Maggie's Organics debuts new 'STAND' socks line to help farmers face climate change

Veteran fair trade and organic apparel manufacturer Maggie’s Organics introduced a new line of cotton socks at this week’s NY NOW home/lifestyle/gift market trade show, expressly designed to help farmers affected by climate change.

The socks are named “STAND,” and as the tag on each pair states, they “STAND for much more than cozy feet.” Indeed, they feature a pattern of bare feet that symbolically depict their purpose in getting consumers to stand with the small-scale organic family farmers who grow the cotton that they’re made of—and the U.S. workers who sew the toe seams.

“Family farmers feed and clothe the world, and today many are literally being destroyed by unpredictable floods and drought brought about by our changing climate,” said Maggie’s Organics founder Bená Burda in a statement.

“Maggie’s is grateful to have a consumer base that cares about causes beyond their own feet, and we are excited to offer a fun pair of socks that can also help give back.”

Maggie’s will donate 20 percent of each sale of the socks to the non-profit group Grow Ahead, which supports small family farmers in developing countries in confronting climate change.

“Grow Ahead is an amazing organization, and our 20 percent donation gives us the opportunity to educate and engage our customers in understanding the 100,000 small-scale farmers challenged with climate change in their communities,” said Burda.

A leader in fair trade and organic apparel since its founding in 1992, the Maggie’s Organics supports small-scale farmers and family mills in the United States, Peru and India. These farmers have been especially hard-hit by unpredictable weather—for example, alternating drought and monsoon rains—brought about by climate change.

The STAND sock is Maggie’s latest sock fundraising partnership. It also partners with Friends of the Earth on a Bee Keeper sock to help save honey bees, and its sock program with Catholic Relief Services raises funds for immigrant communities as part of Pope Francis’s Share the Journey program.

Based in Dexter, Michigan, the company last month donated over 5,000 pairs of socks to Detroit area homeless shelters.