NBA socks, long coveted for their comfort, are popping up on feet around MLB and beyond

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Walk into the Washington Nationals’ clubhouse before any given game, and you’ll see the standard assortment of baseball apparel and equipment. That day’s jersey and the corresponding hat hang at each locker. Bats and gloves from various companies fill locker shelves. Under Armour, Adidas, Nike and New Balance cleats and sneakers are scattered everywhere. Almost everything is MLB-issued or sanctioned, but if you look down at a few players’ feet — and squint — you’ll find something out of place, something that belongs down the road in the Wizards’ locker room: tiny NBA logos on the side of otherwise plain white or red socks. These are not just any socks, though. They are the iconic “logo man” socks NBA players have treasured for years — their comfort so legendary that an uproar erupted when the NBA switched to another company for on-court socks two years ago.

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Over the years, the socks have trickled from basketball players onto the feet of pro athletes in other sports, from MLS locker rooms to MLB clubhouses. One reason is given, above all others. “They’re the most comfortable socks I have,” Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon said. “One hundred percent.” How these particular socks came to be the official socks of the NBA, let alone popular in unaffiliated leagues, is an unlikely story. And even as the manufacturer’s long partnership with the NBA is coming to an end, the socks remain as desired as ever. For Bare Feet was founded on April Fools’ Day 1984 by current President Kelly Baugh’s mother, a grade-school teacher, after Baugh’s older brother, Timothy, was diagnosed with a brain tumor during his freshman year at Indiana University. Doctors told Sharon Rivenbark that her son would benefit from activities making use of his motor skills, and she was struck with the idea of manufacturing socks. “Sharon started the sock business so her son would have a place in the world, a business of his own,” the company’s website says.

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The family opened as a small store in Nashville, Ind., with a $1,200 loan from Baught’s grandparents. Three years later, Timothy died, but the business set up in his honor continued to grow. In 1996, For Bare Feet became an NBA licensee. In 1999, the company became the official NBA on-court sock provider, a deal that continued through the 2014-15 season. “We’ve been told nobody in the world makes socks like we do,” Baugh said. “And it’s not any one thing that makes them special. It’s every single aspect that makes them special. It’s the technology, the development, the raw materials, how we produce them and the attention to detail.” The socks company Stance took over in 2015 as the on-court sock provider, but For Bare Feet remained an NBA licensee. That deal, however, will conclude at the end of this year, officially terminating the unlikely industry-altering partnership. But the company’s product remains in demand — even beyond the basketball universe. The socks infiltrated the Nationals clubhouse seven or eight years ago. Jerry Walter, one of the Wizards’ equipment managers, was helping in the Nationals clubhouse, and Adam Dunn, the hulking slugger, was in search of some short, thick socks. He tried the “logoman” socks and stuck with them.

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But business is business. The NBA moved on, transitioning from a small-town, family-owned operation to a global behemoth. Now time is running out for loyalists, baseball players included, to stock up on the cushy, classic socks.

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