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For more information about the "Original Bamboo Sock" and the local company, go online to www.ecosox.com.
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For most of his life, Billy Birkett of Miamisburg has been a salesman. As a high school teacher and coach in Wisconsin, his passion for athletics eventually took him to Florida. The athletic uniform business he had there eventually brought him to Dayton, where a new business opportunity moved him into the world of socks.
“I have as much of a passion for socks as I do for football,” Birkett said. And he developed that passion after selling socks for nearly three decades before opening his own company, BBS, Inc. in West Carrollton in 1988.
“My company was selling traditional socks at first,” Birkett said. “I was calling on small and large retailers and it got more and more difficult because everyone wanted a lower cost.”
Birkett knew he needed a niche of sorts, something that would be unique and set him apart from typical sock manufacturers.
“I went to a show to see all the new yarn for making socks,” Birkett said. “I knew I didn’t want to be in the “white sock six pack” any longer so I started looking at different kinds of acrylic.”
That show marked a turning point for Birkett who was immediately attracted to a type of bamboo known as Moso and the thread made from the pulp of the plant - viscose. “I really liked bamboo and I wondered about making socks out of it,” he said. “I found out in the US there weren’t then socks being made out of bamboo.”
Birkett began the lengthy and often frustrating process of working with the soft yarn, made at that time in about four places in the nation. And finally, in 2010, he formed another company, “Ecosox” specifically to sell the bamboo socks.
“The properties of the bamboo are very important,” Birkett said. “We didn’t add anything to it so it’s basically the same material that stands in the forest. It has no pesticides, no dyes and no bleaches so we put all of those features into our socks. It took us a year and a half of throw outs and breakage before finally getting a sock we liked.”
Today Birkett touts his products as unique in the market, made from yarn that has no equal in moisture wicking, durability and comfort. The socks are also biodegradable.
Birkett, himself a diabetic, decided the diabetic market was perfect for his socks. “My daughter is also diabetic and has been since she was born,” he said. “So I know a lot about it. 70% of amputations today are diabetics so if you can protect a diabetic foot, that’s really important.”
Natural properties of bamboo, including odor and friction control, also aid in preventing blisters, common in diabetics. The material is soft on the bottom. “We ask our customers to tell us specifically about blisters,” he said. “We’ve never had a complaint.”
Birkett designed the socks with padding in specific areas to help the foot function properly. Each sock has extra padding in the ball of the foot, which is a high impact area.
“We put an arch support in our sock for two reasons,” Birkett said. “The first is to support the part of the foot that gets tired and breaks down during the day. And we also want to prevent the sock from twisting and turning and to keep it in place.”
At the age of 73, Birkett is involved daily in the business, which this past year had the most robust holiday retail season ever, with a record breaking Cyber Monday. “We had well over 600 sales on that day,” Birkett said. “We struggled during the recession like everyone but we have grown slowly and mostly through hospitals and doctors’ offices and local shoe companies. Now we have everyone from firefighters to soldiers wearing and our socks.”
As the company has continued to grow, via a robust online store as well as through a local warehouse located in West Carrollton, Birkett also looks to the future, continuing to focus on US made products.
And his focus on customer service is never wavering. “Credibility is the most important thing in life,” Birkett said. “Our socks are 100 percent guaranteed, and in fact, no matter what, the customer is always right.”
Most days Birkett can be found sitting at his desk just inside the door of the building in West Carrollton. He said he loves what he does and believes in just being himself, most of all.
“I don’t care if you buy one pair of socks or two thousand,” Birkett said. “You can rely on and trust that I’m going to give you the best price. I’m not interested in selling these socks to mass merchants. I’m interested in taking care of people who work hard every day and want the best products at the best price.”
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