Trio to put Notts-manufactured SockMine socks to the test in a “six marathons in six days” charity challenge

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 18 January 2017

UPDATED: 18 January 2017

An amateur runner from Nottinghamshire will be relying on the socks he manufactures for a living to protect his feet from blisters as he attempts a gruelling ‘six marathons in six days’ challenge for charity.

Ben Lowe, account manager at specialist sports sock manufacturer SockMine, is attempting the challenge in April to raise money for the Light Fund. The organisation is a fundraising body that raises cash for charities including the Children's Trust, Challenge Africa, the Orchid Cancer Appeal, and the New Life special care babies’ charity.

Friends Jason Easy and Katie Ball, who both work for the BBC, will also be putting SockMine socks – and themselves – to the test by joining Ben on the challenge.

For the first five days, the trio will each run the equivalent of five marathon distances – around 130 miles – along the Grand Union Canal, which links Birmingham to London.

The challenge will culminate on Sunday 23 April, when they will all participate in the 2017 Virgin London Marathon. By the end of the challenge, each runner will have covered more than 157 miles, 470 miles as a team.

Ben, from Mansfield, is currently training for the event in socks developed and made by SockMine, the Sutton-in-Ashfield-based manufacturer where he works.

SockMine is part of Roy Lowe and Sons, a textile manufacturer that was established in 1996 by Ben’s father, Martin, and his brother Tim, who learnt everything about the industry from their father, Roy, having previously worked together at local sock firm Samuel Eden & Son.

Although Roy Lowe & Sons stopped manufacturing in 2006 and outsourced its production to the Far East, when Ben joined the company in 2012, he began working with his uncle on restarting UK production. This lead to the birth of SockMine in 2013.

SockMine’s dedication to development within British manufacturing was recently acknowledged when it won the national Meet the Manufacturer Innovation Accelerator award in 2016 for its Griplock™ concept.

The GripLock™ range adheres to the foot, reducing the friction against skin, and therefore helping to reduce the chance of blisters.

Ben told us: “The idea of us doing the six in six started where most great ideas do, in a bar, over a pint. Jason and I were both talking about how we had started running again, and decided to set ourselves a goal as motivation.

“However, we didn’t think that running just one marathon was challenging enough, so set our sights higher by attempting six in six days, with the hope of raising at least £6,000 for the Light Fund, an organisation which funds many charities that are close to our hearts.

“I’m currently in training for April and although my legs ache, my feet are in decent shape. We pride ourselves on the way that SockMine socks care for your feet, enabling athletes of all abilities to compete harder and for longer, and I’m pleased to say that so far, my feet are blister-free.”

For more information about the challenge, or to make a donation, visit the team’s fundraising page, www.justgiving.com/6marathons6days.

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