Paire sat in the gap between fast fashion and premium. Fast-fashion brands sell "5 dollar socks or even two dollar socks" and hiking or dress brands sell Merino wool blends "at $50 or even $70," so Paire found a sweet spot of "20 to 24 dollars at the very beginning," backed by customer education.
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Nathan says "for consumer brands pricing is psychology — it sets the tone of your image." Because Paire used Australian Merino wool and organic cotton, both "very expensive materials," they couldn't compete with fast fashion's two-to-five-dollar socks, but their Merino wool gave them "an edge to compete with a lot of hiking brands" that sell Merino blends at $50 or $70. With a range "between $2 to $70," Paire "just had to find a sweet spot," landing at 20 to 24 dollars at the very beginning — cheap to hiking-sock buyers, expensive to fast-fashion buyers. That gap requires education: "wool socks is very different to polyester socks, and organic cotton is also very different to conventional cotton."