Women's History Month: The woman behind Portland’s Sock It To Me

PORTLAND, Ore. — We continue to celebrate Women’s History Month by featuring a female entrepreneur who started with a stand at the Saturday Market and turned colorful playful socks into a multimillion-dollar business.

For Sock It To Me founder Carrie Atkinson, running a business has always come naturally. As a kid she says she always had a lemonade stand and had an entrepreneurial knack to start businesses.

But it took a while before she realized it was really what she was meant to do.

After college she took some time to teach English in South Korea before moving to Portland. Surprisingly, it was when she was unemployed that she got inspired.

She said she couldn’t find a job, so she created her own business based on some great socks she saw while traveling in Korea.

She imported the socks and opened a stand at the Saturday Market.

Portland ended up being the perfect spot to launch her sock company, with the care-free, expressive culture and creative clientele.

Carrie says, “The designs really go with the vibe here. And it is helpful that Nike World headquarters is in our backyard. There's a bunch of people already here that know how to do product testing, product fitting. They know about fabrics; they take photographs of the product that we have."

In 2018, SOCK IT TO ME registered as one of the fastest growing companies in Portland, reaching multi-million-dollar revenue from a booth at the Saturday Market to thousands of locations worldwide selling her socks.

Carrie has fostered relationships with buyers, encouraging them to be involved in the brand.

Carrie says every year the company has a sock-design contest open to the world.

She says, “It’s a way to have a different conversation with the customer, like what ideas do you have?”

This is the 20-year anniversary for Sock it To Me and Carrie is hopeful about the next generation of female entrepreneurs.

She says she wants to show “representation for other women and girls out there that it is possible, and you can do it, and you don't have to be afraid."

The Sock It To Me Design contest opens in September of this year.