John’s Crazy Socks is a social enterprise with a mission to spread happiness, but we are also an e-commerce business. We do much of our business for the year in the last two months, which means we need to add seasonal workers each year. This year, we added fifteen seasonal employees, twelve of whom have differing abilities.
Many of our new colleagues have never held a job before like Matthew of West Babylon who said, “I am so excited. This is my first job.”
Sophia, a new employee from Melville, said, “I love working here. This job makes me feel so good. I work very hard and everyone here sees it.”
John Cronin, co-founder and a young man who happens to have Down syndrome said, “Our customers make this possible. When they buy socks from John’s Crazy Socks, they make it possible for us to hire people with differing abilities.”
John added, “We have a mission to spread happiness and part of that mission is to give people with differing abilities, people like me, jobs. We want to show the world what people can do when given a chance.”
Mark X. Cronin, John’s father and co-founder, said there is an important lesson in hiring people with differing abilities. “Hiring people with differing abilities is just good business. Many businesses struggle to find seasonal help and many seasonal jobs go empty. We fill all our open positions with excellent workers simply because we hire people with differing abilities.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, only one in five people with a disability are employed. Yet people with differing abilities are ready, willing and able to work. This means we have a vast pool of talent that is overlooked and shunned by many employers.
“People with a disability have a right to work,” said Mark X. Cronin. “If an employer arbitrarily excludes people with a disability from their labor pool, that employer can no longer say they are hiring the best possible people.”
John Cronin said, “John’s Crazy Socks succeeds because we have such great colleagues.” In addition to the seasonal employees, John’s Crazy Socks has created 34 jobs and 22 are held by people with differing abilities.
John and Mark are frequent speakers on inclusion and the benefits of hiring people with differing abilities. They recently spoke with businesses such as Microsoft, Kohl’s, Moody’s and Lumens on this topic and returned from a speaking tour that took them from Annapolis to Nashville to San Antonio. They have recorded two TEDx talks on this subject, including one entitled “Hiring People with Differing Abilities is Not Altruism, It is Good Business.”
About John’s Crazy Socks
John’s Crazy Socks was inspired by John Lee Cronin, a young man with Down syndrome, and his love of colorful and fun socks—what he calls his “crazy socks.” He and his father, Mark X. Cronin, started the company as a social enterprise with a mission of Spreading Happiness™. With more than 4,000 socks, John’s Crazy Socks is now the world’s largest sock store. More than half their employees have a differing ability, and their Giving Back program has raised over $550,000 for charity partners like the Special Olympics, the National Down Syndrome Society, and the Autism Society of America. Most of all, they are Spreading Happiness™.
For more information about John’s Crazy Socks, visit our webpage, Facebook page, Instagram account or YouTube channel. You can also contact us at 631-760-5625 or via email at service@johnscrazysocks.com.
