In early February, OS1st, a leader in performance socks and foot wellness innovation, announced that industry veteran Brent Hollowell has joined the company in the newly created role of Senior Vice President of Marketing. Hollowell, who has more than 25 years of experience leading marketing and brand functions across the global footwear and retail industries, will help shape OS1st’s brand strategy, elevate engagement, and lead the company’s marketing efforts as it looks to expand across current and emerging performance and lifestyle markets.

Hollowell’s previous roles include Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager at Volumental, Chief Marketing Officer at Fleet Feet, Director of Marketing and Retail at Adidas America, and Vice President of Global Marketing at Foot Locker. He also founded Brandemic, a strategic brand consultancy.

We caught up with Hollowell to find out what drew him to OS1st and to discuss where the brand is headed.

‍runstyle: Congrats on your new position. Can you share what you were doing prior to joining OS1st, what drew you to the company, and what excites you most?

Brent Hollowell: “Thank you. For me, it always starts with the people and the product. I’ve known Josh Higgins [president of OS1st] and Chris Bevin [SVP business development at OS1st] for years, and there are very few people in this industry who understand the full chain, from fiber and knitting tension all the way through product development, sourcing, operations and retail, the way they do. They are builders, and they’ve built something special. OS1st is already the fastest-growing sock brand in run specialty and the leading brand in compression bracing. That doesn’t happen by accident. And as I’ve gotten to know the rest of the team at OS1st, it’s obvious that great people and collaborative culture are what make the place tick.

What also excited me is that I’m stepping into a role where the marketing team has already laid a strong foundation. The positioning is thoughtful, the product launches have been sharp and there’s real traction. I don’t need to come in and tear anything down. I get to build on something solid.

Prior to this, I spent five years at Volumental working at the intersection of data, fit and footwear, partnering with brands and retailers globally on how fit science can drive better outcomes. Before that, I held leadership roles on both the retail and brand sides of run specialty. I’ve had a front row seat to how product, retail, storytelling and data come together. OS1st sits right at that intersection, and that’s what makes this so exciting for me.”

OS1st is a market leader with momentum and is looking to enter adjacent performance categories. What should we expect in the year ahead?

“First, we’re going to make the name impossible to ignore. OS1st has a funny name, and half the industry still debates how to pronounce it. It’s ‘Oh ess first’ by the way. That’s actually an opportunity. We’re going to lean into that and make it memorable and ownable.

Second, and more importantly, there’s a positioning opportunity in front of us. In some minds, OS1st has been pigeonholed as medical or recovery. That has almost worked against us in certain parts of the sock category. When you really think about it, that makes no sense. This is a brand that engineers arguably the hardest products to get right, compression bracing, plantar fasciitis treatment solutions, bunion relief. Extremely technical, extremely precise products. If you can engineer that level of support correctly, building high-performance socks should be table stakes.

And yet, in the minds of some of our most sophisticated retail partners, that engineering credibility has not fully translated, or is even ignored. That disconnect is a huge opportunity. Without giving away the full strategy, we are going to reframe how people think about OS1st. Not recovery-first. Not medical-adjacent. Engineered performance across everything we make. The expertise has always been there. Now we’re going to connect the dots more clearly.”

Any specific initiatives or themes to highlight heading into spring?

“Spring means footwear traffic. When footwear traffic rises, sock opportunities should rise with it. The big message for us is simple: the sock is not an accessory. It is the primary and essential interface between foot and shoe.

That thin layer of fabric determines friction, moisture management, pressure distribution and ultimately how the shoe performs on the foot. Somewhere along the way, in parts of retail, socks started getting treated like an add-on, a color decision after the real fitting work was done. And even if they do have a try-on program, many stores are pulling essentially the same sock for everyone, maybe adjusting for thickness only. If you believe fit AND performance matter, and run specialty absolutely does, then finding the best sock solution for every customer has to be part of that conversation.

You would not skip foot inspection, gait analysis or width selection. You would probably not skip insoles. Why would you skip dialing in the very interface between foot and shoe? Everything OS1st does is engineered for a specific purpose. There is no fluff in the OS1st lineup, yet we have something for everyone. So, heading into spring, as shoe sales increase, we’ll be reinforcing the role of the sock in the fitting process and reminding the industry that this category is essential, not optional.”

Do you have a personal favorite OS1st product?

“I run mostly on trails and spend a fair amount of time on gravel bikes, so durability and moisture management are critical for me. Wicked Comfort and Wicked Comfort Merino are my go-to socks. They’ve been rigorously third-party tested and shown to be twice as durable as other major brands on the sock wall, and they wick moisture anywhere from three to eight times faster. That’s not marketing hype. That is lab data.

Over a long trail run, that performance difference matters. Then you layer in what we do for wide feet, bunions and plantar fasciitis. We’re solving real biomechanical challenges that many sock brands simply do not address. Running stores exist to curate the best solutions for athletes. When the product and the data back it up, that story deserves to be told more assertively.”

OS1st is known for its commitment to independent retail. How does that set the brand apart?

“It matters more than ever. We are one of the only major sock brands on the run specialty sock wall that does not sell into sporting goods chains or big box retailers, and we have no plans to change that. That gives independent retailers something rare, insulation.

We are not down the street discounted in a mass channel. We are not diluting the brand across hundreds of doors that do not provide the same service model. We win when independent retail wins. That alignment builds trust.

Our case studies show that when retailers actively integrate socks into the fitting process, rather than treating them as add-ons, attachment rates and margins improve meaningfully. And the beauty is that you don’t even need to talk your staff into ‘selling’ it. They simply need to show it and the best sock for their situation usually sells itself. This is one of the highest gross-margin categories in the store when it’s managed intentionally. It’s a category that can fund staffing, community events, deeper inventory and all the things that make independent retail strong.”

This issue of runstyle focuses on women’s run products. What are your thoughts on how retailers and brands can better serve women runners?

“Having spent the last five years immersed in fit data, I can say this confidently: women’s feet are structurally different from men’s on average. Different shape ratios, different width distribution, different volume patterns. Footwear brands are just beginning to adjust more meaningfully for that. At the retail floor level, I’m not convinced we are fully capitalizing on what we already know.

Many run stores now have 3D scanners that tell them exactly how wide or narrow a woman’s foot is. If the scan shows a width or volume issue, why are we not proactively pulling a Wide Wellness sock or a Thin Air sock to optimize that fit? We also know that roughly 25 percent of women in North America and Asia experience hallux valgus, commonly known as bunions. When that is visible, why would we not immediately address friction and pressure at the sock level, pulling a bunion sock or something engineered to allow toe splay and relieve pressure?

Women account for roughly 60 percent of traffic in most run specialty stores, and they tend to buy more socks per transaction. There’s a significant opportunity here to personalize solutions instead of defaulting to a standard ‘performance sock.’ Serving women better is not just the right move from a product standpoint. It’s smart business.”

Anything else we should know?

“I love this industry. Run specialty remains one of the last places in retail where expertise, community and service truly matter. Being part of a brand that is fully committed to independent retail, and that refuses to shortcut that commitment, means something to me.

OS1st is not trying to be everywhere. We are trying to be excellent where it counts. When you align engineered product, purposeful positioning and retail service around that idea, the opportunity in front of us is significant.”