Stand4 Socks sought out by UK Prime Minister over homelessness work

Turner is the founder of Stand4 Socks, a B Corp certified sock brand that donates a pair of antibacterial socks to someone experiencing homelessness for every pair it sells. The company was founded in 2015 and built in Manchester, and expanded into the United States in 2022.

The meeting, requested by Number 10, focused on homelessness and the role social enterprise can play in tackling it. Ending rough sleeping was the first commitment Burnham made on entering Downing Street.

Turner presented the Prime Minister with a pair of custom socks bearing his own face, using the artwork of acclaimed Manchester illustrator Stanley Chow. The piece demonstrates the company’s custom co-branded offer, now used by brands and organisations across the UK and US, where every custom order also triggers a donation.

Burnham’s response on being handed them was: “I don’t know what to make of that.” He went on to praise the model of social entrepreneurship, saying: “You get on and you give back.”

Burnham told Turner he was “genuinely so proud” of what Stand4 Socks had built, describing it as a journey he had followed since his time as Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Socks are consistently the most requested item in homeless shelters and among the least donated. Unlike coats, food or money, they are a wear-through item that few people think to give. For someone sleeping rough, who may walk considerably further than the average person each day without access to a clean, dry pair, this contributes to serious foot health problems including infection and, in severe cases, amputation.

Stand4 Socks has now donated more than 875,000 pairs, across the UK, Europe, Ukraine and the United States.

Josh Turner said: “I first met Andy Burnham when he was Mayor of Greater Manchester and we were a small sock company still working out what we were doing. Sitting on a park bench with him in New York, on a day he was addressing the United Nations and meeting President Trump and President Zelensky, is a fairly surreal distance from a crazy idea about changing the world with socks.”

“What stayed with me was how seriously he is taking this. Socks are such a small thing, but dignity is made of small things.”