Josh Turner was 24 and surviving on benefits when his work coach inspired him to start a business in 2015 - and it's completely transformed his life.
The Mancunian moved into his mum's shed, opened a shop on eBay and has seen his idea rocket in popularity ever since – today even naming Noel Gallagher and Stephen Fry among his celebrity clients.
“I set up Stand4Socks at the age of 24 with the ethos that every business can have a positive impact on the world,” Josh said.
Its slogan is ‘buy a pair, give a pair’. That means for every pair of socks bought, one is donated to a homeless charity.
Josh, who struggled at school and was diagnosed as dyslexic when he was seven, showed entrepreneurial promise at the age of just five when he started rounding up items at home to sell back to his family.
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The idea to sell socks came about after four pints in a pub – but it was his work coach that encouraged him to take that leap of faith.
“It was a simple concept: we all buy and wear socks, yet they are typically dull, poorly made and an afterthought,” he said. “I wanted to create something with an impact,” he said.
But surviving on just benefits at the time, Josh said the idea back them felt completely out of reach.
It wasn’t until a visit to his local Job Centre that year that he felt really inspired.
“My work coach told me to go for it. She put me on a support programme called New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) which gave me the support to get started,” he said.
Josh got £3,000 and moved into his mum’s home to use her shed as his office space.
“I moved into my mum’s garden for two years where I began designing and creating my collection.
“In the early days I would also work out of my local library and would get kicked out at closing time,” he recalls.
“Two years later I did a crowdfund on Indiegogo and managed to raise £18,000 in pre-sales.”
Josh moved into an apartment, which later became his warehouse: “I would store, pick and pack the socks in my tiny flat,” he said. “Two walls of my bedroom were stacked floor to ceiling in over 8,000 pairs of socks!”
Last year, Josh’s business turned over £1million, three times that of 2019. Next year, he’s aiming for £2.5million.
“Socks are rarely donated to those in need like money, coffee or old coats,” he said.
“Yet if you are homeless you tend to walk up to eight miles a day, and don’t have the luxury of fresh clean socks so it can lead to a number of very serious health issues. This can be easily fixed by a good clean pair of socks.
“We have donated over 150,000 pairs of specially engineered antibacterial socks in the past six years,” he added.
The designs vary from typical spots and stripes to David Attenborough themed ones – each costing £10 to £13.
“When we pitch to charities, we promise the 'greatest homeless donation sock in the world’ - one made for the needs of the homeless.
“Plus it’s a very good hiking sock that’s hardwearing but versatile, antibacterial and doesn’t need as much washing - we cover pretty much every corner of the UK now with quality socks through a transparent buy one - give one model.”
Josh now employs five partners across two warehouses.
His next step is to replicate Chillies’ water bottles model.
“We are aiming (ambitiously) to become the world’s first carbon negative sock brand - on a global scale,” he said.
Asked what his biggest lesson has been, he said perseverance.
“I started and thought we would be sustainable financially after 3 months, it took us nearly three years. I have loved every second of it.”
