Our Team

Thomas Lee is a partner at Sockwell. He has nearly twenty years of experience in the hosiery industry, in addition to careers in banking, private equity, metal fabrication, and the foundry industry.

Thomas’s first stint in the hosiery industry was with Crescent Hosiery Mills, a specialty manufacturer of socks. It was while at Crescent that Thomas met Jim Markley who at the time was heading up sales for Smartwool.

Subsequent to his time at Crescent, Thomas served as General Manager of Wheland Foundry’s Grey Iron Division in Chattanooga, the largest independent automotive foundry in the country at the time. Upon leaving Wheland, Thomas spent several years working in the Private Equity investing business before purchasing a metal fabrication business. In 2003, Thomas purchased MCA Fabrication, a producer of retail store fixturing, displays, and a variety of other metal fabricated products. He ran the business for four years before selling it in 2007. It was at this point that Thomas and Jim Markley pooled their talents and experience to start Goodhew, LLC the maker of Sockwell socks. Thomas is involved in the daily operations of the business and oversees all aspects of operations, finance, and product sourcing. Thomas is a graduate of the University of Virginia McIntyre School of Commerce with a degree in Finance and a graduate of the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Kenan Flagler Business School where he earned his MBA.

Mercedes Marchand is the VP of Design at Sockwell. She began her design career in the 1980’s in New York City, designing for many brands with a notable sixteen years as VP of Design at Ralph Lauren Hosiery.

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, Mercedes traveled the world extensively for manufacturing and design research, and, worked with global creative teams to create accessories collections for United Colors of Benetton and Giorgio Armani for the US.

In 2001, after years of competing in triathlons and practicing Ashtanga Yoga in New York City, Mercedes relocated to Colorado to connect with her love of the outdoors and launched her career at Smartwool where she created the lifestyle sock collection and brought color and modern design to all categories. Mercedes influences played a notable role in growing the brand from a $25 to $100 million-dollar business during her tenure.

After eight years at Smartwool, drawn by her passion for health and wellness, Mercedes relocated to New Mexico to start working on a concept for therapeutic, high-performance socks elevated by design and color. In 2010, Mercedes’ lifelong passion for wellness was a catalyst to join forces with Jim Markley and Thomas Lee to launch a solution-based collection of socks.

Mercedes is grateful to be able to apply her life’s accumulated knowledge and expertise to make products that can help people feel a little better every day…in style, of course.