On my very first day of work at Flow, I was promptly handed a neatly rolled up pair of red socks.
“We wear these on a Friday,” I was told … and nothing more on the subject of the mysterious new socks. Um, okay…
So, that Friday, I slipped the socks out of their plastic bag and popped them on with pumps so that they would be clearly visible – I wasn’t going to be the odd one out.
When I arrived at the office that morning I was pleased to see a few flashes of red under the desks of my colleagues. We were all excited about it being Friday, and we were all wearing bright red socks. Brilliant.
Over lunch, I was told the story behind redsockfriday.
It all started with a group of friends who were preparing to fight in World War I. They made a pact to wear red socks in remembrance of those who lost their lives in battle.
Years later, two young pals met an elderly war veteran wearing bright red socks. When they discovered the meaning behind the socks, they were touched by the man’s commitment to always remember his friends and the journey they had all taken together.
As a tribute to their own socks journey and friendship, the two decided to start wearing red socks themselves. For them it represented a shared energy and a passion for living life to the full.
Now they aim to share redsockfriday with the world, and pass on its ethos of “remembering your family, your friends, the life that you are afforded to live and the energy you carry with you knowing that others are remembering those same qualities in you”.
I now wear my red socks proudly. Only once have I caved in to winter chills and accidentally pulled on my special red socks on a day other than Friday. But it was dark and I only realised in the morning.
Watch this awesome video, put together by the redsockfriday team: