Stance Continues To Be The Trendsetter For Socks

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif.—When you watch a big league game, you probably notice the personalized socks being worn by baseball’s best.

That eye-catching legwear was created and designed by Stance.

The company, which was founded in 2009 by Jeff Kearl, formerly of Skullcandy, and John Wilson, Aaron Hennings, Ryan Kingman and Taylor Shupe, has become a trendsetter in the footwear world.

The Stance founders had a vision of taking advantage of an untapped market, and they’ve become pioneers in a space that’s continuing to expand. Stance director of baseball and basketball Tzvi Twersky said the company’s growth has outstripped anything he expected.

“I don’t think that we could have ever expected that it’s gone where it’s gone, and see high school kids wearing our NBA socks, and see people blessing our socks that we never thought we would touch,” Twersky said. “When we see on Instagram that “The Rock” is wearing our socks, or that guys that we don’t even know are wearing our socks at the highest level, I don’t think we ever expected to reach the people we reached.”

Stance is so confident in its product that Twersky said it could have even impacted one of the great uniform influences of the 1990s. Michigan’s Fab Five—including Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose–made baggy shorts and black socks a look, and not just on the basketball court. Twersky says Stance could have changed that.

“Honestly, I would like to think that if Fab Five Michigan was happening in 2017 instead of the early 90s, their one piece of flare would be that they were wearing crazy Stance socks and not known for the black socks they were known for,” he said.

You might think that’s outrageous until you see the impact Stance has had on the NBA and MLB in a short time.

MLB Blessing A Game-Changer

Stance in April 2015 became the official sock-maker for the NBA, but it was becoming the official sock-maker for MLB that has been a game-changer. That is largely because baseball’s uniforms are so much a part of the game, especially from head to toe, from the iconic Yankees pinstripes to the Red Sox’s socks to the Dodgers’ classic logo.

Starting at the All-Star Game last year in San Diego, that all started to change.

“Baseball really owns the uniform game from head to toe,” Twersky said. “It’s truly classic. A couple of years ago, MLB was thinking ‘what’s that next frontier?’ and we pitched to them ‘Why don’t we do something with socks? Why don’t we make an official sock partner for MLB’? We started on the licensing front. We kind of showed our worth on just on the fan-gear side. We made Dodgers socks, Red Sox socks and socks for all 30 teams. They started moving really well, and fans started wearing them throughout the stands.”

What happened next was Stance’s phones and email got blown up with calls and messages from MLB players, agents and even front office members wanting to talk about the socks.

“Players started texting me, and started texting other people asking how they could get socks,” Twersky said. “Agents would call, and even the general manager of one team would hit me about how he could get some socks. So we started flowing guys some socks. You would have it from guys warming up on the field wearing socks, to wearing it up in the suites to guys in the 700 level, so we established that ground base. That kind of groundswell of sock support. MLB said let’s go for it. Let’s go with it as the official sock of MLB, so starting last All-Star Game we debuted on field, and I think we made a splash.”

The key for the instant success was MLB allowing Stance to step away from the traditional look, and add the element of flare.

“They let us go a little bit wild with the patterns,” Twersky said. “They let us try some different things, and the excitement was there. The players were excited, the fans were excited and through the first quarter of the MLB season, we are definitely seeing an influx of guys wearing high socks.”

If there was one breakthrough sock, it was Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes in mid-April sporting Stance’s orange and blue socks that displayed the New York skyline.

“They are a traditional ballclub,” Twersky said. “They don’t really change their logo and everything kind of is established. After that, we started calls from Queens, from Manhattan, and from all over the place. Our customer service was getting blown up.”

Stance debuted those socks the following week in and around New York City, and they have been flying off the shelves since. With 30 teams, that means there are 30 different personalities. With the positive and explosive returns, teams are making investments into the future with some fan bases, such as the Padres, willing to push the envelope more and go a little bit wild with their outfits, and it’s resonating.

Grassroots Winning

While Stance socks show up under the brightest lights on an NBA court and in MLB stadiums around the country, companies still must win and sustain future growth on the grassroots level.

When Astros second baseman Jose Altuve makes a spectacular play in the field, or adds another walk-off swing of the bat to his growing resume, it’s the young kids in the Houston area and around the country that are most positively effected long-term. This is especially true in the age of social media, and the easy accessibility to the youth of America.

“Stance’s fan base really starts at 11-, 12- and 13-years-old,” Twersky said. “Our sweet spot is that 12-year-old to that person in their mid-to-late 20s. That is a market that every league wants to tap into, and we have been lucky enough to establish credit in that market. So MLB definitely looks to us and New Era and Majestic to say ‘Hey what are those kids looking for?’ because they want to tap into the younger generation, the younger fan base. They want to keep it hot and keep it fresh.”

For Stance, and specifically the 30-year-old Twersky who runs Twitter accounts @stancehoops and @stancebaseball, which total more than 400,000 followers, the goal of reaching the next generation of athletes and fans is imperative to winning over a long period of time.

“The best thing is that I’m blessed to run Stance baseball and hoops, and get all the mentions,” he said. “There is nothing better than to me than to see a travel team of 12-year-olds all laced up in the Mother’s Day sock even though they had never seen them on the field.”

Stance is being inundated with inquires from youth teams and organizations, and top prospects from all levels wanting to wear the attention-grabbing socks. The explosive growth is not expected to slow down anytime soon.

Stance is not public—yet—so people can’t buy stock in the company. But their continued support and hunger for the product now makes the biggest hurdle for the fast-growing company keeping the shelves stocked.