Published by Swiss James on 24 Jun 2008 at 10:54 am
sock tuesday
<cue Shoe Tuesday music>
In 2006, Mengna beat rival Langsha Knitting Co to become the sole socks supplier to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Mengna paid $5 Million for the privilege and with other promotional costs the overall total will be more than 100 million RMB.
Source: China Daily 23/6/08
Crank up the machine boys, we’re making Olympic socks now!
Mengna and Langsha are both made in a town called Yiwu- in fact 40% of the socks on the world market are made in this town.
Can you imagine living there? Every day must be like Christmas.
I think it’s now 45% of worldwide sock production, almost as much as M&S.
I don’t know why this story resonates so deeply with me, but back when I was just starting high school, I was at my local shopping mall in Los Angeles purchasing a pair of basketball shoes.
While I was trying on the shoes, I remember the lady next to me was buying one of those large 12 packs of white socks - we were at Foot Locker - and she was telling the shoe salesman “These are for my son, he’s going off to university next month . . . .he says ‘new socks are better than sex’”
15 years later I can still picture the exact scene, with the woman, my new basketball shoes and her package of socks.
(Yes, I added a package of socks to my purchase as well)
I like socks as much as the next guy, but if he really thinks socks are better than sex, me thinks he’s not doing it right!
…. Or I am wearing the wrong kind of socks!
Gentlemen who wear nothing but white socks in England don’t get the chance to compare the two.
Come on guys, surely you all had a crusty sock you kept tucked under the bed for relaxation purposes?
To be fair, the mother in the story has a point, new socks are extremely soft.
I am only just starting to get the picture. Is this an American Pie thing?
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a254/KEUKENETTE/rhcp_socks.jpg
QED!
you know, that’s a weird coincidence, i was just in carnegies in taipei and that photo of the chilli peppers was on the wall next to our table and we were talking about it. For the record, mark thinks it’s weird, I think it’s a poignant allegory of the current situation in Denmark