International Design-A-Sock Contest

International Design-A-Sock Contest

Design-a-Sock is your chance to tell us what you want on our socks, and maybe win the opportunity to see it produced. It also happens to be one of our favorite times of year! We get to see thousands of amazing designs and interact with all of you in a way we wouldn’t otherwise. That said, we do sometimes need to sleep and eat, so we created this FAQ to answer some of your questions during this busy time. If you don’t find your question here, please leave a comment and we’ll add it!

Where do I enter my design?
You can complete your entry form and submit your finished design here: contest.sockittome.com. Or, after you complete the online form, you can mail it to: Sock It to Me, 9592 SE Main St., Milwaukie, OR 97222, Attn: International Design-A-Sock-Contest. Check the Official Rules for more information about what must be included with mailed entrie

When are entries due?
Entries can be submitted 9/7/21 – 9/30/21. Entries received by mail must be postmarked no later than 9/30/21 and we must receive them by no later than 10/8/21.

How many can I submit?
5 designs per person.

How many colors are allowed per design?
We prefer 6 colors per design, because if a sock with more than 6 colors makes it through the voting process to win, we’ll need to adjust the design for production. All judges will use this preference during the contest because our socks cannot be created with more than 6 colors. Black and white are counted as colors.

When will the winners be chosen?
Winners will be announced on or about 10/27/21.

How does the voting work?
Sock It to Me judges, including our designers and our in-house team of experts, will select the top 30 designs from all eligible entries. We will post these chosen 30 semi-finalists on our site https://contest.sockittome.com for our fans to vote from 10/14/21 – 10/21/21 on their favorite designs. The 10 designs that receive the most votes will be entered into a final round of judging, and Sock It to Me judges will select the final 3 winners from the top 10 finalist designs. Winners will be announced on our site.

The semi-finalist judging and finalist voting will be based on the following criteria:

Simplicity of design
Use of a maximum of six colors
Use of colors that are flat and solids, NO shading, blending or half tones
Use of pattern
Originality
The judging to select the 3 winners will be based on all of the above finalist criteria, plus the additional following criterion:
Use of imagery, themes, patterns, or designs that are different from our current line
Can I offer my fans prints/goods/services in trade for votes?
No. If we become aware of a finalist trading goods or services for votes in this contest, they will be disqualified. Promoting your design and asking for votes are both allowed. Details can be found here: FAQs.

What if my design isn’t chosen as a winner, but you want to produce it?
Any socks produced, are created with the artist’s permission first. If we like a design that doesn’t win, we’ll contact you to see if you are interested before we move forward with production.

If I submit an entry, do you own the rights to the design?
No. Contest entries will not be sent back to you, but we don’t own the rights to submitted contest entry designs: you do. However, by submitting a design you do grant us the right to use that design in our marketing activities and on our websites and social media channels. Once winners are chosen, we contact each artist before moving forward with production. We will own the rights to any version of the design we agree to produce on socks (e.g., if we modify or adjust the design as part of the sock design or manufacturing process). There is no additional compensation to winners beyond the prize.

Where will the winning designs be produced?
They will be produced at the same manufacturers we use to create all our socks. They are located in South Korea, where our founder is from and first discovered fun, vibrant knee socks. We have visited the factories multiple times to ensure fair practices, and we have a close relationship with them. You can read (and see) more about one of the trips here: https://blog.sockittome.com/jays-asia-trip/.

Why do you hold this contest?
For fun! Our founder, Carrie, created this contest over a decade ago in the fashion of the restaurant coloring contests we all did when we were kids waiting for our food to arrive. We have an amazing, full-time, professional apparel design team who come up with creative and unique sock designs ALL THE TIME (seriously, they are great). This contest is an opportunity for our fans to participate in the process and an opportunity for us to see, directly from our fans, what they think would be cool on a sock.

If my design wins, will I get a pair of my socks?
If you are the first place winner, we will send you twelve (12) pairs of socks.

Do you have suggestions for designs?
Something that we don’t already have (take a look at our current line to see what is already available). Also avoid complex details or gradients as these are difficult to translate onto a sock. You can design any style you want (crew, knee high, etc.), though that might get changed during production.

Can more than one of my designs be chosen as a finalist?
Yes. You can submit up to 5 designs and the finalists are chosen based on merit, so it’s possible that one artist could end up with 2 designs in the voting period. This isn’t something that has happened frequently in the past, but you never know!