Let us start by saying how grateful we are for the love and loyalty you have shown us over these difficult times. I want to acknowledge that you are here looking for socks, and not finding the variety you are accustomed to.

So, where are all the socks? In short: demand is up, significantly. And our ability to produce more socks was unable to keep up in the face of this year’s extraordinary challenges. Despite best laid intentions this year to build back our inventory, we have experienced the perfect storm of production issues.

Labor shortages/ Illness. Our supply chain has experienced the same labor shortage as many other small businesses across the country. Our knitting mill has had difficulty growing our staff to the level needed to meet the current demand. Meanwhile, Covid continues to ravage the communities where our socks are made. We have had many people at our facility, as well as the facilities that supply our raw materials, need to take time away from work to recover from Covid.

Demand. Solmate is proud to be celebrating its 21^st year in business! It brings us such joy to see our customers come back to us year after year. This year we’re seeing a lot of new-to-us wholesale customers looking for American-made products to fill their shelves due to international supply chain disruptions.  To allow more inventory to be available for our longtime customers, Solmate has paused approving new wholesale customer applications until next year. New customers who apply for wholesale access now through the end of the year will be reviewed and approved in early 2022.

Where are the Accessories? We work with small, independent suppliers for our accessory products (hats, scarves, and fingerless mittens). Unfortunately, they have also experienced similar issues with labor shortages and supply chain limitations. New accessory products will be available in limited quantities on our wholesale website by the beginning of November.

So, what are we doing to moving forward? Improving and Getting Stronger!

New Wholesale Website. Our new wholesale website has a live connection to our actual inventory. The website is the fastest and most accurate way to find out what inventory is available and to place your orders. When placed online, your order ships out in 3-4 days. 

Better systems going into 2022. Like growing muscles, it hurts to do the work but we come out stronger. Our production planning has gone under a microscope this year, and opportunities for major upgrades and fine-tuning have been implemented. We anticipate that by early spring 2022 you will be able to see the bright, multicolored-light at the end of the tunnel.

Increased Production. Our production team is working as quickly as possible to make more socks because we know how important this time of year is to small businesses. We have added people and shifts and our hardworking team is literally working around the clock to produce more inventory.

Some Helpful Info & Tips

• Website inventory is updated daily, showing you exactly what is available
• This website is the fastest way to get more socks. Online orders ship in 3-4 days
• More products are added every week; we suggest ordering what’s available this week and checking back often to snag other sizes and colors
• In addition to our ever-popular Crew Socks, we still have a lot of great other products like Knee Socks, Ankle Socks, Performance Socks, etc.

The past 18 months have brought their fair share of challenges for everyone. Our priority continues to be nurturing our relationships with customers and vendors while continuing to design and make high-quality socks so you can fill your store with joy and color. Please know that we will not sacrifice our quality or relationships along the way.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us here so our Customer Service team can help. We appreciate your business and look forward to our continued partnership. 

Many thanks,
Randy Wakerlin & Lisa Flood
Owners of Solmate Socks