In 2016, Nina Menteshashvili and Rezi Beselashvili started their company Altersocks. Bored of the standard black, white and grey on their toes, the pair set about designing more colorful daily alternatives- with prints of Khinkali, Khachapuri, Pirosmani’s ‘Fisherman,’ superheroes and more, all with the aim of making the wearers’ lives brighter.

“At the beginning, it was hard to find a shopping mall that would rent us a place to sell our socks from,” they say. But now they are in demand, the latest addition being City Mall Gldani, which contacted Altersocks on Facebook asking them to open a branch in their mall.

Neither Menteshashvili or Beselashvili expected that their business would grow as fast or be as successful as it has. Therefore, in the beginning, only Nina quit her day job to make the socks. And in the first five months after setting up, they reinvested all the money they earned in making new designs and opening new branches. As soon as they realized that the business was doing well, Beselashvili also quit his job to devote 100% of his time to Altersocks, which is now so successful, it supports them both and then some!

The two are not only business-partners. They are also husband and wife.

“Sometimes, it’s not easy being married to your business-partner,” they admit. “We often have arguments because we’re not on the same page. But that’s probably why our products are so successful- we always work out a solution”.

The cotton for Altersocks is imported from Turkey, but the production of the socks takes place in Georgia. The main customer group is Georgians, but even for the growing number of tourists the socks are attractive as a cheap and practical souvenir.

One point of their strategy was to rent spaces on the ground floors of the shopping malls. Even if such is difficult to find and even if they are more expensive locations to rent, the pair only opened branches on the ground floors. “People didn’t know our brand. Therefore, they needed to see us,” Menteshashvili explains.

Tempted? Check out their stands in:

• Tbilisi Mall 
• Pixel shopping mall, Vake
• City Mall shopping center (Goodwill, Saburtalo)
• East Point shopping mall
• City Mall Gldani
• Karvasla Kutaisi
• Batumi brand shop

By Manuela Kosch