Philly's eco-clothing king invents 'Ultimate American Sock'

BRIAN LINTON, 28, proudly calls himself the founder and chief trash collector of United By Blue, his eco-friendly cafe/clothing/cool-stuff business on 2nd Street near Quarry in Old City.

Linton promises that every time he sells one of his sustainable-material outdoorsy goods - a shirt, a backpack, an ax - in the store or online, he removes a pound of garbage from a body of water through company-organized cleanups.

Linton said that since he founded United By Blue in 2010, he's removed 203,510 pounds of trash during 116 cleanups of vulnerable sites, including Bartram's Garden, Penn Treaty Park, the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, and down the Shore.

Linton, who lives in Center City but travels the world, was so determined to do the right thing ecologically that instead of plastic, his thousands of clothing tags were made from elephant-dung paper.

Although odorless, sterilized elephant-dung paper is marketed in Asian countries as a money-maker that helps save endangered elephants and their equally endangered habitats, government regulations here and in other countries where Linton sells United By Blue products compelled him to switch to recycled paper instead.

Linton's latest passion, debuting here in March, is what he calls "the Ultimate American Sock," which combines merino wool with his unique ingredient, bison down, and sells for $38 per pair.

Everyone knows goose down, Robert Downey Jr. and Downton Abbey - but what is bison down?

Turns out, it's the caviar of cozy, lightweight warmth out West, where bison down scarves go for almost $300.

Rubbing against fenceposts and such, each bison only produces four to six ounces of down a year, which is collected by ranchers, Linton said.

"Because the Ultimate American Sock project was so different," he said, "and the price of the sock is so high, we felt the best way to go was to crowd-fund it on Kickstarter."

To his pleasant surprise, Linton presold 5,000 pairs of the socks (discounted for investors) and raised $140,000 in 30 days.

Come March, when the socks arrive here, Philly will be the bison-down capital of the civilized world.

Linton said he calls the socks "Ultimate American" because they are "completely made in America from the ground up," starting with the buffalo - "the most American animal there is."

Linton, who graduated from Temple University, recently opened his second store, on Walnut Street near 34th. Both stores fund the cleanups that are near and dear to Linton's young heart.

"What I believe and what my team believes is that water is essential to life, no matter if you know it or not, no matter if you care about it or not," he said.

"So we have to do everything we can to help curb pollution in our waterways," Linton said. "Fish, bison, birds, us - we are all united by blue."