Simarpreet Singh and Pritika Mehta, Co-founders, SockSoho
SockSoho is a direct-to-consumer socks brand for men.
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Updated November 2026. This was first published on 22 November 2022. The idea is the same. Any number below is what the original piece said then. It is not a new count. This is a record of a conversation from that day. No new quotes were added.
Key takeaways
- SockSoho is a direct-to-consumer socks brand for men.
- Within a year of launch, it has become India’s most loved sock brand.
- In fact, some of the biggest Bollywood and Hollywood celebrities, top Indian CEOs, and even Sheikhs from Dubai are spotted wearing SockSoho socks.
COMPANY BLURB: #
SockSoho is a direct-to-consumer socks brand for men. Within a year of launch, it has become India’s most loved sock brand. In fact, some of the biggest Bollywood and Hollywood celebrities, top Indian CEOs, and even Sheikhs from Dubai are spotted wearing SockSoho socks.
Just like Amazon started with books, SockSoho has started with socks. Using socks as their winning product, the tech founders of SockSoho are on a mission to disrupt the $40 Bn men fashion industry in India.
Pritika Mehta #
Pritika is a Data Scientist turned Entrepreneur. She graduated with an MS in Artificial Intelligence from the State University of New York. She was also chosen as the Ambassador for TEDx talks and a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum. Pritika had worked with Bank of America and TripAdvisor in the US before she quit her job to launch SockSoho.
Simarpreet Singh #
Simar is a computer science engineer who found his passion in growth marketing. He has helped multiple startups grow to $10M+ in sales single-handedly. He is also a TEDx speaker and World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
We spoke with the founders of SockSoho and discussed how they are using technology to revolutionize the fashion industry.
Could you talk about how you got the idea to start SockSoho, a direct-to-consumer fashion brand?
India is one of the largest e-commerce markets in the world, and fashion is the fastest-growing segment. But, most fashion brands in India focus on women, while the men’s fashion market is entirely undeserved.
So, we decided to build a brand for these 200 million urban Indian men. While doing consumer research, we wrote down a list of 80+ items we could launch with. Surprisingly, socks came on top as it is one category that has seen no innovation in decades.
Just like Amazon started with books, we have started with socks. We are on a mission to build the biggest direct-to-consumer fashion brand for India’s 200M urban men and disrupt the trillion-dollar fashion industry.
Your co-founder quit her job in the US to build this. Why did you not start SockSoho in the US?
If you met me in 2010, I’d have been building SockSoho in the US. the same is not true in 2021. The direct-to-consumer revolution that started in the US 10 years back has just begun in India.
We are the right people, at the right place at the right time. With a 1200% increase in first-time online shoppers due to Covid, it’s perfect for building a D2C monopoly in India.
3. Do you plan on extending the verticals for your collection? #
We are eyeing many verticals as fashion hasn’t seen much innovation in India. As we speak, testing is going on in 4 different verticals in India as well as North American markets. You’ll soon see us launching new products.
4. How has data helped you with customer acquisition and marketing strategies? #
A retail giant didn’t start Amazon; techies started it. The same goes for Netflix; the founders understood technology deeply and disrupted the industry. We’re bringing a similar kind of revolution in the fashion industry. Pritika and I don’t come from the fashion industry; we are computer scientists by background. We are using tech to disrupt the fashion industry.
We are gathering user data to understand customer behavior and spending patterns. That’s why we are growing so fast - data-driven decisions help us serve customers better than the other fashion companies that play on gut-feeling.
We are using socks as a niche fashion category to build AI recommendation technology around e-commerce. We are using this technology already, and our repeat purchase rate is four times the industry standard. As we scale, we will be expanding into various verticals of e-commerce and disrupt the trillion-dollar e-commerce market.
We noticed that you perform A/B testing before launching new socks patterns.
We are lucky that we aresitting on a data goldmine at the right time, disrupting a segment that is ripe for disruption. If you’re on that kind of rocket ship, data becomes your compass.
We operate on three core principles - we keep A/B testing, we do fast iterations, and we keep talking to customers. That reflects in everything we do - from our designs to our marketing communications.
Before any design is launched, we create multiple iterations and test it with our existing customers. This gives us an early insight into what will work. Unlike the traditional fashion brands, which launch first and then waste months on figuring out what works and what doesn’t, our instant testing and feedback loop gives us a clear insight into what customers want.
SockSoho is one of the world’s first startups to automate the entire experience of online shopping on WhatsApp. Tell us more about your unique chatbot that every investor is talking about.
One of our secret sauces is using WhatsApp to make sales. We are building AI-based chatbots that can simulate a human talking over messages. We are using the data and insights from all the interactions to understand the patterns that exist while humans shop online.
With our in-house technology, we are refining these chatbots to mimic human behavior and give brick-and-mortar shopping experience to customers. This leads to lower customer service costs, high customer satisfaction, and conversion rates upwards of 40%.
WhatsApp brings in a level of personalization that no website can offer. With more data and users coming on to our platform, our AI-based chatbots learn from interactions and get stronger. Once these chatbots are mature, they have the potential to revolutionize the shopping experience for customers in various verticals.
SockSoho launched as an e-commerce business, but we’ve started seeing your products in retail stores too.
We want to be wherever our customers are present. E-commerce gives us massive reach and deep insights into customer behavior.
As we were scaling, we got massive interest from retailers from across India. We piloted with a few stores, used online insights to generate offline sales, and we’re now present in 22 cities. In the following year, you will see us present everywhere.
What’s your long-term vision with SockSoho, and how big a role would technology play in fulfilling that vision?
Our long-term vision is to build the Uniqlo of India.
What took other brands decades to achieve will take us a few years because we are using technology to disrupt fashion. The taxi industry was the same for decades before Uber came into the picture. We are doing the same kind of innovation in the fashion industry.
Questions and answers #
3. Do you plan on extending the verticals for your collection? #
We are eyeing many verticals as fashion hasn’t seen much innovation in India. As we speak, testing is going on in 4 different verticals in India as well as North American markets.
4. How has data helped you with customer acquisition and marketing strategies? #
A retail giant didn’t start Amazon; techies started it. The same goes for Netflix; the founders understood technology deeply and disrupted the industry.