Qualified Perceptions

Today's random email, filed with the customer service page for Bombas socks.   Gender-based fashion marketing is probably the worst of places to try a crusade, but I really was disappointed. :) 

 

Having bought socks from you in the past, I get the marketing emails.  Today I got mail advertising bright new colors for spring!  Yay!    But when I clicked through to the site, it turned out that the new options are greys and beiges for spring, because the bright colors are only for "women", by which the site means "people with small or medium feet".   Alas.  It must be lovely to be a person with medium sized feet, because then one can buy socks in *both* bright colors (small and medium) and in taupes and greys (medium and large)

If you were a normal company, I wouldn't even bother to write in, but your program of giving socks to homeless shelters makes me think that you are socially conscious.   Is there a reason to stick to these categories?   Can men wear bright colors?  Can women with large feet wear bright colors?  What about non-binary people?  Does it matter which category of these I fall into if I want to spend money buying your socks?  Why not segment based on the characteristics of the socks, rather than the characteristics of the person doing the buying?   

Thanks for listening.