Local student starts business with water resistant socks

DETROIT – Running late for class proved to pay off for one Wayne State University Law Student. Jaspreet Singh, 23, created the company 5 Water Socks to bring people water resistant athletic socks that are breathable, comfortable and soft.

"I got into the sock business by accident," Singh said. "It all started when I was putting off a class project and it happened to rain that day, I was running late, when I got to class, my feet were soaked after running through puddles."

Of course, that's the day Singh's professor told him it was his day to present his project.

"So I thought of the first thing that came to mind, my wet, soggy feet," Singh said.

After his off the cuff presentation, Singh thought, there's something here.

"I decided to run with it and two years later here I am with ‘5 Water Socks'," he said.

It was thanks to the crowd-funding website Kickstarter, which helped bring this student's idea to life.

"Essentially, that was the way we were able to raise money to get the socks in production," Singh said. "Our goal was $10,000 and we hit that goal in two days."

In fact, 5 Water Socks earned over $20,000 on Kickstarter.

But let's be clear: Jaspreet's socks are water *resistant,* not water proof.

"My socks look, feel and breath like regular socks, but repel low pressures of water," he said. "There are water proof socks on the market but those are more heavy duty and not for everyone or everyday use."

Local 4 put them to the test and whatever liquid we poured on it, water, Gatorade, even maple syrup, nothing soaked in; the liquid beaded on the sock.

34621144

5 Water Socks are American Made and manufactured in North Carolina. Singh hopes to bring production to Detroit and its athletes.

So what's in the name?

"5 Water Socks is inspired by my two homes."

Both Detroit (The Great Lakes) and Punjab, which means the land of five waters. 

Interested in starting your own Kickstarter campaign? Singh wants to help. He's launched a class with the premise of teaching others what he learned so that young entrepreneurs can create their dream business

"I really want the people in Michigan and Detroit to take advantage of what I learned," Singh said.

Click on this link to see the class. It's scheduled to go live this week. Use the passcode "wdivDetroitPunjab"