The Clarksdale Farm Kid Behind Your Favorite Ole Miss Socks
1.5 million pairs sold. Featured in GQ, Forbes, and Men's Health. Built from a garage in Dallas by a guy who used to wrestle his brothers in cotton trailers on the way to the gin.
That guy is Jason Simmons—Ole Miss Class of 2006, Clarksdale native, and the founder of DeadSoxy.
If you've worn Ole Miss DeadSoxy socks on game day, you've already met his work. But there's a good chance you don't know the story behind them—or just how deep this man's Mississippi roots run.
Clarksdale, Mississippi: Where It Started
Jason Simmons grew up in Coahoma County, Mississippi—Clarksdale, to be exact. The birthplace of the blues. The heart of the Delta. And, as Jason puts it:
"Clarksdale is about as far from 'style and fashion' as you can get."
His family didn't just live in the Delta. They worked it. His family has farmed that land for generations, and they still farm it today. Jason's father drove a tractor. Jason and his brothers spent their childhood doing what Delta farm kids do: working, sweating, and finding ways to make the long days fun.
One of his favorite memories? Wrestling his brothers in the back of a trailer overflowing with cotton while their dad's tractor towed them to the gin.
"The closest I came to design and apparel was wrestling with my brothers in a trailer of cotton."
On the farm, nobody talked about fashion. They talked about function. Clothes had one job: survive. Jason remembers being handed jeans two sizes too big because he'd have to grow into them—buying new ones every season wasn't an option. Boots couldn't just look good; they had to last a full year of hard labor without giving you blisters. If something wasn't built to work, it wasn't worth buying.
His grandfather drilled one lesson into him that stuck: "Do what needs to be done and do it right the first time." Part "don't procrastinate," part "measure twice, cut once." That philosophy would define everything Jason built later—even if he didn't know it yet.
"If there is one thing that small town farm life teaches you, it's hard work."
Finding His Way at Ole Miss
After graduating from Lee Academy in Clarksdale in 2000, Jason headed to Oxford. Like a lot of freshmen, he didn't have it all figured out. He enrolled studying psychology—he'd always been curious about what made people tick. Eventually, he switched to business with an emphasis in advertising, drawn to the idea of building brands and telling stories.
He graduated in May 2006 with a BBA in Marketing and Management from the Ole Miss School of Business. But here's the honest part most founder stories leave out: he still didn't know what he wanted to do with his life.
"I don't think I knew what I wanted to do growing up and for most of my life really. At the risk of sounding corny, I consider myself blessed to be doing what I was called to do. It just took me 30+ years to figure it out."
After Ole Miss, Jason moved to Dallas and spent years grinding through corporate jobs. Good jobs. Stable jobs. Jobs that paid the bills but didn't scratch the itch that farm kid work ethic had left in him.
Then one small frustration changed everything.
The Problem Nobody Was Solving
It started with socks. Specifically, socks that wouldn't stay up.
Jason tried every brand. Expensive ones. Cheap ones. The ones marketing claimed would change your life. Every single pair slid down his calf by noon. They shrunk in the wash. They wore through at the heel. For something so basic—something every person wears every day—nobody seemed to care about actually making them work.
Most people would just deal with it. Jason couldn't. That grandfather voice kicked in: If something's broken, fix it.
So he decided to make his own.
53 Failures
Here's where the farm kid stubbornness comes in.
Jason had no fashion background. No industry connections. No idea how socks were actually made. So he spent two and a half years learning from scratch—calling manufacturers, studying materials, understanding what makes a sock fall apart versus last for years.
He made prototypes. A lot of them.
Prototype #1 failed. So did #2 through #10. He kept going. #20 wasn't right. Neither was #30. Or #40. Most founders would have quit. Most brands test a handful of samples and call it "good enough."
Jason made 52 prototypes that failed before finally getting it right.
When prototype #53 arrived, he knew immediately. This was it. The sock that stayed up. The sock that didn't shrink. The sock built the way his grandfather would have demanded—done right the first time.
"I'll never forget the feeling and the thought that immediately followed. I realized at that moment my life was about to change forever. I resigned the following week."
No backup plan. No safety net. Just a box of socks and the belief that he'd finally built something worth betting on.
From Garage to GQ
DeadSoxy officially launched in January 2015. The "headquarters" was Jason's garage. The shipping department was Jason. The marketing team was Jason. The customer service line was Jason's cell phone.
He packed every order himself. Drove them to the post office. Answered every email. Handled every complaint. The same hands that once wrestled in cotton trailers were now folding socks into mailers at midnight.
But the product was undeniable. Word spread. Then the press came calling.
Featured In:
GQ · Forbes · Men's Health · Inc. Magazine · Reader's Digest
The accolades stacked up: #1 Hottest Startup in DFW (2019). Rising Star in Men's Fashion from Fashion Group International (2018). Designer of the Year nominee from COSIGN Magazine.
1.5 Million Pairs Sold
From a garage in Dallas. Built by a farm kid from Clarksdale.
Coming Back to Ole Miss
A lot of founders forget where they came from once they make it. Jason did the opposite.
DeadSoxy is now an official licensed partner of the University of Mississippi. But Jason didn't want to just slap a logo on some socks and call it a day. He wanted to actually invest back into the program—specifically through NIL.
DeadSoxy works directly with The Grove Collective, Ole Miss's NIL collective, on a model that puts real money back into Rebel athletics:
→ Every pair of Ole Miss DeadSoxy socks generates a royalty paid to The Grove Collective.
→ proceeds from NIL sock subscriptions go back to Ole Miss NIL programs.
→ Use code GroveCollective at checkout for 10% off—and DeadSoxy donates 25% to The Grove Collective.
This isn't passive sponsorship. Jason shows up. You might see him at the pop-up shop at The Graduate on game weekends. Or in the Grove Collective members-only tent in The Grove before kickoff. He's collaborated with players like Quinshon Judkins on limited-edition designs. He goes to games not as a vendor, but as a fan who happens to have built something worth wearing.
"NIL is the reason this level of team happened." — Jason on the Locked On Ole Miss podcast
In 2024, DeadSoxy became the title sponsor of the Rebel Road Trip—the official Ole Miss alumni caravan featuring Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss leaders visiting fans across Nashville, Birmingham, Dallas, Hattiesburg, Memphis, Biloxi, Jackson, and Corinth.
Still Investing in Future Rebels
Jason hasn't forgotten what it felt like to be a student at Ole Miss without a clear path. That's why he now serves as a virtual mentor for the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Ole Miss School of Business—giving student entrepreneurs the guidance he had to figure out on his own.
During Ole Miss Giving Day 2023, he put up limited-edition Business School socks for anyone who donated $100 or more to the School of Business. Classic Jason: find a way to give back and make it about socks.
The kid who showed up to Oxford in 2000 not knowing what he wanted to do is now mentoring the next wave of Rebels trying to build something of their own. Full circle—but he's not done yet.
Why This Matters If You're a Rebel
You can buy Ole Miss gear anywhere. Amazon has it. Walmart has it. Every gas station between Memphis and Jackson has a rack of it.
But there's a difference between licensed merchandise made by some corporation that doesn't know Oxford from Oxnard—and gear built by someone who grew up in the Delta, graduated from Ole Miss, built a company from nothing, and now funnels money directly back into Rebel athletics.
When you buy Ole Miss DeadSoxy socks, you're buying from one of us. You're supporting a business that was built on the same values they teach at Ole Miss and preach in the Delta: work hard, do it right, and take care of your own.
And yeah—the socks actually stay up through a four-hour tailgate. That matters too.
Hotty Toddy.
