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Jon Wild, brand director at OSC running, talks about Hilly socks, its innovations and future

Hilly socks were founded by running legend Dr Ron Hill MBE and creator of running brand Ronhill

Jon Wild, brand director at OSC running, explains the history of Hilly socks, it’s connection with Ronhill and what the future holds for the brand.

When it comes to running gear, comfort and performance are key, and one company that has revolutionized the world of running socks is Hilly Socks. Known for their innovative designs and emphasis on reducing blistering, Hilly Socks have become a staple for runners around the world. However, their connection to the legendary figure of Dr Ron Hill MBE elevates their story into a tale of dedication, endurance and innovation in the sport of running.

After selling his original running brand Ronhill, which he founded in 1970, Ron launched Hilly socks in 1992.

Jon said: “Hilly was his next project. He picked up from where he’d left off at Ronhill. Ron was the founding father of performance textile. With his experience in innovating running clothing, Hilly gave him the opportunity to get his teeth stuck into socks in the same way. He did that for ten years and it wasn’t easy.
“It was difficult to gain momentum but they managed to get some really good traction, building a great team with well-respected agents.”

Ron, a highly successful British marathon runner, known for his breakthrough achievements in running, he ran the marathon in 2:09:28 at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, in Edinburgh, making him the second person to break the 2:10 barrier. He was also the first Briton to win the Boston Marathon in 1970, with a time of 2:10:30. This time broke the course record by over three minutes.

His influence in the sport extended far beyond his race results. He sought to improve the comfort and efficiency of gear for other runners.

In the early days of his running career, Hill encountered a common problem that all long-distance runners face—blisters. Traditional running socks, often made from cotton, were prone to chafing and did little to prevent moisture build-up. Hill turned his attention to creating a better sock.

Hilly Socks was established with a singular mission: to develop socks that offered both comfort and performance for runners. The focus was on creating socks that reduced friction, prevented blisters and provided proper moisture-wicking capabilities.

After spotting the opportunity within the market he applied the science of his PhD in Textile Chemistry to a range of technical running socks using soft anti-wicking yarns. As the brand grew, so did the technology with the development of the Twin-Skin sock, a double layer sock that prevents friction from occurring on your feet and in turn, blisters from appearing.

All Hilly socks have wicking properties; this transfers the moisture to the outer layer leaving the foot dry and therefore reducing the risk of friction and blisters. In addition, all of the socks have other features, including: a seamless toe construction and an arch grip support.

Other key styles in the range are the Marathon Fresh, a lightweight performance style perfect for half and full Marathons and the Supreme, a soft and comfortable style, with anti-microbial qualities, anatomical design and under foot seamless toe construction, combined with lots of cushioning.

Jon said: “Our signature style, the Twin Skin, has been slightly tweaked and modified over the years but its purpose remains the same now as it did then – to be the best twin-layer running sock. We are launching the latest and greatest version for Spring ‘25.

“Franchises like Marathon Fresh, a lightweight, durable sock, which at the time were made of merino, are now constructed using a silver ion treatment to give an antibacterial quality.

“The Supreme’s concept was to be the best running sock, the anklet and socklet are constructed with a premium dry release wool to give the runner comfort, with an anatomical design and a super-soft feel under foot and in the shoe.

“They developed the lines of mono skin and twin skin ranges and built the range out.

“Over the last five years or so, we’ve tried to restructure the range. I think, like any brand, you grow organically in product terms and then you put yourself in the end consumer’s position. ‘What’s all this stuff?’, ‘How does it all make sense?’

“What we’ve tried to do is put everything in a matrix and say how can we explain it better today to the consumer? Without twin skin, what does mono skin mean?

“If you’ve never seen a double layer sock, which a lot of people haven’t, all socks are mono, all socks are single. So, it’s things like that we’ve tried to get our head around and lay the range out. We’ve done it through cushioning levels because, from research, we’re told by the end consumer that’s what they wanted to buy socks based upon.

“We built the range looking from the thinnest, lightest weight, zero cushioning, all the way through to the thickest and then build the ranges out from there on different models and different colours. That’s how Hilly sets up now.

“What’s really nice for spring/summer ’25 is we’ve repackaged. Slowly new packaging will filter through. We’re not getting rid of any old packaging. We’re putting it in eco packaging and the worst thing you can do is then throw away your current packaging – not eco-friendly!

“Lots of people would do that – greenwashing – because it’s smoke and mirrors. But we’re not, we’re putting it in this eco new wrap, which is retailer friendly. Dead easy for a customer to have a look at the sock, close it up again and it’s sat on the wall perfectly.

“The new nice eco wrap will be filtering through for Spring ‘25 along with new twin skins and some nice colour updates for our best sellers, such as Marathon Fresh.”

Hilly Park run

Hilly socks have also made strides by entering into an important collaboration. Jon added: “We’ve partnered with parkrun. They approached us 12 plus months ago and said they’d love to have socks created for their park runners and we were the logical brand to do it, being British. We worked with their team on it and they’ve been available on their website now for six months or so – they’re selling really nicely. And now we’re going to hopefully roll that out to wholesale custom over the next 12 months. They’re colours of our best-selling models but in parkrun special editions. It’s a great collaboration.”

And Hilly are not sitting on their laurels as Jon explained: “We’ve got a lot of plans for 2025. Hilly sits within the Ronhill website, so it doesn’t stand alone but that’s a good place for it. We will update the webpages and turn up the dial on the relationship between the two. There’s a lot of people who have Hilly socks and don’t know it’s Ronhill. It does say Powered by Ronhill on the packaging but we are going to leverage it more and really explain the relationship between the two because there is value in it. People search for ‘Hilly’ and end up on the Ronhill site and don’t know why they are there.”

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