Huntington Special Needs Entrepreneur Celebrates 1,000th Customer

John’s Crazy Socks, an online store co-founded and inspired by John Cronin, a young man from Huntington with Down Syndrome, has shipped their 1,000th order in only two months of business. The online store opened on December 9, 2016. The customer response to the new business has been strong. John’s videos discussing the business have been seen by over half a million people.

John’s Crazy Socks is a father-son venture inspired by John. A student at Huntington High School, he has long loved his colorful and fun socks, or what he calls his “crazy socks.” And John loves to make people smile. Those passions have become the mission of John’s Crazy Socks: spreading happiness through socks.

The company has found rapid success based on their formula of offering great socks, fast and personal service and giving back to the community. Mark X. Cronin, John’s father and co-founder of John’s Crazy Socks, said, “When we started, we offered 31 different socks. Two months later, we feature over 600 different socks at our website and we add more every day.”

The most popular socks are the Down Syndrome Awareness Socks and the Autism Awareness Socks. These are part of a series of dedicated charity socks and the company donates money from the sale of each pair of socks to a related charity:

• Down Syndrome Awareness Socks: $2 from every pair to the National Down Syndrome Society and ACDS, a Long Island-based provider of services to the Down syndrome and disabled community.
• Autism Awareness Socks: $1 donation from every pair to the Autism Society of America Nassau/Suffolk Chapter.
• Blue Whale Socks: $1 donation from every pair to the Whaling Museum of Cold Spring Harbor
• Breast Cancer Awareness Socks: 10% from every pair to the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation.

In addition, John’s Crazy Socks donates 5 percent of their earnings to the Special Olympics. “We selected the Special Olympics as our charity partner because they’ve played such a huge role in John’s development,” said Mark. The company publishes a monthly Giving Back Report to let customers know about the donations made each month.

John’s inspiration to make customers happy is seen in the fast and personal service the company provides to its customers. Each order includes a hand written thank you note from John and candy sweets as a way to show appreciation to the customer. The company ships the same day orders are received. Customers are thrilled by the personal touch and often post pictures of their socks and packages on social media.

Though John’s Crazy Socks ships throughout the United States and into Canada, their favorite deliveries are made in Huntington. John makes door-to-door deliveries to Huntington customers. “I love meeting customers,” John said. As word has spread about John’s visits, many families have greeted him at the door and taken pictures with John which they post on Facebook.

John is finishing his final year in the Huntington School System. He studies life skills at Huntington High School and retailing at Wilson Tech. Like most people, John was concerned about what he would do after finishing school. He suggested that he and his father open a store and selling socks was a natural for John. He said, “Everybody knows, I love my socks.”

John’s Crazy Socks attributes their success to John’s desire to make others happy. John says “I want to make people happy with socks. I want to have the biggest sock store ever so I can make more and more people happy.”

You can learn more about John and John’s Crazy Socks at our website and our Facebook page. You can see videos with John at our YouTube channel. You can also reach us via email at service@johnscrazysocks.com.