boldSOCKS

Bio: Ryan Preisner is the co-founder and CEO of boldSOCKS. In his current role, Ryan oversees all of the backend business processes and operations needed to run and grow the company. After graduating college, Ryan found a job in a corporate environment working for a large food service distributor as a Marketing Analyst. He found his interests and skills leading him towards opportunities to build efficiencies in business through systems and data. This prompted Ryan to go back to college to continue studies in Computer Information Systems. Ryan was promoted to become the Product Data Supervisor and was able to use his skills to help the organization solve complex data challenges. This included building systems used to create new product data for over 35,000 items by large teams requiring coordinated approvals and hand-offs. Although Ryan found success in his role, he lacked contentment and began dreaming of entrepreneurial ideas. Using the skills obtained on the job and in school, Ryan began experimenting with starting his own venture on the side. This included buying and selling snowboards on eBay, buying pallets of returned electronics, building a snowboarding app, and eventually boldSOCKS.com. boldSOCKS was born out of Ryan’s desire to have fun with his work apparel and identifying an opportunity for a sock retailer to carry the best brands and patterns of socks. From the beginning, Ryan had a desire to use boldSOCKS for good and have a mission beyond simply selling socks. This originally started with what they called Bold Contributions, but has evolved into strategically supporting clean water initiatives with the Statement Sockwear brand, ensuring ethical production of their products, and developing a company culture that cares for all it impacts. Ryan was born, raised and still resides in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area with his wife Sarah. They have three children (Breckin, Greydin, and Emberlynn). In his free time, Ryan enjoys playing hockey, hiking, helping his wife in their garden, and spending weekly one-on-one time with their kids. Ryan Roff Ryan Roff is a social entrepreneur with a passion for using business to create measurable change and social justice. He is an owner of boldSOCKS in Grand Rapids, MI and the co-founder of Statement Sockwear (a sock brand with a social enterprise model). Ryan represents the creative and marketing side of boldSOCKS. He currently oversees the strategic and creative development of the brands under the boldENDEAVORS umbrella (boldSOCKS.com, boldSOCKS, boldSOCKS Retail and Statement Sockwear) and casts the long-term vision for the company. Before boldSOCKS, Ryan worked as a the packaging coordinator at a major foodservice distributor where he was able to blend strategic brand decisions, art direction, and project management while coordinating the creative development of over 1,000 pieces of packaging artwork and the redesign of four private brands. He then moved to a mid-sized agency where he managed the strategic development and implementation of integrated marketing campaigns across various channels and tactics that included apps, web, print, trade shows, social media and videos. Ryan now lives on the Northside of Grand Rapids with his wife Brooke and one-year son. Together, they enjoy biking, hiking, camping, climbing, cookouts and being outside. While on the Northside, Ryan and his wife enjoy connecting neighbors through social gatherings and recently developed the Northside Happy Hour—a group of more than 30 people that get together from the neighborhood to enjoy a cocktail every month. Here are our social channels: https://www.instagram.com/boldsocksdotcom/ https://www.facebook.com/boldSOCKSdotcom/ https://www.pinterest.com/boldsocks/ https://twitter.com/boldsocksDOTcom