Austin, TX-based Sock Club (asi/88072) broke a world record the best way it knew how – through socks.

In July, employees of the custom sock manufacturer wheeled dozens of cardboard boxes full of socks into a 68-by-203-foot parking lot and sketched the words “sock love” in chalk. They then arranged more than 9,000 socks by hand in neat rows to spell the words in big blocky letters across the lot.

“We’ve chosen the words ‘sock love’ because we all have a love for socks; who doesn’t?” Sock Club Event Manager Delisa Harper said during a video recap of the event.

The display broke the world record for largest words spelled out of socks, which was previously held by students at Mid-America Christian University with a 5,030-sock word in 2022, according to the latest listing on Guinness World Records.

The socks making up Sock Club’s display will now be donated through the company’s giveback program to nonprofits supporting people experiencing homelessness.

“This was more than a record,” Harper said. “It was a way to celebrate creativity, community and giving back – all the things that make Sock Club special.”

The display used 9,236 U.S.-made custom socks from Sock Club (asi/88072).

Sock Club, which celebrated its 13th anniversary last month, also hosted a contest inviting people to guess how many socks it would take to beat the record. The company awarded the 13 closest guesses a free year of Sock Club socks.

The company, founded in 2012, offers U.S.-made custom socks and has touted customers like Google, American Airlines and Whataburger. It has pledged to donate 100,000 pairs of socks to unhoused people as part of the giveback program, which provides matching donations for every one pair of sock that’s ordered.