A chat with: The BSFC

The British Sock Fetish Council (BSFC) are, if you don't already know, a group of like minded folk with a liking for nice socks. At Garment, we are very much appreciative of decent socks and will definitely be looking into getting our BSFC membership. We managed to secure a chat with R from the BSFC and the words from our chinwag are below:

Firstly, what socks are you wearing today?

I am wearing a pair of trusty old Burlington, in orange. I can't remember the exact type, Preston or Manchester at a guess. They were given to me by a good friend who I hope will be reading this and chuckling!

Could you explain a bit about what the BSFC is? And how it all got started?

The BSFC began as a joke after a meeting over a pair of socks I had just bought at Oi Polloi in Manchester en route to a football match. Socks were compared in the street as we walked between pubs, I was in a pair of Burlington in brown and the other sock enthusiast was in Scott Nichol fairilse. I thought little of this exchange after the game, however, fellow BSFC founder Matt Wright got in touch via twitter the next week and we continued to joke about our "sock fetish", suggesting we should form the "British Sock Fetish Council". Photos of sock and shoe combinations started to appear on twitter and one day someone asked if they could join the group, amusing at the time as there were two of us. Now there are 600 plus across the world! We took it from there really, producing membership cards and stickers and sending them to people for free, started a blog, and things just went from strength to strength!

What are your favourite socks?

Favourite socks, hmmm. I don't have a particular brand per se, I would say I am a big fan of argyle socks, something that compliments the trainers or shoes I am wearing. I have a lovely pair of Chup socks too, some Pantherella Cashmere. Lots of people on the @sockcouncil twitter come up with some amazing socks and I am often jealous of what I see there! The socks don't have to be expensive, I've seen some great home made socks and combinations people have put together themselves, the socks are only part of what we're about.

When did you start to take socks more seriously? Can a pair of socks make an outfit?

A few years ago I was sat in a pub in Newcastle with my then girlfriend, and some old friends one of whom commented on the trainers and sock combo I had on. I had a few decent pairs and was well chuffed my mate had noticed them. I spent a lot of time travelling with work and in airports and was always looking at socks they had. I just kept buying them, probably through boredom, and built quite a collection. I bought some Belarussian socks in Russia when I had failed to pack for a work trip properly and started picking up unusual socks then. Since the early 2000's I have been a bit more careful about socks. I don't know about them making an outfit to be honest, if you can do something a little bit different and interesting then I suppose so. It's down to the individual. 

There's more to the BSFC than socks though isn't there, could you explain a bit more about that?

There certainly is, if we were simply sock obsessives then I don't think things would have gone this far! A big part of the BSFC is the social aspect. Generally if you 'get' the BSFC you're of a similar mindset to the rest of us There's a lot of cynicism and negativity in the world, I feel like I am writing a song here, and what we did was bring like minds together under the premise of socks. We started to meet, firstly in Newcastle, then Edinburgh and then as membership grew individual members started to meet. This all culminated in our first Party Conference last year where members from Bournemouth to Aberdeen met in a Newcastle pub. 

We're a broad church, there are lots of football fans but also people from other walks of life. We welcome anyone, the only rule we have is that you accept that people might be different to you be it football allegiance, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, we're just not bothered about putting up barriers.

We've raised money for charities and good causes, a testicular cancer charity called "Check 'Em Lads" and a food bank. The BSFC is about camaraderie and people treating each other with respect, it is nice to do something positive out of shared interest and sense of community. I personally have met some incredible people though the BSFC and challenged some of my own prejudices, that's really the best thing about it for me, it's brought people together. There are some fantastic words on this from members on the blog section of our website entitled "What the BSFC Means to Me".

Could you use 3 words to summarise the BSFC?

Socks Beer Stickers

or 

Friendship Community Hosiery

or

Daft Sock Bastards :-)

How many members and counting? When do you think the membership, if ever, will stop growing?

There are 600 members and counting. At the moment I don't see it stopping in terms of growth, it has really taken off in he last year and are growing internationally in Australia, the USA and Holland in particular. 

What plans do the BSFC have for the future?

Firstly we have our second annual "BSFC Party Conference" in Newcastle upon Tyne on the 28 June 2014. Details are available through our website www.sockcouncil.com.  We'll have music from Manchester's Soul Twins, a rumoured attempt by the venue to make the world's biggest scotch egg, and we will be raising some money for a good cause as we usually do.

Other social events and gatherings are planned too so it is best to keep an eye on the website for those 

In terms of the BSFC 'brand' we have just released a series of socks made for us exclusively by Corgi Hoisiery in two designs. We are also working with Marko John's socks and Tricketter on collaborations going into the summer as well as planning for the release of our "Paninaro" Italian made socks in June.

We want to keep things moving, original and interesting for our members, be it new pin badges, tees hats or even stickers. People like to reflect their membership through the things we produce and keeping them limited in number and collectable is important so we will be doing more interesting and unique things in the future. And socks, lots of socks. 

We'd like to thank R from the BSFC for taking the time to answer our questions. The BSFC also have an ace website www.sockcouncil.com where you can read interesting articles and find their store which has some really cool bits and pieces available to purchase - including membership, beer, tees, badges, stickers and of course socks.