Founded by Lucy Jeffrey in 2018, Bare Kind offers ten styles of bamboo socks, each themed with a different animal. Customers can choose from sock designs including turtles, penguins, bees, orangutans, leopards, elephants, rhinos, hedgehogs and rabbits.
Bare Kind donates 10% of profits to animal conservation charities that support the animals printed on each sock sold. For example, for every pair of orangutan socks sold, a donation is made to The Orangutan Foundation. The socks are sold through her website and Lucy, 26, runs the business from her home in London. Lucy commissioned the first range of sock designs and created the latest set herself.
From side hustler to full-time business owner
At first, Lucy ran Bare Kind as a side hustle. “My mum started helping me package and send socks leading up to Christmas 2018 and really enjoyed it. She’s carried on ever since,” says Lucy.
In November 2020, Lucy left her job to run the business full-time. “I spent quite a few months going back and forth on my decision but ultimately, once I had it in my mind that I could quit, I couldn’t stay. I had already validated the business and knew it worked.”
Since then, she’s been able to dedicate more energy to promoting her business. She’s now making more than she did from her office job, even after paying a freelance digital marketer who manages paid advertising and SEO, two interns who help with PR and marketing and her mother.
The Bare Kind team has recently secured a number of interviews and features in local newspapers and online magazines as a result of pitching to journalists.