A Visit to LittleMissMatched Headquarters

How a Niche Retailer is Capturing the Cultural Desire for Playful Innocence

About ten years ago, a high school friend of mine told me that he and his brother were quitting their New York finance jobs and starting a company to sell ties.

Ties?!

That seemed like a monumentally counter-intuitive idea at the time - this was 1998 and everything was moving toward corporate casual - ties were rapidly disappearing from the business world. Nevertheless, they took their logos of bluefish and sailboats and successful created a lifestyle brand called Vineyard Vines. Along with Lilly Pulitzer, they helped usher in the Neo-preppy movement that has dominated a number of college campuses and resort towns in the past couple of years. Seems that even preppies want something new. As for the Ties? They are now barely noticeable in the Vineyard Vines store windows...the lesson is that in retail, you've got to start somewhere. You need a hook.

So a smart entrepreneur might ask: What is the female equivalent of ties as a platform to build a niche brand? If you asked me I might suggest handbags or shoes. Somewhere on the bottom of my list would be socks.

Enter LittleMissMatched, a niche fashion brand launched arguably at tweens, and launched with a focus on, you guessed it, socks. I first noticed this brand at a Grand Central Terminal kiosk during one of those artsy/crafty booth weeks they occasionally have. Their central idea is inherently silly, easily grasped, and instantly memorable: brightly colored socks that are deliberately mismatched. You "get it" instantly: this is Pippi Longstocking, Punky Brewster, Madeleine, and Eloise rolled up into one (By the way, what is it about redheads and this archetype?). It is the opposite of Britney, and the antithesis of Bratz or even Hannah Montana. It is silly, independent, non-conformist, and a little "out there", but it expressly isn't gothic, or anything you might see at Hot Topic. At its core, the brand proposition is immediately clear: a way for girls to express individuality and non-conformity without even the hint of, well, sex.