"I can't believe it!", stated Miguel Valero after discovering that Spain produces 21% of the total cotton in the European Union. Valero is a founding partner of Socks Market, the first Spanish company solely dedicated to selling socks, with over 60 internationally renowned brands and thousands of different models available in their physical stores and on their website.
Until just over a year ago, Socks Market's own products were made with cotton from Spain, even though it was directly exported to Bangladesh, where it was spun, treated, and returned to our country in bobbins. "It makes no sense to have kilos of cotton bouncing around half the planet, if it comes out of an Andalusian plant and is placed in a machine in Burgos", its manager assured.
From this reflection, the Cero Cero collection is born, a new venture that makes socks with Andalusian cotton --99.9% of its cultivation is concentrated in Andalusia and to a lesser extent in small areas of Murcia--, thus becoming the first company in the country to recover this raw material.
With this new product line, Socks Market aims to revolutionize sustainable and local fashion, given that it locally concentrates the entire process of harvesting, spinning, dyeing, and manufacturing the pieces, which translates into a 95% reduction in the carbon footprint generated by goods transport.
Similarly, this new business model strengthens the local economy, generates decent jobs in the area, and increases the quality of the pieces. "For the development of this new line of socks, a laborious task was necessary in the search for suppliers and factories until it was possible for the entire process to be carried out without leaving Spain. Finally, we have managed to have the cotton harvested by Andalusian cooperatives so that, subsequently, it is spun in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona), dyed in Castellón (Valencia), and the sock is knitted in Burgos", explained Miguel Valero.
Around 75 million workers are dedicated to making clothes worldwide. Less than 2% earn a living wage. The textile industry is also the second most polluting industry on the planet. Only the carbon emissions generated in the fashion and footwear sector are higher than those caused by all airplane flights and all international maritime shipments combined.
Around 75 million workers are dedicated to making clothes worldwide. Less than 2% earn a living wageZero Zerois the name chosen for the collection due to its reference to "fashion from here made with product from here" and consists of a series of socks with geometric designs, which pay homage to the prints of the 50s, considered the first great golden age of socks and in which great Hollywood myths, such as James Stewart, lent their image to the advertising of this piece, until then completely forgotten.
Socks Market is the first chain in Spain of multi-brand stores exclusively dedicated to the sale of socks. Born in 2016 as a self-employment project, it has ended up becoming one of the main European references in the textile sector. Its physical and online points of sale bring together the main national and international sock brands.