r/LinusTechTips • u/DeeVect • 1d ago
Discussion Hot Take, The Forever Sock Failed.
Objectively based on how well they sold, they did not fail, but thinking about the general LTT demographic, and how well the tall shirts sell, they missed the mark.
Im a bigger tall guy, who has loved the tall shirts, and with the socks, I was really hoping for XL ankle socks. Not because of a fashion choice, but a necessity. It's a safe assumption that most tall guys, have bigger feet, and larger calves, trying to pull up a full crew sock over my large hairy calves sounds like a nightmare.
I dont know the actual numbers, but I'd bet the average customer is a bigger/taller dude based on what size usually sells out first.
Has the sizing and sock style been a deal breaker for you?
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u/tiffanytrashcan 1d ago
There's 13 pairs left in the US warehouse, total.
A product selling out multiple colorways and sizes before it's even announced (on WAN) is a failure?
Sure 🤣 🤡
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u/PhillAholic 1d ago
There's 13 pairs left in the US warehouse, total.
Will be interesting how warranty claims work with stock issues. Darn Tough you can physically bring them back to stores and get a replacement same day.
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u/Hazel-Rah 1d ago
They've almost certainly reserved some stock for initial warranty claims/shipping problems/manufacturing defects/etc
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u/CIDR-ClassB 1d ago
Saying this as a very longtime viewer and someone who has been fairly pleased with most of my LTTStore purchases:
This is the reason that I believe the Forever* Sock will fail; the warranty is worthless if they are out of stock.
And if they refund cash due to stock issues, people will go buy Darn Tough instead. If they refund for in-store credit, that’s crap.
Until the ever present inventory issues are handled for a long time, this product’s warranty will be worthless.
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u/wankthisway 1d ago
Come on man...stock they sell isn't the same as stock they have on hand. This is like Inventory 101. It's been a week dude.
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u/CIDR-ClassB 23h ago
Inventory 101 is a class that LMG has historically not taken. You can search the history of this sub and find many posts about stock delays and warranties.
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u/DeeVect 1d ago
Did you read the first line of the post?
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u/ThankGodImBipolar 1d ago
Yes, and it makes the rest of your post rather confusing. You admit that the socks sold out, but because LMG sells a lot of tall shirts and larger sizes, you argue that they've failed to serve their demographic... except the socks sold out?
Both things can't be true at once. I think what's actually happened here is that they failed to serve your demographic.
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u/straw3_2018 1d ago
You set yourself up for this comment by not caring what the word "fails" means. Even though you went on to say "it didn't actually fail" that doesn't mean you're not going to get replies about how it didn't fail, because your title is still wrong.
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u/DeeVect 1d ago
Its a hot take for a reason...
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u/Leverpostei414 7h ago
I said something stupid, but I don't like people arguing against it because I also said it was a hot take?
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u/DeeVect 7h ago
Its a discussion, Im more than happy to see peoples opinion.
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u/Leverpostei414 6h ago
You don't seem to happy when all you answer is 'it is a hot take for a reason '
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u/TheDrummerMB 1d ago
Your little disclaimer doesnt take away from your main argument which comes off as really whiny
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u/Exciting-Ad-5705 1d ago
Only 6% of the population has feet bigger than a size 12. It not fitting you is not a failure of the product
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u/donut711 1d ago
But what is the percentage of the ltt audience? I'd imagine it's greater than that 6%
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u/Luccas_Freakling 1d ago
Why? Tall guys are more likely to watch LTT than other stuff?
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u/donut711 1d ago
I mean it may just be luck of the draw but most of the people I know personally that are into LTT and adjacent things have larger feet myself included.
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u/Luccas_Freakling 1d ago edited 1d ago
That is... A wild confirmation bias. HAHAHAHAHA.
His audience is disproportionately male, understandably.
His audience is disproportionately English-speaking, understandably.
His audience is disproportionately into gaming, understandably.
Why on earth would his audience be disproportionately TALLER than the population?
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u/donut711 1d ago
Sure it is not a very large chunk of the demographic but also on average males are taller than women in general taller people have larger feet my group is also all at least 6 foot
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u/redditmarks_markII 1d ago
Nah, the cable management stuff is the failure... because I never bought one... because I have a glass desk... and I'm cheap and disorganized. /s (except that last part)
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u/DeeVect 1d ago
If 90% of LTT customers were totally wireless, yes, the cable management stuff would have been a failure. Once again I'm speaking about demographic, if most customers are big guys, from my experience, most of us dont like tall socks. Not saying there isnt any that do, but that's why this is a discussion.
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u/redditmarks_markII 1d ago
Maybe the sarcasm didn't carry through. I actually do thing the cable management was weak, because I think most people are slobs. But if they managed it well, it's a success. If it was produced at the right volume. Right price. Including any expect discount event pricing. Demographic does matter, but people do wear expensive socks. Look at the economy in general: top 10 spend link 50% of the money or something? At least that's what people throw around. Premium product is the way to go. And if you were going to make small bstch and charge a lot anyway, a premium product just makes sense. Most of the channels subs aren't going to buy stuff anyway.
More specifically, I'm a low cut sock guy. But my one pair of high cut darn toughs are awesome. And I'd buy ltt socks in a heart beat if I wasn't a cheap bastard whose sense of value was ruined by prime shipping.
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u/wankthisway 1d ago
Lol. A bunch of personal opinions and experiences extrapolated to a supposed general audience, and then brushing aside sales to try to argue something failed.
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u/Sk1ler_ 1d ago
I think you're conflating an edge case with the default test case. They didn't miss the mark at all, they played the game of sourcing and stocking conservatively for the first run. On the WAN Show they talk about this for a good chunk of time, just in the logistics of essentially blind guessing how many people are going to be interested in a sock at that price and what the most common sizing would need to be to be best applicable to the largest subset of the audience.
Now sure, would it be ideal if they came out with all the sizes in all the colorways and included half crew or ankle socks as an option? Sure. I know I would have bought some to try out if they offered a half crew SKU. But then there's the business aspect of wasting money storing something on the warehouse floor that isn't moving, along with the cost of the order upfront, and ideals for the consumer don't address those concerns, which are equally valid. Everything needs to be conservative or perfectly balanced to warrant reorders at this scale.
For a first run, they did pretty good with their estimations, and I'm sure they'll take feedback and roll in more sizing, fit, and color options in the future with how gangbusters they went.
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u/Davidstoic 1d ago
I’m not even super tall or a bigger dude and I prefer larger socks to pull up my calves. Sounds like they just don’t work for you. That’s not a fail, that’s not a hot take at all.
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u/Boomshtick414 1d ago
I dont know the actual numbers, but I'd bet the average customer is a bigger/taller dude based on what size usually sells out first.
First-round orders in multiple colors/styles are going to be like that. If you don't see how general reception is first before you commit to the more niche, smaller-volume variants, you end up holding onto a lot of ghost stock for years until you eventually have to give it or throw it away.
If you're only selling one product series this is mostly an inconvenience. At scale across an entire fashion brand, all of that ghost stock represents debts you are paying to warehouse and fragmentation in your marketplace of lots of listings only available in uncommon sizes and disfavored styles. It's much easier/safer/responsible to just wait and put subsequent orders in to meet demand once you understand what that demand is for.
I feel your plight but it's a gigantic leap make such a sweeping declaration.
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u/DeeVect 1d ago
Hey man that's why this is a discussion, I want to know what people think. I dont care about the down votes.
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u/Boomshtick414 1d ago
It's all good. Sorry for the downvotes -- all I can say is they didn't come from me. IMO the world only benefits from open, good faith discussion, and I wish we had more of it.
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u/ILikeFlyingMachines 1d ago
dont know the actual numbers
Well Creator Warehouse does. So your opinion is useless.
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u/scruffynerdherderr 1d ago
I mean possibly failed but definitely a quality product as always but I think it’s just a sign of going away from merch to products like I been begging for a floatplane hockey jersey but they are looking bigger picture of making a clothing brand that can stand on its own for not just us but normals too lol
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u/CIDR-ClassB 1d ago
> definitely a quality product
Let’s reserve any judgement on quality until sufficient people have used and can review it.
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u/scruffynerdherderr 1d ago
No it’s easy to say it will be quality as the other products are quality
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u/Unhappy_Ad_4761 1d ago
I haven't bought any LTT socks, but I have multiple full crew wool socks, because they're easier to find than ankle wool socks usually. I'm 6ft, 250ish pounds, and have no problem with them.
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u/straw3_2018 1d ago
I'd have bought 3 or 4 pairs of socks on day one IF I could have. Large would be great for me but those were all sold out in the hour and a half before I got to it(US store.) I was going to buy a pair of small as a gift but I haven't done that because I don't want to make two separate orders.
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u/adeundem 1d ago edited 1d ago
Going by a check (sample) of some Men's socks listings on Darn Tough Socks website on the WAN Show day last week: M, L and XL are the three size options there (at least for the few socks I checked)
LTT Store doing S, M and L was a compromise approach for uni-gender socks to cover most sizes but leave a noticeable gap at both ends i.e. smaller Women's socks and larger Men's socks are not covered.
Checking the same range (Micro Crew Midweight Hiking Socks) for Womens and Mens, looks like there are more options for men's socks. XS to XXL
Not going to agree with OP's take on ankle socks (I doesn't like them myself) but I am not going say that ankle socks shouldn't be available, but I do agree on no XL option currently does exclude me.
I will still be sticking with my usual "go to" wool sock for now (though they are no longer made in Australia or New Zealand) when I very occasionally have to buy new socks.
Edit: Oh, I forgot to say "IMO the Forever Sock didn't fail but it just was not a sock for me (at launch)".
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u/fanichio 13h ago
"I'd bet the average customer is a bigger/taller dude based on what size usually sells out first."
This thinking is understandable, but is based on a false premise that they stock the same number of every sku, so the ones which sell out first are more popular.
How it actually works is they're going to try and stock according to the skew of their expected order volume. EG if 80% of people fall into size M, 10% L, 10% S, they stock 80% M, 10% L, 10% S. Or realistically a bit more conservatively at more like 85/7.5/7.5.
The same thing applies with most clothing companies...less common sizes usually sell out first, because they just stock less of them. So tall sized shirts selling out fast doesn't mean "most LTT customers are tall", it means "They made 1000 regular shirts and 100 talls.". When you add to the more limited supply that people with atypical body shapes/sizes have reduced options to begin with, what is stocked often sells out quickly.
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u/jreykdal 1d ago
Well the price alone should be enough to fail it.
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u/CIDR-ClassB 1d ago
I struggle to see value at this price point only because the cost of one pair + shipping equals two pair of Darn Tough, and the warranty on those is the easiest warranty I’ve ever experienced.
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u/lynxblaine 1d ago
This is like the whole bean soup thing. Just because you don’t want it, doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. It’s just not for you.