Compression Clothing Company | Brand Design

The Idea

I began the Compression Clothing Company out of this desire to scratch my own itch.
I long believed sore muscles as something that just came with the territory of training, until I tried my first pair of compression socks.

The muscle recovery and swelling preventative effects of wearing compression socks was most evident after a long run or a hard workout. After I discovered the usefulness of compression socks, I started thinking about the style aspect of the product. Having experience creating custom designs for a variety of print-on-demand apparel and jewelry products, I set to figuring out how I could create a compression sock with a design of my own.

Initial Production

What I quickly learned was that sublimation printing on socks comes with many limitations. It would not yield a product with the designs I envisioned while providing compression functionality necessary to properly facilitate muscle recovery. I turned towards jacquard knitting to create the sock designs I had imagined.

Producing customized compression socks was not something that I could accomplish in a personal-sized batch—the hosiery mills I spoke with were unwilling to tool their machines for a small order. I accepted that if I really wanted to bring my idea to life, it would have to be on a larger scale.

Voice

As the sole proprietor of this brand, I injected as much of my own personality and values into creating the voice. As someone who has personally struggled with falling off the fitness wagon more than a few times, I wanted the brand to speak to others in similar shoes.

I named this project the Compression Clothing Company becauseI wanted it to be simple and direct. Other brands in the space tend to use an acronym or arbitrary combination of characters to create a brand name,  but my focus is on getting out there and running. The alliteration was a nice bonus.

Ultimately, the brand is intended to capture the adventurous aspect of running—discovering new sights and exploring new locations on foot, and the products are tools to help you do that.

Environmentally Friendly

In my opinion, a lot of the best running in the world is on trails, and because of this it was important to make this brand as environmentally conscious as possible. The packaging on our socks uses unbleached cardboard a minimal design to reduce the amount of ink used. We ship our socks in shipping packets made from compostable, biodegradable polymailers that are made from 88% recycled materials. As a bonus, each mailer is reusable for a second use so that recipients may ship a return or simply reuse for another shipment, which means less waste!

The Importance of Instagram

Instagram has been key to building this brand because of the visual language which the target audience already communicates. One need only search the #flatrunner hashtag to see that runners are already more than happy to share their outfits proudly.

By featuring other local runners and events in intricate collages that span multiple posts which can only be fully appreciated by viewing the @Compression.co account,  I've been able to earn followers and brand recognition amongst the local running community in San Francisco.

To reinforce the appeal of this brand for San Francisco-based runners, I try to feature popular landmarks  as well as unknown/seldom seen views that I discover during my running adventures.

At first, I was hesitant to participate in the Stories feature, but have quickly found creating regular stories on the account a great way to keep my followers engaged without having to curate new posts on a daily basis. This has had the added benefit of lending more authenticity to the brand, and even allows me to test new product concepts before developing them using the polls sticker feature to get immediate feedback.