry someone from the community, so he went back to India to find a wife. He met my mother and got engaged and married within the week so he could return to Canada for work. It took another eight months until my mother managed to get her papers in order to immigrate to Canada.
“My father’s first job was as an accountant for the Canadian government. He worked his way up and eventually became the director of finance for the Ontario Ministry of Health, and he later became the director of finance at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
“As a kid, I was always involved in entrepreneurial activities. While most kids went to day camp, I studied how to become an umpire for baseball games. I earned $40 a game; that’s a lot of money for an 11-year-old. My father would have to come to the games because some of the players’ parents would get hostile. But I learned how to be on time and how to stick up for myself. One time, a parent got out of hand and rushed the field to argue with me. I had to throw them out of the game. That was wild.
“I went to Netivot HaTorah and then to the Yeshiva of Hamilton, which is today referred to as Darchei Torah. For beis midrash, I went to Yeshivas Derech Eitz Chaim in Har Nof, a small yeshivah. When I was still in Yeshiva of Hamilton, I owned several vending machines, including snack and soda machines. I took out a loan from my parents to be able to afford them. It taught me several lessons about entrepreneurship, like how to market things correctly, how to mark things up and how to deal with upset customers when the product might not have been as fresh as they wanted it to be.
“I went to the Schulich School of Business at York University, where I was in a room with like-minded people who became my friends. I’m still in touch with several of them.
“My first job was working for a management consulting firm called Brendan Wood International. We traveled all over the world, making presentations to senior management at investment banks, presenting our plan to help the banks perform better in certain markets.
“I got to see London and a lot of Europe, but I got a bit burned out by all the traveling. I decided to partner with Professor Ronald Rotenberg, who had his PhD from Brock University, and we built a small market research company. We ran studies of student responses to different products for big companies, including BlackBerry. Between 2006-2008, we built up a decent sized team of six people.
“The consulting world is very formal. I had to wear a suit and tie, but I was into it; I appreciated fashion. But I was looking for something else to do because the world of market research simply didn’t interest me anymore. One day while walking in Manhattan, I noticed a store called ‘Andrew’s Ties,’ where they had nice neckties from Milan, Italy. I thought to myself, ‘Perhaps I can bring this store to Toronto.’ I ended up opening an ‘Andrew’s Ties’ branch in the heart of the financial district of Toronto, right near where Reichmann built his famous skyscraper, First Canadian Place.
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