Column: The Trump socks are big sellers, but it’s unclear whether supporters or opponents are buying them

Everyone thinks they can pull off the accent sock.

Conservative businessmen in airports, wearing off-the-rack navy blazers, flash loud striped socks as if to compensate for something.

Women consciously top their ankle boots with sock flair, making sure it matches their accessories – or tattoo.

There is inherent attitude with socks, which is why Laguna Beach’s latest retail store is just about socks: naughty socks, political socks, funny socks.

These socks are not just accents, they’re statements.

“We’re not shying away from trends,” said Taryn Hoppe, partner of Sock Harbor. “Like the Trump socks are one of our best sellers, and we don’t know if it’s pro-Trump or anti-Trump people who are buying them.”

Sock Harbor, 244 S. Coast Hwy., has only been open for about two weeks, but is already drawing crowds. It’s a good location facing Main Beach, but more importantly, people seemingly have a sock fetish.

“Everyone loves socks. You can’t hate socks,” Hoppe said. “Novelty socks are coming into their own and here to stay. It creates an experience for people. People come in and they’ve never seen so many socks in one place.”

Indeed, people stop in their tracks as they pass the store.

“Socks!” one teen girl yelled, running into the store.

Hoppe says they have 3,000 styles and more than 45 brands, including their own label: Bigfoot Sock Co. The average pair runs about $10 but there are children’s socks for $5.99 and licensed socks (with team logos, for example) that are more expensive.

Expect to spend a fair amount of time in the store because the variety is almost overwhelming.

“We want to delight people and have all the socks in one place that they’ve never seen before,” Hoppe said. “We almost want to challenge them to name something and see if we have it.”

You might think the store is similar to one of those T-shirt shops with the funny sayings, but it’s more than that. Sure, there is a touristy vibe to it, but there’s also something more intimate.

In other words, T-shirts are gimmicks but socks are part of the wardrobe.

There is practically every category you can imagine: animals, adult, patriotic, sports, political, nostalgic, artistic, regional, holidays and more.

Hoppe said she’s still customizing socks for Laguna and plans on capitalizing on the local pride yet also satisfying tourists. She wants to balance resident needs with the 6 million tourists who clamor for Laguna swag.

“We need to make like a surf-sock window,” she said. “We want to tap into that and serve the locals and not just become a tourist sock shop.”

It is an important balance and something city officials mandated before approving the store. Hoppe said officials “loved the sock idea” but denied the selling of sandals. The company has a total of nine stores, most operating as Find Your Feet, from San Francisco to San Diego. For more information visit findyourfeetonline.com.

For Hoppe, who runs the operation with her brother, Will, the sock business is great because people have fun with the product. She purposely targets locations like Laguna for its tourist volumes and quality of life.

“Who doesn’t want to visit Laguna?” she said. “It’s just a beautiful coastal town with a really unique mix of locals and visitors. So we like that concept. It reminds us of Sausalito, where we have some businesses. It’s just a great town.”

Quirky socks and Laguna do seem like a match.

I could easily see the store having sock slogan contests for locals. Maybe partner with the radio station. Things like:

“Welcome to Laguna. Now leave.”

“Put a sock in it, Rohrabacher.”

“MTV Laguna Beach, sock capital of the world.”

Yes, that’s right, sock jingles are like Twitter quips or dad jokes. There’s an inexhaustible market because we compartmentalize everything.

Like a nation of subreddits, our socks match any occasion.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at hansen.dave@gmail.com.