Sep 27, 2008

Is That Really Necessary?

I went to Zurich this week and thanks to a massive brainfart, I forgot to bring socks. Fortunately, a Puma store was less than 20 feet from the entrance to my hotel. I ran into the store, bought a pack of 3 pair of socks, and found this tag fastened to the socks:




What I want to know is: have they really had a problem with people not washing their socks when dirty? Is that something that shows up in a high volume of support calls ("My socks seem to be kind of gross... what should I do?"), or is this a general public service announcement?

I'm not sure, but I'm going to go wash my socks right now, just to be safe.

5 comments:

David Anderson said...

You know, seeing what I see these days while staying at youth hostels around Canada, I think the warning may be to protect the people around the wearer of the socks... I sure wish some folks I shared dorms with had had that notice on their socks.

Unknown said...

Swiss people tend to like their stuff very clean, so the message might be that you don't need to wash your socks before they're dirty...

Unknown said...

Bertrand: Why I'd never thought about it from that angle!

Dimitry Kherson said...

Per Bertrand: a possible support call in Switzerland would go something like:
- It's disturbing but I've never been able to get my socks dirty. Could you suggest a possible reason?
- When was the last time you washed them?
- Today
- Were they dirty?
- Not that I noticed
- Ah! We've include some special instructions for this exact scenario. Do you by chance still have the labels from your socks?
- I do actually.
- Please, read the instructions carefully and call us back if you still cannot get your socks dirty.
- Thanks! Oh, the thoughtfulness you package your socks with! I never expected anything less from Puma. You guys are great!
- Is there anything else I can be of assistance with?
- Ah, yes! I have this Puma training suit...

Betina said...

That's why I buy black or grey socks only :-) but I do wash them regularly though.

I like the effort you put into things you wonder about.

@ dima: You can propably make lots of money working on scenarios like that :-D