We're always toeing the line between silly and serious, and making pair of football-themed socks that can carry their own at the office just as well as tailgates wasn't easy!

I wanted to keep the design classy - and a ribbed style seemed perfect to simulate the playing field.  Making the ribs white against a green background created the effect - almost. We needed numbers for the yard lines - but I nearly overlooked that the numbers needed to be upside-down and reversed on the lower side.  Those types of details are easily overlooked, but really make a design work.  

Next came the field itself.  Pure green looked cheesy, anything else looked off-putting.  I decided on a birds-eye pattern mixing an apple green and dark navy.  The contrast looked like 'grass', and the effect was awesome! 

There was still something missing - we needed something to actually make the "football" nature of the sock come home. Usually we do embroidery on the ankle - it's kind of our signature.  This time however it didn't seem right.  I opted to go with a "play book" pattern of X's and O's.  To keep things legit (fans are particular), I decided on a "fun" play - the "Hail Mary".  Creating this stitch-by-stitch took time to get right, but it was important to be accurate.

Still something missing...we needed a bit more whimsy. Football fans weren't going to let me take that too far, so something subtle was needed.  I opted for a pig-snouted football - the ol' "Pig Skin" - as a fun design still manly enough to respect.  I kept things small, and placed it hidden on the cuff - a nice mascot overseeing the game below.

To top things off (and avoid any lingering ambiguity about the design), I added a small football detail near the toe.  Now things were perfect.

"Pig Skin" - the perfect pair of socks to purchase for any football fan!