Industry: Horizon Socks
Opportunities on the Horizon
Sock brand Horizon has heritage in the outdoor market, but is far more than a one-sock operation, as David Pittman found out when he spoke to co-owner Matt Forward.
H
orizon’s website states that it is committed to working with trade to ‘raise the profile of the sock in various performance apparel markets’.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to match your activity with a pair of our socks,” the website blurb reads. “Whether you’re into outdoor pursuits, winter sports, athletics, horse riding, golf, field and racquet sports, or just enjoying your leisure time.”
It has spent over a decade
supplying socks to the cricket market, as well as ski and outdoor products, and co-owner Matt Forward, who established Horizon in 1999 with Russell Brown, says: “Cricket, ski and outdoor socks have always been there for us. Cricketers, particularly, are into their socks, and we’ve always made quality socks for that market.
“People found out they wore well, even when used everyday, and we still get people coming back to us saying they’re still using their original socks. Cricket is a very important market and one we’re rightly proud of.”
The success of its cricket range led Horizon to become an OEM supplier to other manufacturers who wanted to offer similar USPs in their products to Horizon socks.
“Our cricket sock has been well received by pro and test players, which led us to start producing socks for other manufacturers as we laid down a rule that we wouldn’t supply socks for free and yet all the clubs and county sides wanted their players to have them.
“At the same time others wanted to offer something similar to the market as we had.” Forward notes that the business environment is constantly evolving though, and OEM business is no longer as big as it once was. Instead, Horizon is producing more and more socks under its own brand and taking these to market. “We’re doing more under our own brand as the rising price of yarn and packaging has made people reassess whether it is financially viable to be selling their own label socks. In many cases,
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they have realised there’s not a huge value in having their own label socks and it’s more cost-effective for them to sell our socks.”
It is also now looking to take its socks into a much wider market. Sports socks in particular are one market it is targeting, although this is proving more troublesome than others.
Forward says the sports sock market is dominated by chain retailers and supermarkets, and notes that sports retailers have much to learn from outdoor retailers about selling specialist products,
“The outdoor market has more experience in selling specialist, technical products. Sport isn’t in that mould yet.” Horizon has
recently added another string to its bow by launching a series of socks for which it will make a donation to Help for Heroes for every pair sold. Forward says this is intended to grow interest in selling socks and make retailers feel good about their day’s work.
However, he notes retailers don’t need to be part of the scheme, and can just sell the socks as if they were another pair should they wish. “It’s just a way to raise money for a good cause and help people feel good about their work. Things like this help keep the market interesting.
“The sock market is funny as lots of people do them but there are very few
specialists. And socks can be sold by any retailer, so we’ve only scratched the surface of the
market.
“We are a serious sock company which wants to make socks people enjoy wearing. That’s what Horizon is about.
“We want to make our brand more recognisable now. Brand recognition is important as there are so many names out there and it is very hard to make yourself heard in the retail environment and get stuck in the consumer consciousness.”
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