Small to Scale: How Sydney Sock Project Scaled a Cause

When Andres Herrero founded Sydney Sock Project in 2018, it started with a simple insight: socks are the most requested item in homeless shelters. Seven years later, that founder-led idea has grown into an established purpose-led retail brand in Australia, and a useful example of what "scaling a cause" can look like.

It's worth being clear about the model up front: Sydney Sock Project is a for-profit business with a charitable commitment built in, not a charity. A portion of every sale is set aside for its charity partners as a standard cost of doing business, alongside manufacturing, shipping, and advertising. Because the donation is priced into each product, every sale can be profitable and fund giving at the same time. That is what makes the impact sustainable: the more they sell, the more they can give.

The growth story

A look at the revenue shows how quickly the business has been growing. It climbed from about $490k in 2022 to $1.5M in 2023, $3M in 2024, and $6M in 2025. The brand has now passed $10 million in lifetime sales and donated around $900,000 to Australian charities, with its next milestone of $1 million donated approaching.

Behind the figures is real-world impact: animals protected, research projects funded, books put in children's hands, and communities supported. As the team puts it, "Every milestone the business reaches becomes a milestone for our charity partners as well."

Meta as a driver of growth

More than 75% of Sydney Sock Project's revenue is attributed to Meta, which the team describes as their biggest single driver of growth and impact. Starting in May 2023 at around $500 USD/day, they scaled to a daily average of roughly $4,000 USD, peaking at $14,000 during key periods, leaning into Advantage+ Sales Campaigns and Advantage+ Creative.

For the founder, Meta is more than a sales channel: "It's how we tell stories. Every campaign gives us an opportunity to educate people about Australian wildlife, medical research and community organisations while building a sustainable business that funds those causes."

What they learned along the way

The early strategy centred on showcasing the product. Over time, the team found that people connect with stories more than products. Today the approach is built on authentic founder content, Australian humour, storytelling, charity impact, and steady creative testing. This means launching new creatives every week and letting data guide decisions rather than assumptions. Advanced campaign strategies, adopted with their Meta account manager from early 2025, helped them scale more quickly.

Their main lesson they can share with other advertisers? Creatives matter most. "The best targeting in the world can't save average creatives. The brands that consistently win are the ones producing the most creative and testing the fastest." They've also found that authenticity tends to beat polish. Behind-the-scenes moments, and genuine customer stories usually outperform highly produced content.

What's next

Having built a solid domestic presence, Sydney Sock Project is now expanding its range beyond socks and investing in retail, wholesale, and licensing partnerships, with an eye on key international markets and Meta as its primary growth channel. The goal is to build a recognised purpose-led consumer brand in Australia, while showing that doing good and building a strong business can go together.