Age is just a number for 16-year-old Freddie Mills as he has challenged the Australian sock industry with his new business, OzSox.
The birth of his new business blossomed in July after he was tired of seeing the same old boring socks everywhere.
In hopes of spreading the true-blue spirit, Freddie designs funky Aussie-inspired socks for the community to honour their country in style.
“I moved over from England when I was 11, and since I’ve been here, it’s been really nice and I like the Aussie spirit,” he said.
“I saw a lot of people wearing boring socks, so I decided to start OzSox – I think it’s quite iconic because in England, there’s not quite as many Aussie things and it’s not as patriotic.”
His first design was the ‘Straya’ socks with a classic green and gold colour selection and an Australian flag pattern.
Since October, Freddie has now expanded to three new designs to cater for Australia’s iconic outback animals: the koala, kangaroo and cockatoo.
Each design is created on his iPad, and it takes roughly three months to process the final products for sale.
Freddie has always been a businessman at heart as he’s always wanted to start his own business.
His dream became reality when he used to sell products down at the beach from as young as 8 years old.
“I used to sell water, sunscreen and lemonade down at the beach – doing all sorts of entrepreneur things,” Freddie said.
“It was selling down at the beach or at the end of my street. I used to resell shoes, I had a framing business and a few other things.”
Now as the founder of OzSox, Freddie hopes to be able to build up his business, and eventually branch out to local retail stores.
“I would like to get more than 10 designs and probably sell over 1000 socks – just to meet some goals,” he said.
“We also donate to Starlight, so I’d like to donate maybe $1000 as the ultimate goal.”
He is proud to call OzSox his own and appreciates all the support he has gotten from his family and people online.
