Buddie’s socks gift to homeless

A Paisley businessman who co-founded an upmarket sock company is helping keep the tootsies of homeless people warm this Christmas.

Dave Pickard, who set up the London Sock Company, has teamed up with Crisis, the national charity for homeless people, to hand out free socks this month.

The scheme has been dubbed‘Sock-tober’.

This means that for every pair of the company’s socks sold during the month, a special pair of durable socks will be donated to Crisis for the charity to distribute.

Dave and his business partner, Ryan Palmer, are former corporate professionals who left their jobs in London.

They wanted to create “a truly exciting and aspirational menswear brand, focused on quality, assured style and social responsibility”.

Dave gained entrepreneurial skills from a young age.

He studied for his master’s degree in engineering at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, then he started selling disposable cameras in vending machines to nightclub owners long before the days of everyone possessing camera phones.

He and Ryan now travel around Europe in search of quality materials and knitting methods that can help improve their brand.

Both men have visited 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister and were introduced to Prince Charles as part of a charitable initiative that London Sock Company supports, called Style for Soldiers.

Latest figures reveal that more than 9,000 people are sleeping rough every night in the UK and figures are predicted to rise.

Previously, Dave and the London Sock Company staff have handed out socks to homeless people in London around Christmas time.

Visit www. londonsockcompany. com/socktober to find out more.