August '18

In August, the Supreme Sock Council focused their attention on the sickle. This commonplace farming tool is prominently featured on the flag of the Soviet Union, once the biggest country on Earth. At the same time, the Czech word for August, “srpen”, is derived from the root “srp”, meaning sickle. Both of these references, however, point to the uneasy destiny of the farming folk. Today, August is most often linked to summertime leisure, but at the beginning of the twentieth century, it represented agricultural labor. Summer’s grand finale was mostly symbolized by raising a sickle and bending one’s back. Communist ideologues quickly noticed the large number of farmers and attempted to gain their sympathy by placing the sickle onto their flag. It did not take long for the comrades to notice that the number of farmers was in fact too large. This realization stood at the birth of the infamous agricultural collectivization. We felt truly touched by the strenuous life of a farmer. In order to al least symbolically alleviate their plight, we created a lighter summer sock version in August, boasting a lower density of cotton wool, which incidentally is also an agricultural product. Through this design, we have also achieved improved air circulation around your tootsies, which represents a similarly elevated moral ideal.