Three-and-a-half years ago, Alex Malytskyy searched in vain for a colorful pair of socks. So he decided to dip a toe into business and has since then created one of Ukraine’s better-known sock brands.
“Now every babushka in the market sells brightly colored socks, but back then you could only find plain black ones,” Malytskyy told the Kyiv Post on July 29.
Malytskyy, 27, and his college friend Philipp Lytvynov first bought bright, colorful cotton cloth, developed designs and set up production at a factory in Lviv. They came up with the Sammy Icon brand for their first batch of socks and have used it ever since.
The Sammy Icon brand was slow to take off at first: with only around 100 pairs selling in first three months, according to Malytskyy. Now, the brand sells that number every day.
Lytvynov said that one of the things that make their brand stand out is that they have a collection of mismatched socks that have similar designs and colors, but are not identical.
“You can wear different left and right socks, but it still looks great,” Lytvynov said. “People liked it a lot. It’s a feature of our brand.”
The business soon took off, and Sammy Icon is now on the front foot: the socks are available in around a dozen shops in Kyiv, as well as in numerous stores in Ukraine, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Finland, the United States and South Korea.
Before Malytskyy came up with the idea of Sammy Icon socks in 2012, he had already worked as a marketing expert for social campaigns, such as a campaign to repair flood-damaged schools. But neither Malytskyy nor Lytvynov, both of whom at that time were students at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, had ever produced clothes.
“It sounded like an interesting challenge,” Lytvynov said. “If somebody had told me 10 years ago that I would be running a brand of socks, I wouldn’t have believed them. Life is fun.”
Malytskyy said that, after finding a factory in Lviv willing to take on the job, they bought special equipment, spending $20,000 on starting production. After initial glitches, production is running smoothly in Lviv and at another Sammy Icon sock manufacturer in Turkey.
In 2013 Malytskyy transferred management to Lytvynov, and started several new brands: Clan-P branded T-shirts, a shop for Ukrainian-made clothes called Joy Factory, and the Morza brand of jewelry.
“I prefer creating projects to running them,” Malytsky said.
A model poses in Sammy Icon socks in a photo shoot for one of the brand’s campaigns. (Courtesy)
Malytskyy’s success helped him make Forbes magazine’s list of the 30 most successful people in Ukraine under 30 last year.
To expand, Malytskyy and Lytvynov launched a campaign on the Kickstarter website and raised around $9,000. They also started selling their socks in Helen Marlen, a Ukrainian retailer that sells world brands such as Burberry.
As the business expanded, Lytvynov hired employees to run logistics, marketing and advertising, as well as freelance designers to create new collections. He now has five people working in the office, as well as couriers, a delivery manager and two people who take orders.
Around 30 percent of the company’s orders now come from outside of Ukraine.
“Lots of people think that our target audience is students, because they tend to buy colorful things. But our most prolific audience are people aged from 27 who work in creative spheres or IT,” Lytvynov said. A pair of socks costs Hr 60-100, and the brand now sells underwear, leggings and glasses as well.
Meanwhile, the brand is increasing its footprint. In autumn, the brand will open an outlet in Kyiv’s reconstructed TsUM central department store on the capital’s Kreshchatyk Street, and Sammy Icon is now negotiating exports to Japan and to more European cities.
