If you’re looking for the perfect Father’s Day gift, Pair of Thieves has you covered. Literally. The label, which was launched in Los Angeles by Cash Warren and two of his buddies David Ehrenberg and Alan Stuart as a way for men to jazz up their sock wardrobe, is now available in Canada. The collection features a totally adult-appropriate range of colourful printed socks, which are definitely far more interesting that your average men’s dress sock. They even have “Dad + Kid” packs to encourage matching. We caught up with Warren to ask “why socks?” and to find out what it’s like being part of one of Hollywood’s major power couples (you may know his wife, Jessica Alba).
 
Where did your fascination with socks originate?
“My mother lives in France and she’s lived there since I was six, so I grew up splitting my time between America and Europe. In Europe men are always wearing colourful socks – I remember noticing this when I was young. It’s their way of making a boring outfit pop. I was always either bringing socks back when I was with my mom in France or just looking for interesting designer dress socks here. What we did at the time was wear a pair of dry fit running socks or some sort of athletic socks underneath the dress socks to give us that little bit of a cushion and support that we needed because the dress socks were so thin. That’s why with Pair of Thieves we’ve taken a performance sock and we’ve merged that with a designer dress sock so it really is the most comfortable dress sock you can wear to the gym or to the office.”
 
What goes into the wear testing for Pair of Thieves socks?
“A lot of squats (jokes). You wear them, wear them out, wear them to the gym, take them on a run, try to put as much wear and tear in a short amount of time as possible. Then you see how they’re holding up, how the stretch is. The other thing that we’re really trying to combat is an epidemic out there called ‘drunk socks.’ That’s when socks loose their elasticity too quickly and they just get all baggy. A lot of dress socks traditionally get baggy on men really quickly and slide down. We call that ‘drunk socks.’ We’re adamant that none of our socks get drunk.”
 
How did you come up with the name and logo?
“My partner Alan Stuart and I came up with a bunch of different company names and ‘Pair of Theives’ just seemed to stick because you know, one of your socks always goes missing. Who steals the sock? We were getting really playful with this Robin Hood, thief kind of vibe. And we’re all from Los Angeles originally so we took the California bear and put a little magic on him to make him a little bit more playful.”
 
So does this mean Pair of Thieves socks won’t get lost in the wash?
“They have these special GPS locators on the fabric so no matter where they are you’ll be able to find them.”
 
What kind of boss are you?
“You know, my partners hate it because I like flat management style. I like to empower everybody and treat everybody the same, I’m a real team player. I always try to hire and partner up with people who I think are much smarter than myself so I hire them and I know they’re smarter than me so I get out of their way as best as I can so I try to clear out the obstacles so they can walk the path as best as they can.”
 
When it comes to dressing the kids, are you the style boss or is Jessica?
“No (laughs)! I’m not. I think both my daughters already have better fashion instincts than I do and they help me get dressed. And when Jess is here, you know, she likes to help the kids get dressed. I find that when I get them dressed, they’re always wearing tights or leggings and a T-shirt and tennis shoes – it’s the only thing I know how to do; I don’t know how to match.”
 
How would you describe your own style?
“I don’t have a uniform but there also isn’t a lot of variety in my daily wear. I wear jeans and a button down, or a black tux if I’m going to a fancy event. So socks have always been something you can use to show off a little bit of your personality and I try to do that whether it’s really fancy event we’re going to or just keeping it casual.”
 
Can you really wear colourful socks with a tux?
“Absolutely. I have worn them many times. I think you want to make sure they match, so there needs to some black in the sock unless you’re wearing a powder blue suit and in that case you can go crazy.”
 
You’ve come out with these adorable duo packs, which include an adult pair of socks matched with a pint-sized pair for kids. What’s the idea behind that?
“That came out of another necessity. There is never anything cool for dads to do with their kids from a clothing standpoint, especially if you have daughters. So we intentionally kept it ‘Dad and Kids’ because we wanted you to be able to either match with your daughter or son.”
 
What’s the best advice your dad has given you?
“My father is my everything. He is one of those people who leads by example. He walks the walk, so he doesn’t necessarily need to tell you what you’re doing wrong, he really shows you. So I think one of the biggest lessons he ever taught me was actions speak louder than words and to ‘go out and do it,’ not to wait for someone to go out and do it for you. Don’t just talk about it, go do it. That’s something that has really resonated with me as I have gotten older.”