Partha Unnava, Founder and CEO and Lasso, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how the design behind these compression socks can prevent injuries and improve performance.

Cheddar Innovates

Why These Socks are Like Going from a Flip Phone to a Smart Phone 

Welcome back to cheddar innovates brought to you by curiosity stream. Our next guest is bringing innovation to something we use almost every single day sucks. What seems like such a simple part of our wardrobe can actually have a huge impact on our overall health. Joining us now is part the nova founder and Ceo of Lasso partner, glad to have you on this morning. What is the actual story behind socks? And let's spark this idea, last those socks at least? Hey Alicia, thanks so much for having me. So I started last year after I broke my ankle playing basketball and it was just coming back from this injury saying that the only options I had to take care of myself for taping and bracing and it showed me that not only did the health care industry, not really recognize what I needed as a regular, regular person going through my day, you know, that the support needs that I would have coming back from an injury, but I also saw that the sports performance world didn't really have the necessary understanding of science to make products that actually improve how our bodies work on a day to day basis. So using my background and biomedical engineering, I set out to do just that. So, you know, I don't think just anybody can start a stock company, especially one that has kind of, you know, some, some medical kind of, you know, even sports implications here in terms of performance you, as you just noted there a moment ago, you have a background in biomedical engineering, how can socks play such an important role in our overall physical health and well being because I don't think this is something that most of us intuitively think about. Yeah you're absolutely right. And you know I have to start with the statistics. So 50% of adults in the US every year have a muscular skeletal conditions and these conditions we don't have any way to treat on a day to day basis. We can either tape or brace as I mentioned before and both solutions are not really meant for day to day use. And so my view was well we wear these skin tight garments and socks every day and other products like that. Can we use those products to activate muscles, ligaments and tendons which is really the underlying cost for these injuries to prevent and also to improve our performance and recovery when we do have to you know, go through these different cases in life. And so the sox actually worked by stimulating your ligaments, tendons and muscles to teach your brain and your muscles how to operate properly. And the benefits from all of the data we've collected have been crazy. They improve your appropriate reception, your coordination, your balance and they're being used by facilities like Duke Medical Center to treat a variety of foot and ankle conditions. So you've answered a bit of my next question a little bit but I'm gonna ask it again in terms of like digging into the differences. Are there any other socks like this on the market? You know, what makes lasso socks so different and kind of what's the secret sauce? Uh you know, so to speak into why they work so well. Absolutely. So the fundamental science of something like taping is very spawn on and that when you press in certain areas of the body, you're able to activate your muscles, ligaments and tendons and that has a lot of impact on how your body feels and how it moves on a day to day basis. But tools like taping that we use to achieve this effect Actually wear off within 30 minutes. So by the time you take your ankle or any part of your body, by the time you're warm up is done, that's not even doing anything for your body. So, our view was using textiles and using specific patterns of knit specific fibers that we've been able to bring to the market and unique patterns of compression that we embed into a product. We're able to actually get a pair of socks to activate all these ligaments and tendons and muscles around your foot and your ankle. And when you think about what else exists on the market, this is like the innovation of going from a bike to a car. This is going from a flip phone to an iphone. This is a completely different thing that your, your garments and your clothing have actually never been able to do before, which is teach your body how to move properly, fascinating. The way you kind of illustrate that um here's something that I find actually pretty fascinating and you deserve a kudos for lasso socks. They were worn on the NFL of fields two weeks after you launched. That's a pretty amazing feat there. But we understand your customers go beyond just, you know, professional athletes or athletes in general. Who are you hoping to reach next? For sure. So as a brand, we're really focused on the amateur athlete. We think of that as the Weekend Warrior. We think of that as the high school athlete. Some of the reviews we get are amazing and it'll be kids who start wearing our socks because they had an ankle injury. And now this is the only brand of socks that they wear. And in fact, that's a, that's a general theme across our customer base. But when it, when it comes to the people who attacked actually can provide value for that gets very broad because we have customers who are delivery drivers, were customers, we have customers who are line cooks and who are on their feet all day. We have customers who are frontline medical workers from, during the pandemic who use the socks to stay on their feet. We have customers who are doctors who use them when they're operating and standing on their feet and doing surgery all day. So, anybody who is on their feet a lot, which is, you know, in reality, all of us can get a lot of value for making the switch to lasso socks alright. I might have to get prepared for my fiance, he's a doctor and on his feet all day for surgery. So you kind of outlined that won that case for me um before I have to let you go here, you know, obviously athletes aren't the only ones to your point there a moment ago, they spend a lot of time on their feet. What are the ways that, you know, lasso is trying to give back um to others out there for sure. So one of the, one of the main points was during the pandemic, when the frontline office or frontline medical workers were on their feet all day, you know, working overtime, we wanted to do something to make an impact and because our product helps these folks to stay on their feet to feel better at the end of a long day to recover at the end of a long day and be back, you know, in their top Top physical condition, we were able to donate a pair of socks for every order in the first few months of the pandemic reaching up to actually 200 hospitals around the country. Um so different initiatives like that where our product can help people who need to be on their feet for critical reasons to stay on their feet and stay alert and sharp and you know, be focused on what they actually need to be doing. We always try to find a way to support and give back and especially the medical community. These are the people who helped us as a brand get up and running, who help us make sure our products are quality and and that they actually work and so we do everything we can to support the medical industry. Well again, as someone who is a spouse in that community, I can tell you during the pandemic, 20 hour days with just normal kind of days and little contributions like that actually mean a lot before I have to let you go here. Probably have like 30 seconds. So we'll have to keep this tight. I'm just curious any other apparel kind of um, that you think it's gonna be made smarter, so to speak in the future to prevent injuries and improve overall health. Absolutely. I think what the world needs to do when they look at innovation and apparel is start with the basics and start with things that are skin tight because that's where you get the most mapping from a movement perspective in terms of really being able to get to the specific parts of your body. They're actively working. So I think compression shorts, leggings running short, Anything with the liner built in as well as sleeves, compression shirts, etcetera will be the next place. Certainly kind of weight out for, for those innovations to come. But for now, congratulations on what you guys are doing, partha you Nava founder and Ceo of lasso socks.