We are on a mission to make people happy and to show what people with differing abilities can do. Wahooo Market is how we're expanding that mission.
Start with the name: say “Wahooo Market,” and it makes you smile. Just saying it gives you energy and lifts your spirits.
Wahooo Market grows directly out of ten years of building John's Crazy Socks. When we started that business, it was just the two of us, John and Mark, selling socks to make people happy. Over time, we expanded that mission to include hiring people with differing abilities and showing what they can do.
Now we're expanding again, moving beyond socks to include more products you will love, products for yourself and to give as gifts. These include apparel, jewelry, home items, food (candy, cookies, and coffee), and fabulous gift products. Wahooo Market offers products you'll love, products that make you happy. Wahooo Market is where that bigger vision lives. It's still the two of us, father and son, leading the business. We want to reach more people and have a bigger impact.
Showing What People with Differing Abilities Can Do
As we grew John's Crazy Socks, we began hiring people with differing abilities. Today more than half of our colleagues have a differing ability. With Wahooo Market, we want to create more jobs and reach more people, continuing to hire people with differing abilities as we grow.
At Wahooo Market, we sell gift items made by people with differing abilities, or by organizations that employ them. We carry books, some written by us, that are written by, for, and about people with differing abilities.
By opening a retail store, we've created a platform for bringing people together. We employ more people in more roles. We offer tours because it's important for people with differing abilities to see people like themselves working, it gives them hope and encouragement.
And there is so much more we can do with our store. We hold birthday parties. We hold information sessions on how to find a job or start a business. We hold parties and special events. It has already become a gathering place and an important part of the Huntington Village community.
A Disability-Owned Business
We are a disability-owned business. Our corporate entity is Abilities Rising Commerce LLC. John is 51 percent owner and serves as our CEO and President as well as our Chief Happiness Officer, a title he's always held and one people love. (More places need a Chief Happiness Officer.) Abilities Rising Commerce LLC operates the Wahooo Market online store, the Wahooo Market retail store, and the John's Crazy Socks online store. We're also building something new: Can Do! Socks and apparel, a line we'll be formally introducing soon.
A Marketplace to Bring People Together
We call it a market to echo the ancient Greek agora, where communities gathered. We want to bring people together to share happiness. People walk into our store and they smile; they tell us that just being here makes them happy.
They order online, and when they get their packages, the sight of the package alone makes them smile. Then they open it and find their socks and gifts, a thank-you note from John, some candy, and the name and picture of the person who packed their order. We deliver happiness.
In the United States, we too often emphasize our differences and fail to see what we have in common. At Wahooo Market, we welcome everyone and bring people together.
Our Commitment to Giving Back Continues
From the first day we opened John's Crazy Socks, we pledged five percent of our earnings to Special Olympics New York. John has donated over $150,000 to Special Olympics.
We continue that same commitment at Wahooo Market and throughout Abilities Rising Commerce. John is a Special Olympics athlete, competing in five sports (soccer, basketball, track and field, bocce, and snowshoe) and we love the Special Olympics.
At John's Crazy Socks, we created a series of Awareness Socks that celebrated causes and raised money for them, including our Down syndrome and autism-related products. We'll continue that same tradition at Wahooo Market.
We expect to do more than ever with our charity partners, including the National Down Syndrome Society, the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism, and United Cerebral Palsy, and that includes raising more money for them.
What About John's Crazy Socks?
John's Crazy Socks isn't going anywhere: it's the foundation Wahooo Market is built on. You can still shop johnscrazysocks.com and get the socks you love there, and you'll find J's and other John's Crazy Socks products in the Wahooo Market too, online and in our retail store.
John's Crazy Socks is where we began, and it remains part of our story. Wahooo Market is how we're growing that story: more brands, more gifts, more jobs and opportunity, more happiness and joy.