HHV x Rototo

The Story & The Process

Nothing beats putting on a fresh pair of socks, especially when you know the work that has gone in to create them!

When thinking how HHV could work with Rototo we came up when many thoughts on ideas on how it could look from sports & music inspired to single tone colours. What we ended up with couldn’t have been closer to home…

With each pair of Rototo socks being made in Nara, Japan and an upcoming production trip to Tokyo coming up it only felt right to reach out to Rototo and connect a learn the process in person. After a swift 2 and a half hour journey from Tokyo to Osaka on the bullet train we were greeted by Rototo who drove us to Nara. During the hour long journey we exchanged thoughts on the nuances of all things Berlin &Japan as well as gaining our first learnings about Rototo… if you are anything like me, you think that socks are hand knitted by your grandmother and gifted for Christmas. Believe me there is so much more to it than that!

We were initially taken to the Rototo Double Face sock factory in Kashihara where we were introduced to Ishigami Nobukza (The Man Who Made a Million Socks). Here we witnessed how each roll of thread was hand placed and threaded into each of the 50 machines before being turned on and spat out (these machines would literally shoot the finished knit out of a tube). After talking with Ishigami we quickly realised that he was the last individual alive who had the skills and knowledge to run and repair all the machinery let alone make the Double Face Sock.

Once the knit had been spat out, they were collected and brought upstairs to be knitted together to represent a sock as we know it. Hand-fed into another machine and slowly rotated through the sock was sewn together leaving nothing but the ‘Rototo Bobble’ left over.

At this point each sock is individually placed on a metal leg to be washed and steamed… this results in the feeling you get the first time you wear fresh socks!

We then headed on a short trip north to Koryo to visit the Rototo Crew Sock factory, here we were greeted by a more modern factory. Similar to Ishigami’s factory all machines were set up symmetrical to another with each machine being hand-fed yarn.

This was where we saw our collection placed together for the first time!

Being based in Friedrichshain there is 2 bloodlines of travel… if you have had to visit us in store you have realistically got off of the train at Warschauerstrasse or driven your car along Karl-Marx-Allee. Both of these iconic Berlin locations are represented in the HHV x Rototo socks.

Grey/Green/Grey shows the aerial view of the streets of Friedrichshain with busy asphalt roads such as Warschauerstrasse & Karl-Marx-Allee separated by stripes of trees, grass and walkways.

Blue/Purple/Orange shows the colours of the public transport system flowing through Friedrichshain and even connecting the HHV Store to our HHV Warehouses making this truly the bloodline of HHV.

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