Online retailer John's Crazy Socks relocates to Huntington in effort to turn around business

Online retailer John’s Crazy Socks is attempting to regain its footing and turn the business around by returning to familiar ground.

The business has relocated its headquarters from a Farmingdale warehouse to a smaller space, which includes an expanded brick-and-mortar store, in the Town of Huntington, where the retailer got its start a decade ago.

The move in early May to 328A Main St. in Huntington is part of the company's strategy focusing on boosting in-person store sales, regaining control of the brand and diversifying its operations to boost revenue, co-founder Mark X. Cronin said. 

“We’re refocusing our business. We wanted a space that would be multidimensional," he said.

The company sells socks bearing eclectic designs ranging from animals to slogans, food and holiday themes.

Founded on Wall Street in Huntington in 2016, the retailer's core mission is to create employment opportunities for people who face barriers to work because of disabilities. It was inspired by Mark’s son and the sock business’ co-founder, John Cronin, who has Down syndrome.

The business changes this year were necessary to improve sales that declined due to several factors, including increased competition and cost pressures related to tariffs and manufacturers' price increases, Mark X. Cronin said. 

The business also needed to get back to its core mission, he said. 

"If all we do is sell socks, we're lost because we become just like every other one of the thousands of sock companies. We are back to driving our mission to spread happiness and show what people with differing" abilities can do, he said.

John’s Crazy Socks employs 22 part-time workers who have disabilities, most of whom work in the fall and winter, as well as nine other part- and full-time employees, including two sock designers, he said.

The company's namesake, John Cronin, 30, whose role includes giving tours to visitors and picking and packing socks for shipping to customers, said, “I love the [new] store. … We have a lot of fun, crazy socks.”

Regaining control

As part of the sock retailer's broader business strategy, the Cronins modified their business partnership in January, Mark X. Cronin said.

In 2020, the Cronins sold John’s Crazy Socks’ brand to JCS Products, an affiliate of Gold Medal International, a Manhattan-based company that designs, sources and manufactures wholesale socks and accessories for distribution. 

“We needed financial stability and manufacturing capabilities. Plus, they offered the promise of getting into large retail stores,” Cronin said.

JCS paid the Cronins a royalty, and a fee to run the warehouse, he said.

After John’s Crazy Socks’ sales declined for two years, the Cronins modified the terms of the deal with JCS Products, he said. 

“Now, we flipped it. We pay them a royalty for us to use the brand in the store. You know, it’s John’s business,” said Cronin, who declined to disclose sales numbers. 

The modified partnership gives the Cronins control of their company's marketing, product choices and engagement with customers, he said. 

The strategy has helped the business focus more on its mission, Cronin said. 

“We got back to our basics and … understanding who we are and what the brand was really about,” he said.

JCS did not respond to Newsday's request for comment.

Less inventory, expanded brick-and-mortar sales

John's Crazy Socks’ 2,500-square-foot order fulfillment center and store in Huntington is nearly 70% smaller than the 8,000-square-foot warehouse in Farmingdale, where the business had been since 2022.

The retailer downsized because it now carries less inventory, cutting back its sock styles from 2,000 to 500, Mark X. Cronin said. 

“Quite frankly, that was too many. Now we’re focusing on really only selling socks that we design and make. That gives us better quality control,” he said.

John’s Crazy Socks packs and ships orders to customers nationwide from its Huntington headquarters. The socks are made elsewhere, mostly in the Philippines, through contracts the company has with manufacturers, Cronin said.

John’s Crazy Socks tested brick-and-mortar retail sales for the first time in spring 2025 at its Farmingdale warehouse, where it set up a few racks of socks for in-person sales in a small section of the warehouse, partly in response to customer demand, he said. 

The company also wanted to create an additional revenue source because the business was facing some headwinds from the U.S.’ newly imposed tariffs on imports and the possibility that online sales would fall amid declining consumer confidence, he said. .

Strong in-person sales justified the company expanding its brick-and-mortar sales section in Huntington, he said.

A retailer having e-commerce and brick-and-mortar shopping options can be symbiotic, since customers who become comfortable buying from the business online might be inspired to make purchases in physical stores, said John Harmon, managing director of technology research at Coresight Research, a Manhattan-based retail analysis provider.

This is particularly true in apparel sales, he said.

"You want to try it on. You want to feel the material. You want to see what the color looks like under natural light," he said.

While a growing share of retail spending nationwide is online, the vast majority of retail sales, 76%, are in physical stores. 

John's Crazy Socks' Huntington location on Main Street is among mom-and-pop stores and restaurants along sidewalks, and is more likely to draw foot traffic than the Farmingdale location, which was among offices and industrial businesses, Cronin said. 

Huntington “gives us a place to connect with the community and run different programs,” he said.

John's Crazy Socks' turnaround plan includes diversifying its operations, including having a podcast studio where people with disabilities can participate in shows. The store also has space that can be booked for private events.

This can help boost revenue, particularly when sock sales slow during the spring and summer, Cronin said.

The sock retailer also is adding to its inventory products made by disabled people at other organizations, such as Colettey’s Cookies in Charlestown, Massachusetts; candy from The Nicholas Center, a nonprofit in Port Washington; and chocolates from Highland Chocolates, which is run by Partners In Progress Inc., a nonprofit vocational agency in Mansfield, Pennsylvania.

The goal is for those sales to eventually account for 30% of John’s Crazy Socks’ revenue, Cronin said. 

The Cronins, of Huntington, also formed an umbrella company, Abilities Rising LLC, which will help them create more job opportunities for people with disabilities, he said.

The umbrella company also will generate revenue through its ventures, including podcasting and publishing books by, for and about people with differing abilities, he said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.