Trading in a successful career in adult education and training to become 'Mrs. Lamington, the sock lady' is probably not everyone's idea of a natural career progression. But for Lamington's™ Sarah Teensma, 'Mrs. Lamington' is a moniker she wears with pride, and she has never looked back.
The busy mum of two is now even busier as the owner and operator of Lamington™ - a popular range of knee-high merino socks for babies, kids and now adults, that are snuggly warm, stay on and stay up.
Lamington™ was launched in 2005 as a kids' t-shirt brand. But fed up with baby socks that were too short and wouldn't stay up or stay on, Sarah embarked on a mission to find the perfect sock for her daughters. The fruitless search resulted in Sarah taking matters into her own hands, and in 2009 she added a sock line to supplement her t-shirts during the winter months. Demand for the socks very quickly revealed Sarah wasn't alone in her search, so she ceased production of the t-shirts to focus on her Lamington™ socks.
Today, just a few years on and Lamington is a very busy venture, Sarah and her small team are responsible for virtually every aspect of the successful business, from designing the socks to responding to customer enquiries and overseeing production and distribution to her 130+ New Zealand and international stockists.
Sarah loves being able to provide a solution to an ongoing problem - cold feet and legs - that is both fun and functional. She loves coming up with new designs for her customers and seeing and hearing their reaction and response.
Sarah is a mum of two girls, and lives with her husband and children in Auckland.