Back in 2021, Joëlle Comeau was set to run off and join the circus.
More specifically, the Squamish resident—an acrobat, slackliner and highliner—had gotten a contract to perform with a circus and was set to leave the Sea to Sky Corridor for a time.
“I was sad to leave my friends,” Comeau said. “I wanted to give them a gift before I left—the slackline and highline community—all my friends.”
She came up with a simple idea: she drew an image of a stick figure on a highline and put them on 100 pairs of socks.
“When I was thinking about a gift. I was thinking everyone has too many shirts and hoodies. Something everyone is needing is socks,” she said. “I gave 50 of them to friends before I left.”
But shortly after leaving, she got injured and had to return home. “I think I was having more fun in Squamish anyway,” she added with a laugh.
With 50 pairs of socks leftover from her goodbye giveaway, she decided to sell them. “Six months later they were all gone,” she said. “A second edition sold out in two weeks. [I realized] Oh, there’s something there.”
Since, then Comeau has branded the project The Rowdy Town and added several new pairs to her offerings.
They’re hemp, cotton, and merino wool and all feature stick figures doing Squamish sports from skydiving to biking, hiking and disc golf.
By the third run, Comeau managed to get the items into local stores, including at the Sea to Sky Gondola, Random & Co., Funky Monkey Boutique and Evolution Whistler—in addition to her website.
“The stores keep asking for more, so I know they do sell,” she said.
She’s since added bucket hats, a goggle cover and patch, but socks remain her focus.
“Something kind of fun about the socks is there’s always a secret message hidden under the cuff,” Comeau said. “In the ski sock the secret message is, ‘Nice calves.’ It’s always a fun message in the cuff. That’s one touch.”
More recently, she’s used her Rowdy Town website to launch a twice-a-year free magazine. It’s partly to build the brand and partly to share different stories.
“I wrote an article called 'The Power of Laughter,'” she said. “When I was looking for a subject I thought, ‘Laughing is the foundation of the Rowdy Town brand.’ I talk about why things are funny, what happens to our brains when we laugh, how can we cultivate happiness.”
It turns out it “was a lot of work,” she said. “[I plan to] do it twice a year—the same time I release new sock editions.”
In the meantime, the socks “are a great stocking stuffer,” she said.
“The goal is to make great socks. I don’t want to make socks that will get holes in them. I want to make good quality socks. Socks that people actually want to wear.”
To find out more visit therowdytown.com.
