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CNN Live At Daybreak

Man Creates a Sock Delivery Service

Aired August 29, 2001 - 08:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: And now for the guy who has everything, how about a subscription for black socks? Now that may sound weird to you now, but maybe it won't after Jeanne Moos makes the most of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Compared to shoes,...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting a hole in the bottom of my shoe.

MOOS: ... socks are merely a footnote. Their job is thankless. Warn correctly, no one notices. Worn incorrectly, they make you look like a klutz. And while a glimpse of skin anywhere else on the anatomy might be considered sexy, woe is he who flashes his flesh on account of sagging socks.

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): ... the dreaded sock group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, OK.

MOOS: You probably never noticed these things. You probably don't even think about socks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, never.

MOOS (voice-over): Men don't, but women do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tacky. We call it tacky.

MOOS: To the rescue: BlackSocks, the service that sends you quality black socks at regular intervals.

MAX RUEFENACHT, PRESIDENT, BLACKSOCKS USA: That we call a sock- scription, and that's what we are, we are another sock-monger.

MOOS: Max Ruefenacht runs his sock-scription service out of his home in Morristown, New Jersey.

(on camera): So, these are black socks, black socks, black socks, black socks.

(voice-over): BlackSocks USA needed a motto, and Max's friend Tom Slatsker (ph) found it in a quote from the book "The Right Stuff."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The world is run by men who wear long black socks.

MOOS: You better believe it, though apparently David Letterman doesn't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You notice his yellow socks?

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST: Connie, please, pay attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: The idea of subscribing to socks came from?

RUEFENACHT: Two guys in Switzerland.

MOOS: It spread to 22 countries throughout Europe and now to the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two shipments per year, OK.

MOOS: Choose from three, four or six times a year to receive your shipment of three pairs of black cotton socks imported from Italy, three pairs cost $36 bucks.

Having identical black socks does solve the dryer dilemma.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Find all the couple, and put together, that makes me crazy.

MOOS: Speaking of crazy, check out this poem someone sent the folks at BlackSocks.

RUEFENACHT: Black socks, they never get dirty.

MOOS (on camera): The longer you wear them.

RUEFENACHT: The stronger they get.

MOOS (voice-over): How good can poetry be when it's inspired by socks? Anyone who flaunts their socks, say Yankee pitcher El Duke would appreciate the length of these, they come in four sizes. And a variation on that line from "Laugh-In?"

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LAUGH-IN")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sock it to me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: BlackSocks USA urged folks to sock dad on Father's Day.

You think if anyone wore black socks... (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "'MEN IN BLACK' AD")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Men in Black."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: These guys would. But wait, there's a man in black caught white-footed. Some guys just drag their feet when it comes to socks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just happy if they match.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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