Happy Yak Values
HAPPINESS, ONE STEP AT A TIME
At Happy Yak we seek to create a culture of caring beyond simply making sales. Through our business we seek to help herders maintain their traditional nomadic lifestyles. We also believe that we owe it to our global community to give back to conservation and community improvement both locally and abroad. With that hope we set three simple rules for ourselves to build our company around.
RESPECT FOR THE PLANET
Yaks and alpaca live in some of nature’s harshest, most remote and most untamed regions. This raw, wild beauty is fragile and threatened. We strive to maintain, support, educate and encourage an environmentally sustainable business that lives in balance with the world around it.
RESPECT FOR ANIMALS
Yak cashmere is only available at select times during the year, and baby alpaca only comes from an alpaca's first shearing. Because of this, Happy Yak products are unique season to season. Unlike the merino industry, yak cashmere is not grown on industrialized, corporate farms that pump out product year round.
RESPECT FOR PEOPLE
We believe in community improvement both locally and abroad. Happy Yak helps to bring a source of economic stability to communities by buying straight from local herders. This means better quality, better product, and better lives.
Happy Yak History
UNEXPECTED BEGINNINGS
Happy Yak's original journey into the world of socks began in 2016, with a couple of outdoor enthusiasts in Bend, Oregon, and a very extraordinary woman from a herder family in Mongolia. We saw a problem that needed fixing and set our minds to fix it. Whether we were stuck indoors in an office or trekking the trails, a common theme stuck out... cold feet in subpar socks. So we made a goal to create the most luxurious, ridiculously comfortable socks available. Lots of dedication and plenty of failure along the way helped us provide the most awesome socks you’ve ever had. In the process, we found our calling to shake up an antiquated industry and improve people's lives along the way.
FED UP BY SAMENESS
Our journey started with the search for the softest, most comfortable socks on the market. We found socks in all kinds of crazy color and patterns, but nothing with the quality we demanded. To get the comfort we sought, we had to look past the colorful patterns and into the fabric itself
THE HUNT FOR SOMETHING NEW
We knew there had to be something better out there, but where would we find a material that met our expectations? The answer ended up being on the other side of the earth and about 18,000 feet higher than we expected. Our search led us to discover yak wool from the most remote, untamed regions of Mongolia, and baby alpaca wool from the Andes mountains in Peru.
A REVOLUTION WAS STARTED
Both yak wool and baby alpaca wool fibers rival the softness of the finest cashmere. The incredible warmth, breathability, moisture-wicking, and anti-microbial properties were created by nature to protect the yak and alpaca from some of the world's harshest environments. Coincidentally, these are also great features to have in a sock.
MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER SOCK COMPANY
We are striving to do more than just "sell stuff". We build socks we love and wear every day. Our hope is that our socks have a place in all your best weekend adventures and favorite memories no matter what they are - big or small, near or far. We love what we do and hope you will too.