Our Giving Back Program

At John’s Crazy Socks, we believe it is not enough to simply sell things, companies need to give back. Giving Back is at the heart of all we do. The need to Give Back is baked into everything we do. Each purchase feeds our Giving Back program and enables us to do more for our charity partners.

From the day we opened, we have pledged to donate 5% of our earnings to the Special Olympics. After all, John and many of our colleagues are Special Olympic athletes and we see first-hand the many benefits of that organization. As we have grown, we have also grown our Giving Back Program. It now includes our Charity and Awareness Socks that raise money for our charity partners like the National Down Syndrome Society and the Autism Society of America. We donate 5%of the sales of our Sock of the Month Club to the Special Olympics.

In creating our Giving Back Program, we create a pact with our customers. Therefore, each month, we publish a Giving Back Report on our website to let our customers know what money we raised that month and where it went.

Giving Back to the Special Olympics

We pledge 5% of our monthly earnings to the Special Olympics. 5% of sales from our Sock of the Month Club are donated to the Special Olympics, also. In addition, each sale of Shark Socks and Polar Plunge Socks results in a donation to the Special Olympics. Here are the specific donations we make to the Special Olympics:

Item Donation Earnings 5 percent Shark Socks $2 from every pair sold Polar Plunge Socks $1 from every pair sold Sock of the Month Subscription 5% from every sale

Our Charity and Awareness Socks

Charity and Awareness Socks are a large part of our Giving Back Program. The sale of each Charity and Awareness sock results in a donation to a specific charity.

The following graphic tabulates our selection of Charity and Awareness Socks.

Why the Special Olympics?

John loves the Special Olympics and has greatly benefited from his participation as a Special Olympic athlete, so giving to the Special Olympics is only natural for us. Part of the reason is that our namesake, John Cronin, is a Special Olympic athlete. Just look at the list of sports in which John competes: snowshoe, basketball, track, soccer, floor hockey and bowling. His experiences with the Special Olympics have helped him to grow into the young man he is today.

Some of the benefits come from simply having the opportunity to play games and learn a sport. John is typical of many of the athletes. As a person with Down syndrome, he has low muscle tone so the chance to run up and down the basketball court once a week and push a puck around the floor hockey floor is important. But it is more then that. The Special Olympics are about training and competition. The athletes learn what it means to commit to an activity and to work hard for a goal. John competes on a snowshoe team that only has two meets a year, usually in late January and early February. But he and his teammates train all summer on a beach. How great to learn how to put in the effort now for a long term goal?

The sports activities are real. We have seen a soccer team grow from a point where passing was hard, to know playing exciting games with all the strategy and skill of a “regular” soccer team. The same for watching improvement in basketball where the athletes could barely dribble the ball to a point where they run beautiful pick and roll plays. And the competition is real. The winner gets a gold, second gets a silver and third gets a bronze. These athletes strive as hard as Michael Jordan to achieve victory.

Special Olympics nurtures socialization opportunities for these athletes. The experience of playing on a team and learning to depend and work with teammates is as valuable for them as it is for a typical athlete. But there are other opportunities like the local dances. When the athletes travel to away competitions – John has participated in the New York State Games for many years – they travel as a team and stay in hotels like any team, away from parents. It lets them know they are growing up or grown up and have the ability to do for themselves.

This program helps more than just the athletes. Parents and families get to watch and cheer as these athletes rise to heights no one may have imagined. John’s Dad and two brothers, Patrick and James, have coached Special Olympics. James, who coached basketball, may have benefited more than the athletes in his charge. He learned empathy to understand autistic players. He became more sensitive to differences and developed strategies for working with a diverse group, all skills that have served him well as he has gone on in his life.

For these reasons and many more, we love the Special Olympics and donate 5% of all the money we make to that cause. If you feel so inclined, you can donate to the Special Olympics right now by clicking here.

If you have questions or comments about our Giving Back Program, please email us at service@johnscrazysocks.com.