Sock WholesalersSourcing guides for sock buyers
Six briefings on the decisions that come before and around an RFQ, grouped by where in the order each one bites. Each one is written, dated and sourced at its foot: a card here is a guide you can read now, not a title waiting for a writer.
How these are written
Every figure in a guide is either a published standard — ISO, OEKO-TEX, Sedex, amfori — or a number we publish ourselves and repeat unchanged from the quote, terms and product pages.
Where a figure comes from outside this site, the guide names the source and links it. Where a number is a range rather than a fact, it is written as a range, and where we have no number at all the guide says so instead of printing one.
If a figure stops being true, we correct the guide and change its date. We do not silently update pages.
How to vet a socks supplier before you pay a deposit
Nine checks in the order they matter, from who actually knits the order to the pass/fail gate before money moves. Decide: whether this supplier gets a deposit.
Read the guide →
Sources: amfori BSCI, Sedex SMETA, OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100, ISO 2859-1, plus our own published terms.
OEM vs ODM socks, and where private label fits
The three engagement models compared on the things that actually differ: who supplies the specification, who owns the pattern, what the MOQ and sampling calendar look like. Decide: which model your first order runs on.
Read the guide →
Sources: our published OEM and ODM terms, plus two peer exporters' published programme pages.
Before you commit
The point where money is still reversible. Get these wrong and the rest of the order cannot save it.
How to vet a socks supplier before you pay a deposit
Who knits the order, the five documents worth asking for, what each audit proves, and the seven-item gate to run before the deposit.
Read the guide →
Sources: amfori BSCI, Sedex SMETA, OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100, ISO 2859-1.
Live · 12 minWhat is a proforma invoice in a sock order
The document that turns a confirmed specification into the binding offer. The eight lines it carries, which two events start the production clock, and the six to read before you sign.
Read the guide →
Sources: our published wholesale terms and glossary, plus the Incoterms® 2020 rulebook.
How the order is built
Specification, model and material. This is where the price per pair is actually decided.
OEM vs ODM socks, and where private label fits
Who brings the specification, who owns the base pattern, how the MOQ and sample calendar change, and how to write an exclusivity term that means something.
Read the guide →
Sources: our published OEM and ODM terms, plus two peer exporters’ programme pages.
Live · 10 minWhat is combed cotton, and why sock yarn gets combed
Combing removes the short fibres that cause pilling. How combed and carded differ on the lines a buyer can check, why the cuff is where it shows, and the three numbers to get in writing.
Read the guide →
Sources: our yarn guide and glossary, and the specification sentence in our vetting guide.
Sizing and pressure
Two things a sock either does or does not do to a foot: fit it, or press on it. Both are specification lines, not adjectives.
Sock size chart for kids: foot length before the letter
Why S, M and L tell a buyer nothing on their own, the four columns a kids sock size chart has to state, and how each band — the toddler band included — gets written down before the sample is knitted.
Read the guide →
Sources: our size-chart guide, toddler style page, floor-sock listing and children’s compliance page.
Live · 12 minDiabetic socks vs compression socks: two different jobs
One word names a wearer, the other names a pressure band. The two compared line by line, the 20–30 mmHg band we publish, what a band is not, and what a brief would have to say.
Read the guide →
Sources: our compression and pharmacy pages and our glossary, plus trade usage for the diabetic-sock description.
One of these is the question you actually have.
Tell us which guide you need and what you are trying to decide — we will answer it in a reply, and if it is not written yet it goes to the front of the queue.
If you already have a spec, send it instead. A costing comes back with a reference range, the trade term it sits on and the sample lead time, within one working day.