Putting your name on the sock, and on the box it arrives in.
Private label means the sock leaves under your brand and no trace of ours. This page covers the ways a name can go onto a sock, what each method can and cannot render, and the artwork we need from you to quote it.
Knitted in, not printed on.
A knitted-in logo is made of the sock. The design is part of the stitch structure, so it cannot peel, crack or wash off, and it does not add a layer that the wearer feels against the skin.
The trade-off is resolution. A knitting machine draws in stitches, and a stitch is a comparatively large unit, so fine serifs, thin strokes and small type lose definition. Logos with heavy, simple shapes survive the translation; logos built from hairlines do not.
Where a logo can go.
Each position has a different amount of room and a different amount of stretch, which is why the same artwork does not simply move between them.
The most visible surface, and the one that shows above a shoe. Also the most stretched, so artwork has to be drawn to look right under tension rather than flat.
Stable, moderately visible, and the usual home for a wordmark on sport and team socks.
Hidden in wear, so it carries size markings, left and right indicators, or a mark meant to be found rather than displayed.
Methods, and what each one is for.
Most programmes use more than one. A knitted mark on the sock and a printed header card on the pack is the common combination.
| Knitted-in logo | Part of the stitch structure. Permanent, no added layer, limited resolution. Up to seven colours in a single row: the ground and six more. |
| Jacquard and stripes | Pattern knitted into the leg or foot. Up to fourteen colours from top to bottom on a dense design, which is priced separately. |
| Silicone print | Applied to the sole for grip. Can carry a mark as well as a tread pattern. |
| Under-sole transfer print | A printed mark under the foot, for detail and colour a knitted logo cannot hold. |
| Embroidery | Stitched onto the finished sock, usually at the cuff or the ankle. |
| Header cards and labels | Printed card and cardboard labels carrying your brand, sizes, fibre content and care symbols, in the wording your market requires. |
| Minimum logo size | One knitted stitch is roughly one millimetre, so artwork is redrawn on a millimetre grid. A line thinner than a stitch cannot be knitted, and a letter needs several stitches to stay legible. |
| Effect on the minimum | None. A knitted-in logo does not raise the minimum of 200 pairs per colour. |
Packaging.
For a retail programme the packaging is the product on the shelf. From 3,000 pairs with a single label design, we have your packaging printed for you after you approve the proof. Below 3,000 pairs, you send your own labels and cards and we fit them during packing.
Header cards and bands. Printed to your artwork, with barcodes, size marks and whatever your retailer's compliance list requires. The most common retail presentation.
Boxes and gift sets. Multi-pair sets for gifting and corporate programmes, where the box carries most of the perceived value.
Polybags and cartons. Bulk and wholesale presentation, printed or plain, with carton marking to your warehouse's specification.
Recycled and plastic-free options. Increasingly a retailer requirement rather than a preference. Tell us the standard you are being held to and we will quote against it.
What to send us.
With these four things a quote is straightforward. Without them, the first reply is a list of questions.
Vector artwork. AI, EPS, SVG or PDF with the type outlined. A JPEG or a screenshot has to be redrawn before it can be knitted, which costs time on both sides.
Colours as references, not as descriptions. Pantone codes, or a physical swatch. Screens disagree with each other; a code and a swatch do not.
Where it goes and how big. Position on the sock and size in millimetres. If you are not sure, say what you want it to look like in wear and we will propose it.
The market you are selling into. Labelling requirements differ between the EU, the UK and the US, and it is cheaper to build them into the first sample than to relabel a finished run.
Your name only. Never ours.
Sockten has no retail range and no shelf presence anywhere. Nothing we knit for you carries our name, our label or our packaging, and a design made for one buyer is not shown to the next one. That is the whole business model, not a courtesy we extend on request.