Sock Shop to re-launch retail stores

Sock Shop is to open its first brick and mortar high street store since pulling out of retailing in 2006.

The 400 square foot concept store will open in early September in Manchester’s Arndale shopping centre, and will house more than 50 legwear brands including Pringle, Glenmuir and Elle, as well as its own branded line.

Sock Shop was originally founded in 1983 and had 52 stores across the UK. In 2006, Europe’s leading sock distributor Ruia Group bought the Sock Shop website but not the retail stores, which led to the closure of all its stores across the UK.

It has since been trading online only through sockshop.co.uk, and the owners have now decided to relaunch the brand onto the high street once again.

Amit Ruia, managing director of Sock Shop, said: We’re delighted to have taken Sock Shop into a position to launch back into retail. It was always our strategy to re-launch into retail when the time was right, so this a significant date in the Ruia family business.”