A Visionary on a Mission to Help Those in Need
Michael Mendenhall: Hello and welcome to PeopleForce Podcast by TriNet. I'm your host, Michael Mendenhall. TriNet is a full-service HR solutions company, committed to empowering small and medium-size businesses by supporting their growth and enabling their people. We work with amazing small to medium-size businesses, and I'm excited to bring their voices to life. Here you can catch new episodes of PeopleForce Podcast every month on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Rise.TriNet.com.
Today we're excited to welcome a visionary entrepreneur, a leader in the world of social impact, and co-founder of a company that's not only revolutionizing the sock industry, but also making a tangible difference in the lives of those in need. Joining us today is none other than Dave Heath, co-founder, and CEO of Bombas. In just a few short years, Bombas has skyrocketed from a simple idea to a household name, not only for their incredibly comfortable socks, t-shirts, slippers and more, but also for their commitment to giving back. For every pair of socks purchased, Bombas donates a pair to someone experiencing homelessness, a mission and purpose that's core to everything they do.
Dave joins us today to share the inspiring story behind Bombas from its humble beginnings to becoming one of the most impactful brands in the industry. We'll dive into the challenges, the triumphs, and the lessons learned, offering valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and socially focused businesses. Dave, welcome. It's so, I'm so happy that you're here. You have such a great story and I think everyone wants to hear this. I know we'll get a little personal, then we're gonna get into the business piece. So thanks for being here.
Dave Heath: Yeah, thanks for having me. Super excited.
Michael: Yeah. So let's go back, you know, to where you grew up. Where is it that you grew up and were you actually participating with your dad's entrepreneurial spirit when he was like laying wood chips in playgrounds.
Dave: You've done your research. So yeah, so I grew up in Westchester County, just outside of New York City, in the suburbs. My dad is British by nature. He moved to this country with that entrepreneurial spirit in mind. He originally started a couple, he owned a couple gas stations and then ended up selling those businesses to start what is, you know, kind of been his main calling, which was a company called Five Bar, which I always say to people, if you ever seen wood chips on playgrounds, that was my dad's business. He invented the safety system that utilizes wood chips and then all these other layers underneath on playgrounds. And so, you know, as a kid, I remember he started the business in our garage, and then it moved into the basement, and then it moved into an office. So I like to think by having, you know, some of that exposure through osmosis, I, you know, whether it's, you know...
Michael: But did you have to help?
Dave: Oh, definitely. Yeah.
Michael: Was that your summer job?
Dave: I don't, I think I was too young to technically have a summer job. I was like five to 10. But we would, me and my brother, we'd be in all of the ad photography, you know, free, free models as it as it were. And then anytime he had to go to a trade show, we would pack samples, which like in these clear tubes and you have to layer all of the different components of the safety system.
Michael: So, oh, so the sales people could like, say this is how this is.
Dave: Take it away with them and, you know, take it back to whoever they needed to, to show how it all worked.
Michael: Now, did you grow up there as well? Did you move around or...
Dave: No, no, we, well, I moved towns. We grew up in Harrison and then moved up to Armonk or two towns in Westchester.
Michael: Oh, right up there with IBM.
Dave: Yeah. Yeah.
Michael: Awesome. And, and in doing that, did you then wind up having to work in Armonk or around there as you were growing up, or?
Dave: Yeah, I mean, I always had kinda weird jobs, nothing kind of super traditional, the most traditional job I had, which was all of two weeks, I worked at the Gap. And I remember when I started, I was like, wow, 13 or something like that. I started in the back room and I folded clothes, but I always liked, you know, I was pretty much, I was a salesperson from as young as I could remember, so I liked interacting with people and I thought my job would be servicing people in the front, and I just was end up like tagging stuff in the back.
And so I remember, you know, there was one morning I just was like, I'm not going into work anymore. And my mom was like, what are you doing in bed? And I was like, oh, I quit. And she was like, get your out of bed and get to work. So I learned some good work ethic, you know, both from my mom and my dad. But I worked, yeah, I worked in delis, I worked at a car audio.
Michael: What was the most interesting encounter you had with a customer?
Dave: Most interesting, so my, probably my favorite job is I worked, I did my senior internship, which is basically I get to go do at whatever you want to avoid senioritis. I worked at a place called Miller Motor Cars. It's a Ferrari, Aston Martin Bentley dealership.
Michael: Oh, wow. Okay.
Dave: And I worked, I washed cars basically for four months. But there was one time where, and I was 17 at the, 18 at the time, there was one time where they were like, we need a car delivered to one of our clients, and we don't have anybody here that you know is available. Would you mind driving this Ferrari? And I drove a car to this house and it was Tommy Hilfiger. So I drove one of Tommy Hilfiger's Ferraris.
Michael: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Were you nervous?
Dave: Incredibly,
Michael: Yeah. Like, oh God, somebody hits it. I, oh my God, that's absolutely, because some of those cars, you go over a bump and you scrape the whole underbelly of the car.
Dave: Yeah. But it was, it was exhilarating.
Michael: That's awesome. But then how do you go, so then take me to, now you're going through school, you're doing some of these odd jobs.
Dave: Yeah.
Michael: You go to school? For what?
Dave: I go to school for entrepreneurship.
Michael: Okay.
Dave: I go to a small school outside of Boston called Babson College.
Michael: A school that's very well known for business.
Dave: It is, it's, I think for, I don't know how many years, but 20-something years. It's been ranked as the number one school for entrepreneurship. And that's what drew me there. I, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My dad was an entrepreneur. I knew that this is, you know, something I wanted to do. So I was very much attracted to the school specifically for that reason.
Michael: Did you do anything, not as an internship, but but do any sort of program at the school where you had to develop a, an idea for a business?
Dave: So, so the freshman year, I think one of the coolest things about Babson, and they still do this today, is a program called FME. And it's your freshman year and they, they team you up with 30 other students and you have to come up with a business idea, write the business plan, and then they give you some money to launch this business. It's typically a on-campus business. You know, selling iPhone covers or I dunno, whatever we sold posters. Yeah. But it was, yeah, it is super cool 'cause you actually like get to put into practice the things you're learning at the school.
Michael: And now you graduate and, is there a gap between that and the truffle company?
Dave: Oh, yeah. Pretty big gap. So I think like most people when they graduate college, they've got, you know, some form of debt or bills and, you know, I was like, I wanna make as much money as possible. I thought that was the most important thing. And so I knew I was good at sales. 'cause for four years I sold knives via the company Cutco. I was...
Michael: Oh, oh my. That still happens today. I, I bought some knives from my, from my niece.
Dave: That's so good. I was the top salesperson in the Northeast. I sold like $400,000 in like four summers. And so I knew I liked sales, I knew I liked selling to customers. And I was like, well, what industry can I make the most amount of money selling stuff? Looked at software and, you know, I, I ended up going into the software business and absolutely hated it. I couldn't, it was like, and that's where I really learned, “Oh, you have to like the product that you're selling in order to properly sell.”
Michael: Right.
Dave: And I, you could tell I just, I'm not a tech person. I, I didn't like selling to tech people. It was just not a fun job. So I quit that. I had a small stint starting a very small company here in New York that didn't work out. And then I joined a media company called Urban Daddy.
Michael: Now was that before the truffle company?
Dave: That was before the truffle company. And what's important about the story at Urban Daddy is actually where I met one of my co-founders, Randy Goldberg. And we became kind of fast friends, worked together for five years.
Michael: That had a lot to do with fashion.
Dave: Yeah, fashion, style.
Michael: Right? Style.
Dave: Lifestyle. So they covered, you know, the newest restaurant and nightclub openings in I think 15 cities across the United States. But they had a big kind of style component for, for men's style. So, but that, that's not, you know, ultimately that has nothing really to do with the story of Bombas other than, you know, that's where I met my co-founder. And I was there where I actually first kind of started to develop the idea for Bombas the truffle company was a stop gap in between.
Michael: Well, I wanna understand what that was.
Dave: Yeah. So.
Michael: I thought that was interesting. You've gone, you know, I always tell people, 'cause they're like, well, how did you wind up, like in the film business? I'm like, well, there's nothing sort of vertical in anything that you do. It zigzags all over the place.
Dave: Yeah.
Michael: And it's those collection of experiences which you have. Which I think becomes really unique and really makes you who you are and allows you to do what you've done at Bombas.
Dave: Yeah. Well see, I think it's all grounded in, you know, the entrepreneurial journey, right? Which is, I think the, underlying all entrepreneurs is a desire to solve problems or, you know, find opportunities through the mechanism of business. And so, how I got to the trouble, I was working at Urban Daddy and I was at some food event, and I met this kid, it was literally a kid, I think he was 16 years old. And, you know, I was talking to him and I was like, oh, what do you do? And he said, oh, I sell truffles to the top 300 restaurants in New York City. I was like, I was 16 years old. I was like, how, how did you get into that?
I'll, I'll skip over his story. But long story short, he is, he was working for this Italian truffle company and, you know, I was like, oh, so how big's your business? And he said, oh, I think I'd sell $2 million worth of truffles every year. I was like, $2 million. You're 16. I was like, doing the back of the math. I was like, five to 10% commission. I was like, you must be making, you know, a lot of money. And he was like, I make $60,000 a year. I'm an independent contractor. I've got no health insurance. So I was like, this doesn't smell right. I was like, but all the relationships are yours. And he's like, yeah, he's like the Italian trouble. These guys never come over here. So I said, all right, I think, I think there's an opportunity to like, what if we, you know, sell, you know, gave you some money, me and my father and my brother, and help you start your own truffle business here in New York. And that's how we ultimately got into the truffle business.
Michael: Oh, that's awesome. Is he still in it or...
Dave: He is still in it. We are out of it, yeah. But it's cool. I still see the brand and...
Michael: Oh, that's awesome.
Dave: The vans he's got all around the city.
Michael: Oh, wow. So he is probably doing more than $2 million.
Dave: Oh yeah, definitely. I think when we left the business we were doing close to five. Yeah. So I would imagine, yeah, he's probably doing probably close to 10 or more these days.
Michael: Well, that's terrific. Now, the Bombas thing, you've, you, you've referenced, you've met him at Urban Daddy. Now I understood, and hopefully I have this story right, that you were walking down the street and saw homeless people and you were thinking about what, is it something that you could do that would actually maybe have social impact and then you went to some homeless shelters?
Dave: A little bit different. So obviously living in New York, interacting with people facing homelessness on a regular basis. And, you know, I'd always try and, you know, here's a dollar, here's, you know, a granola bar, whatever I could do on, you know, on my way to and from wherever I was going. But I was never actively involved in, in the, the give back component that way. I was actually scrolling on Facebook and I came across a quote from the Salvation Army that said, socks are the most requested clothing items at homeless shelters. And I remember sitting there and going, oh, it's kind of surprising and interesting, like, and sad, you know, here's an item of clothing that I've never spent more than a few seconds a day thinking about. And yet it's the number one most requested clothing item by, by those facing homelessness. And so I remember telling my co-founder now at the time, Randy, 'cause we worked together, and we both kind of were like, wow, that's pretty sad. You know, maybe let's buy some socks and hand them out, you know, on our way to and from work. And as we started to interact with the community in that way and giving them the product, we realized...
Michael: You were giving them, giving it to them on the street, right?
Dave: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was carrying them around in my backpack and every time I had an interaction there were, you would've thought I was giving them a hundred dollars bill. Like, oh my God, how did you know this is exactly what I needed? And I remember this one very vivid story that I tell quite regularly is, there's a guy in the west side of Madison Square Park and sat with a sign and said, you know, anything you have will help or whatever. And I remember taking a pair of socks out and he's like, this is exactly what I need. I watched him take his boots off and on one shoe, on one foot, he had wrapped a bandana around his foot as a sock. And the other foot he had wrapped a plastic bag like that was, that was the, the degree to which he needed something between his foot and the shoe or the boot that he was wearing. And I'll never get that image out of my head. And that's when I was like, okay, how can we solve this problem at scale? And that's when Randy and I started to think about, you know, do we, can we create a business similar to Tom's, which was growing massively at the time, really pioneered the buy one, give one movement and thought, you know, maybe there's an idea here where we could, you know, have some impact. We did not think that it would be at the size and scale that we are today, but we thought just whatever little impact we could have to help solve this problem in our community, you know, would be, you know, would be worthwhile. And, and so we kind of pulled on that thread and, that was kinda the basis.
Michael: Like most startups though, it's a lot of heavy lifting. I mean, here you are, what kind of sock do we produce? Where do we go to have them manufactured? How do we get them at scale? Where do we start? You're gonna need capital? Walk us through that piece. 'cause that's not easy. What you did is not easy. And yeah,
Dave: It felt, it felt a little easier at the time because I think we were so passionate about it, so interested in it. And the thing that I tell all entrepreneurs is, you know, you can look at where we are today and be like, oh God, it must be so much work to get there. And I always tell people the same analogy. I'm like, look at, it's like kind climbing Mount Everest, right?
It's like, if you think about it as like, I'm gonna show up to Mount Everest and start climbing up this mountain. Like that seems near impossible. But if you break it down into small steps, right? And think about, you know, the different stages and, and then you think about what you need to do in order to make, to, to each stage the gear, the physical preparation, you start to break down all the little pieces. It starts to become, you know, you don't try to tackle it all at once. And so for us, the first step was we said, okay, if we, if we're gonna donate a lot, we need to sell a lot. And in order to sell a lot, we need to create a product that differentiates itself in the market. We didn't know anything about apparel manufacturing, you know, the sock industry.
Michael: Or even outdoor wear.
Dave: Nothing. Yeah, nothing. We were consumers at best. And so we went to a bunch of different stores and we tried to understand, you know, what separates, you know, the 12 pack of white socks that you can get for 12 bucks at Costco to the, you know, $30, $40 pair of high performance athletic running socks that you're getting at a specialty running store. So we started to break down all the components that basically went into the more premium product and tried to understand what goes into a product that serves a marathon runner, right? Because obviously it has to perform a lot better than your generic white tube sock. So we learned like things have like seamless toe and arch support and comfort foot beds and moisture and temper regulating fibers and articulation. The right foot is different than the left foot and all these types of things.
Michael: And did you have all that before you started? Or you sort of learned some of it as you went?
Dave: Well, I mean the, the, yeah. We didn't launch the bit. We were, this was our ideation phase, right? Yeah. We knew we had this problem in the homeless community that we wanted to solve. We knew we needed to create a great product. And that was kind of the gap that we were, you know, that was, that was the most that we had at that point. So we tried on a lot of different stuff and we, you know, went and kind of sought out different manufacturers and said, you know, if we wanted to take this toe with this fabric, with this comfort foot bed and this arch support, could you all put it into one, you know, product?
And, you know, thankfully we found some great factory partners that were willing to work alongside us to do the research and development. And two years, roughly later from the moment we had the idea to, you know, where we were with a kind of a final product, we finally had this thing that we were ready to put out into the world. And, and we decided to launch the company on a crowdfunding site. 'cause we didn't really have, was it Indiegogo? Indiegogo, we didn't really have any capital. We didn't really wanna go out and raise...
Michael: Did you raise enough capital on Indiegogo?
Dave: Yeah, so we had set initial goal of I think $15,000. 'cause that was the amount that we needed in order to place our minimum production run for the first kind of run of product that we wanted to do. We ended up selling $25,000 in our first day. And we went on to do $150,000 in the 30-day campaign that we had on Indiegogo. So we had $150,000 at this end of this thing, placed our first production run, took some of that money, built a website, and the next hypothesis was like, okay, now we've got 2,500 customers we're sending product to. Are they gonna like it? Are they gonna come back? Are they gonna buy more? Are they gonna tell their friends? And so that was hypothesis number two, which was, now that the product is out in the world, what do people think about it?
Michael: How many type of skews did you have when you launched?
Dave: So we had basically two styles. So we had a calf sock and an ankle sock. And then we had eight colors of each. So 16 total individual skews, but really only two types.
Michael: All in cotton or...
Dave: All in, yeah. We, we, we launched with this long staple Pima cotton, which is incredibly soft, durable. Yeah. So that was, that's,
Michael: But now you have to start scaling, right? Now you're gonna need more people that have to buy into the idea. So I wanna, I'm gonna take a step back and then we're gonna come back to your product because there's something in the product that I find is unique and it has to do with the name of your company. So talk to us about Bombas and the name. Is there some Greek origin in this?
Dave: Yeah, so one of my, so I have four co-founders total. So it's myself, Randy, this guy Aaron Wal. And my brother Andrew. Aaron was kind of the, always like the original kind of creative director from the start comes from a design and creative agency background. And he said, you know, when we were finally at the stage, we're like, oh, we gotta come up with a name for this thing. He said, gimme a weekend, I'll come back and I'll present some ideas to you. He ultimately comes back and he presents us with this idea called Bombas. And I was like, well what, what, what does bombas mean? He said, well, bombus, b-o-m-b-u-s, is the Latin word for bumblebee. And bees are altruistic animals. They work together as a hive, as a community to make their world a better place. And bees are also small, but they have a big impact in the world. Socks are small, but they can have a big impact.
Michael: And super intelligent.
Dave: Yes. But they have a big, you know, a pair of socks and have a big impact to somebody, you know, living on the streets or facing homelessness. So we loved this concept and he said to make it a little bit more ownable, we're gonna change the U to an A so that, you know, 'cause if you type bombus, b-o-m-b-u-s, into Google, you get a bunch of like beekeeper information. We're like, that's super confusing. So we changed the name slightly, but you know, the, the origin of the name and, and heart and soul of it's still in there.
Michael: Well, so I wanted to hold this up. This is why, because the arch support that you have is pretty amazing and unique I think, in what you've done. And the design is honeycomb.
Dave: That's right.
Michael: Was that intentional?
Dave: It was. So both from a visual language perspective, we knew we needed something that was visually identifiable. We didn't want to be a brand that, you know, relied on its logo to be, you know, recognized. 'cause not all of our socks we wanted to put logos on. And so the arch support ended up being our most, you know, ownable, you know, design feature for the brand. But hexagons are also naturally the strongest natural, you know, shape that exists in, in nature. And so we take some of those elements and creates this really great comfortable and supportive art support.
Michael: So you have the bee on some of them?
Dave: We do. That's our, that's our logo. Technically. And it's on, you know, some of our products get it, some of it don't based on end use. But again, the bee is obviously the nod to the name Bombas and...
Michael: Well, there's another story. 'cause you love tattoos.
Dave: Well, now I do. I didn't back then. I didn't back then. I actually had...
Michael: Tell us that story. The bet.
Dave: So when we launched the brand on Indiegogo, you get to fill out all these facts, right? FAQs and, you know, frequently asked questions. And for some of our brand has always been a little bit of like witty, weird tongue in cheek. And at the last question we said, you know, if you, if you end up donating a million pairs, will you get a tattoo for to celebrate? And I said, yes. We hadn't sold one pair. Right? I'm not, I'm thinking a million pairs. This is probably never gonna happen. And if it does, it's gonna be so long from now, no one's ever gonna remember.
Michael: Oh, yeah. I'm sure
Dave: This thing. So we launched the company and two years later we donate our millionth pair of socks, which is so much faster than, than we and Randy and my other co-founders come over and they're like, so when are you getting this tattoo? And I was like, guys, I wasn't really serious about that. And they held me to it and I said, okay, I'll do it, but we have to film it. And we have to turn it into...
Michael: Where's that?
Dave: It's online. You can see it.
Michael: All right. So everybody tell us...
Dave: It's called the Bombas Million Pair video. And this video...
Michael: Is it at bombas.com?
Dave: You can find it on I think, YouTube.
Michael: Oh yeah.
Dave: Some of those streaming platforms.
Michael: Make sure everyone can see that.
Dave: So it has over, I think 250 million views collectively across all platforms today.
Michael: Is it on the ribs or where is it?
Dave: No, it's on the inside of my arm.
Michael: Okay. Is it color?
Dave: No, just black.
Michael: Okay.
Dave: So it was easily hidable from my mom.
Michael: I have one. But this, this was done at a pre-Emmy party. This was, this was not done for Bombas, but we can claim it is.
Dave: Cool. Yeah, yeah. I like that.
And so we turned, sorry, I got this tattoo. We filmed it and we turned it into this, like what was originally designed as a thank you video to our customers. We said, we're just gonna send it out to all of our customers and say like, you helped make this million pairs happen, right? Because we believe that our customers are, we call 'em supporters, right? Because we have a mission. And it's true, we wouldn't have been able to donate a million pairs if people didn't buy a million pairs.
And so our CMO, who's still with the company at the time, she said, I want to turn this into a marketing video. I wanna see if we can use this as an ad and put it on Facebook, which was just starting to use video at the time. And it ended up becoming one of the most successful paid videos, I'm sure on Facebook to the point where they turned that video into a case study. And it's pretty in, in the, in the digital marketing world. It's a pretty well known...
Michael: Oh, that's terrific.
Dave: …piece of creative. And a lot of other brands have gone on to kind of copy that format. From a founder storytelling perspective,
Michael: How do you, I mean, you have such a strong purpose, sense of purpose. A lot of people lose that. You've not lost that as a company. How do you hire people that come into this culture that you've created that has this passion around what you're doing? What it means? Is that difficult?
Dave: No, it's so easy. I mean, I, you know, it's, I attributed some of that phrase that birds of a feather flock together. We, me and my co-founders in the first month of this business, we, we sat down and wrote our core values. Seemed like a very silly exercise at the time. 'cause we're like, it's just the four of us. We kind of know what we all stand for. But we, we went through the exercise and, and to this day, for the most part, they haven't changed. And you know, it's all wrapped up in gotta have the best product possible. You've gotta, you know, create the best customer experience. It's gotta be a great place to work. And you gotta be committed to the mission. So when you kind of outline, here are the things that are the most important to us, and being a pretty forward facing brand, people end up gravitating and saying, I wanna work at a place that, you know, has more of an impact in the world other than just creating, you know, profits and bottom line returns for shareholders.
Michael: How do you keep that culture as you grow? You have to put in more discipline.
Dave: Super hard.
Michael: Yes.
Dave: It's really hard.
Michael: Because you have to put all this discipline in. That could change the culture, but it's like, well now we have to do this. 'cause now we have compliance, now we have there there's could be risk here. There's, and all of a sudden you start to build an infrastructure and you can, if you're not careful, destroy the culture. How do you manage that?
Dave: Yeah. So the other thing I remember is, you know, when we were a team of 50 people we're all basically sitting in one large room and information spreads…
Michael: I remember that room.
Dave: Very quickly. Yeah. That was on 18th Street.
Michael: Yeah.
Dave: Information spreads very quickly because people overhear stuff and the teams are small and you gotta kind of, everybody kind of always knows what's going on. Fast forward, you know, I remember when we were like 125 people became the moment where I was like, a, not everybody knows what's going on all the time. And b, we were starting to make decisions and hearing back very vocally from certain people in the organization that they weren't happy with those decisions. Whereas early on it was very easy to make 50 people happy. It was very difficult to make 125 people happy.
Michael: And now you're like collectively, now you're like, what, 256 or something?
Dave: Yeah. Well, we're 200. And that as a founder, especially as a founder, that was very, you know, people forward and very focused on creating the best culture possible. I was motivated by trying to keep everyone happy. And here we find ourselves, I make decisions now that, that directly make some people unhappy. And that was a really hard growth period for me as a CEO. And now I've learned that I have to make the decision that's the best for the collective group.
Michael: And the business.
Dave: Yeah. And the business. But I, I tie those two things kind of together. I always believe that if you make the right decision for the people, it should be the right decision for the business and vice versa. Because the people are what drive the business. I, I say, you know, people are always like, oh, you know, how's, you know, how's, you know, what's it like running your company? I was like, this stopped being my company a long time ago. Like, yeah, you know, once, once you have a collective group of people, you know, that are all, you know, working together, I was like, I, I wouldn't be able to do any of this without every single person that has come through that door, whether they're still with the company or they've moved on.
And so it's this kind of collective team effort. And we've just, me and my co-founders decided very early on, we said, look, we can't necessarily control the financial outcome of this business. Some of it's market dependent and product market fit, and to customers like it and, you know, all of the other things that have to go right to be financially successful. I said, but the one thing that we can control is how we treat our people and whether people feel good about where they work. And so that's always been a through line through, you know, how we have thought about running this business.
Michael: I mean, you, you've seen amazing growth even with the 200, right? I don't want to give out numbers, but as a percentage, how have you grown since the inception of your company? To where you are today? Is it...
Dave: We're just, we're just over 10 years old and I can share that we're, you know, a little bit over $350 million of top line revenue. So, you know, in the early years we were growing at multiple, a hundred percent year over year. In the mid years we were growing at, you know, 50 to 80% year over year. And then for the past few years we've already been pretty consistently growing in, you know, high teens, low 20s.
Michael: But it's impressive because you've changed behavior. You know, 75% of socks purchases were done in brick and mortar.
Dave: I still think most of that, that never holds true.
Michael: But, but yours, yours is quite different. No?
Dave: Yeah. We're 93% of our business is still direct through our own website at bombas.com.
Michael: Right? Yeah. So completely different than what the industry sort of says. And I think you've also bridged, 'cause most of of people that bought socks, the majority of the people buying socks in terms of just total revenue, were men. Now you have a balanced sort of approach. How, how does that look relative to your business? Male, female?
Dave: Yes. We're about 60% female, 40% male in terms of customer base. But we're pretty close, like almost 50-50 on terms of the types of products being sold. Female versus male.
Michael: I think it says a lot about your product. 'cause you're sort of bucking industry trends. Quite frankly, which is nice. But you did a lot of that through design and I've noticed that, that you've really expanded colors, you've expanded sort of, you know, different types of events, whether they be, you know, very public events that are celebrating, you know, whether it's LGBTQ, whether it's black history, whether you've done some things to really capitalize on the social piece of this.
Dave: Yeah.
Michael: Talk to us about that.
Dave: Yeah, I, you know, me and the co-founders have always believed, you know, that the best brands, you know, are those that are, you know, culturally relevant, right? And, you know, are a part of, you know, pop culture in a way. And being a socially responsible brand, we've always looked at how do we participate in the conversation through that lens, right? Because from for myriad reasons, you could say, you know, we could be involved in especially being a giveback brand, it, we, we learned very early on, we had to kind of put the guardrails on, you know, focusing just on issues around, you know, the tieback some way, you know, to those experiencing homelessness. And so, you know, 'cause early on we said, oh, why don't we make a pink sock for breast cancer awareness month? And why don't we make a this sock for autism awareness, you know, and all these types of things and all great causes.
Michael: Well there's, well there's one every day.
Dave: Right. All great causes. And being a give back brand, you say, yeah, of course we wanna do everything for everybody. We very quickly said, we need to be focused. And so our participation in things like pride and, you know, black history, which we don't just limit it to Black History Month. We have a black hive collection that, you know, remains throughout the year.
Michael: Well, a disproportionate amount of homelessness is with the black community.
Dave: Yeah. 60%. Yeah. When they, when, when it only, when blacks only represent 13% of the U.S. population. So that is a incredibly disproportionate amount. So we try to use these opportunities to not just jump on the bandwagon like a lot of brands do. And they say, oh, we're gonna put a flag on this and we're gonna, you know, do something for Black History Month or whatever. We do it through the mechanism of our mission around homelessness.
Michael: Yeah. I want to talk about that. 'cause I, I think what you're doing is remarkable and we're seeing a lot more people become homeless, whether it's economic, affordable housing, you know, whether it's addictions or substance abuse, domestic violence. LGBTQ is a big piece, a big piece of the population there. Tonight, there'll be over 600,000 people who are homeless and 40% of those people are homeless really, for most of their lives.
Dave: Yeah.
Michael: And so what you're doing is so important. Talk to us about that, because the statistics are just sort of staggering and they continue to grow.
Dave: Yeah. I mean, we could spend a long time talking about the underlying root causes. All of which, you know, you've listed what we try to do as a brand. Obviously, we have this give back component, which is we're giving these items, socks, underwear, t-shirts, the top three most requested clothing items at homeless shelters.
Michael: And I think you should mention that they can't reuse. So the, so in these homeless shelters, they can't use used socks in
Dave: Underwear, correct. For hygiene purposes. So you cannot, most shelters will not accept used worn socks and underwear, which I think seems pretty obvious. The other factor is that most people, you know, socks, underwear, t-shirts, they get a hole in it, they throw it out. They're not donating it. So all of the organizations that we work with, and this is something I don't think a lot of people understand, they have to take money out of their own budget, which is typically very small to begin with, to go and buy these items to then give to the clients that they serve. You know, those, you know, facing and experiencing homelessness. So we come in and I thought when we first started this business, oh yeah, we, you know, provide some socks. This is a needed item. Maybe someone has a cold feet or wet feet, and it gives them a little bit of comfort, a little bit of dignity, you know, and helps them throughout their day. I didn't think we're not gonna have a major impact on, you know, the homeless community and those that serve the homeless community.
And yet we, to date, we've donated over 140 million items to those, you know, serving people, facing homelessness. And consistently, you know, we hear back from our giving partners, of which we have 3,500 across all 50 states, that from the budget that they've saved, by not having to go out and buy these items, they've been able to divert those funds to other areas within their organization that do directly impact helping get people off the streets. So in a very roundabout way, we, we are actually helping solve this problem, even though we're not doing it directly, we're playing our part. And originally I was like, oh, it's just socks, you know? Yeah. It's a nice item for people to have, but at the scale that we are doing it, it is actually having a massive impact, particularly for those that serve this community.
Michael: Yeah. I, I had that story with you when I first met you and you gave me three pair of socks with a card and you said, go out and give these to some homeless people. And I was nervous. I thought, oh, these people are either gonna be really upset with me or they're going to be pleased and hopefully someone won't be aggressive with me. But I thought, well, I'm gonna do it.
Dave: Yeah.
Michael: And I had one of those experiences where the guy was just like, oh my God, man, this is, are you sure you're gonna, I said, yeah, no, you, you, you take these, yeah, you take this one.
Dave: And that's the common, I think, unfortunate misconception.
Michael: It's the humanity. The humanity piece of it.
Dave: Yeah. I think most people have a misconception of, you know, most homeless people are crazy or aggressive or addicts. And having done this for 10 years and served alongside a lot of our giving partners, I'm always shocked at who shows up to some of these shelters or to some of these van programs, people in suits. You know, I think one of the craziest statistics that I, I learned during our own research is that most people experiencing homelessness have one job. Most of them actually have two. So these are people that are employed, you know, they're not, you know, they're not all,
Michael: Well, 30 some percent of them are families.
Dave: Yes. And one in five people experiencing homelessness are, is a child under five, one in five. 20% of that 600,000 number is a child under five. That to me is like heartbreaking.
Michael: Well, and I think there's something like 6,000 or 7,000 youth under the age of 16 unaccompanied that are homeless. Tonight.
Dave: Yeah. Yeah.
Michael: And, and so what you're doing is pretty amazing and it's such a great company.
Dave:
Thank you.
Michael:
And I really like, appreciate speaking with you and I think, you know, the people listening are gonna be very intrigued about what you've done, how you've gotten here, and, and how you've been very, very successful commercially, but also having a huge social impact. And then that's not easy as well. And it's great to see that, so...
Dave:
Thank you very much.
Michael:
You know, I, I want to thank you. I wanna thank you for being a part of the TriNet family. Yes. We couldn't be more proud of having...
Dave:
Thank you very much
Michael:
...of having you as a...
Dave:
It's been a great journey. Thank you for supporting us.
Michael:
Yeah, no, so that's been terrific as well. So I wish you well and I hope you get even bigger success and maybe it'll be 200 to 300 million socks that you give.
Dave:
Our goal one day, our like long-term goal is to meet the need of socks, underwear, and t-shirts for those facing homelessness. And we think that we will do that by becoming the number one largest comfort apparel brand in the world. And so it's a moonshot, but you know,
Michael:
And you, and you've gone from cotton to wool to underwear to t-shirts.
Dave:
Yep. All that.
Michael:
Is there anything else? That you're thinking about?
Dave:
We recently launched, so last year slippers, we launched slippers. And this past month we launched our first EVA slide. So think of it's like a Crocs type of thing.
Michael:
Oh wow.
Dave:
Yeah. So...
Michael:
What is that made of?
Dave:
EVA is what they call it.
Michael:
Yeah. Okay.
Dave:
It's like a plastic foam, you know, squishy thing that you can wear to the beach in the pool or the shower or whatever. It's super comfortable. We sold out. So if you go to the website right now, you're not gonna see them, but we'll bring them back shortly.
Michael:
Now is it, is it a flip flop type? Or, or a slide?
Dave:
It's a slide. Yeah. It's a slide. It doesn't go between your toes, but you know, it has, you know, kind of looks like a Birkenstock.
Michael:
Different colors, different...
Dave:
Yeah, different colors, different sizes. Men, women's...
Michael:
You've become known for the colors, by the way.
Dave:
Yeah.
Michael:
In socks. So, that's awesome. Well, listen, thank you so much again, Dave.
Dave:
Thank you.
Michael:
This was awesome.
Dave:
This was great.
Michael:
Safe journeys. I know you're traveling all over the place. So some of you may see him in a city near you soon.
Dave:
Appreciate it.
Michael:
Alright, thank you. Yep. I want to remind everybody that our PeopleForce Podcast by TriNet is committed to helping small businesses and their leaders with timely and relevant business content. The PeopleForce Podcast drops new episodes every month, and we hope you continue catching our new episodes on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Rise.TriNet.com. To get relevant SMB news and info, make sure to subscribe to our podcast and to our newsletter at TriNet.com/insights.
