White Socks Suffer Denim Deception

Marshall Bank thinks he has an answer for people who think wearing white socks with denim jeans looks dorky.

Buy a pair of his company’s newly introduced denim socks for about $5, he says, and you’ll be at the front of the fashion parade.

“Nobody has ever created a denim sock, even though I’ve always thought wearing white socks with blue jeans looked really silly,” said Bank, vice president of sales and marketing at Mayo Knitting Co. of Tarboro, N.C..

Bank thinks the new socks’ timing is perfect because of the increasing popularity of denim shorts and low-cut boots, which require more fashionable socks.

Calling knitted socks “denim” is a bit of a stretch, Bank acknowledges, since denim is by definition a woven, rather than knit, product. In a patented process, Mayo Knitting uses enzymes sold by an undisclosed Charlotte textile-dye company to create the stonewashed look.

“We’re expanding the definition a bit,” Bank said.