Today we’d like to introduce you to Gokce Sihman Hanli.
Hi Gokce, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Our story doesn’t start with me. It starts in 1999, not in a design studio, but inside the factories themselves, where my family began engineering and repairing the electronic systems that power hosiery machines. We were the people other manufacturers called when something needed to work better. By 2014, that knowledge had grown into something bigger, and we moved into full production ourselves. For the decade that followed, we quietly supplied private-label collections to sock brands worldwide. Brands you’ve probably worn. You just didn’t know that the yarn selection, the knitting structure, and the quality control behind them were ours.
I grew up inside this story, but for years I wasn’t part of it, at least not directly. I built a career in the corporate world, and when I moved to Dallas about 3.5 years ago, I kept going. Then my son was born, and for the first time in my adult life, I stepped away.
I thought I would slow down. It turns out I’m not very good at slowing down.
Within a few months, I found myself drawn back to what I actually knew. I started supporting my family’s U.S. operations, helping on the private-label side, learning how the American market behaved, watching what the brands we produced for were doing with our product once it left the factory floor. And one question kept coming back to me: after 25 years of quietly perfecting socks for other people’s labels, which we still do today, and still believe in, why weren’t we also telling our own story?
That question became Sihman.
Sihman is a family-owned sock brand headquartered in Dallas, with manufacturing in Turkiye. Our debut collection is called Bulg Nr. 788, and yes, the name is literal. It is not a style code. It is a receipt. The sock was rebuilt 78 times before we were willing to put our name on one, and it was finally ready in the 8th month. Bulg Nr. 788.
What sets us apart isn’t a story we had to invent; it’s the one we already lived. Most new sock brands start on the marketing side: pick a category, find a contract manufacturer, design a logo. We started on the opposite end. We’ve spent a quarter-century on the production floor, which means every decision, fiber length, needle count, yarn supplier, energy source, is a choice we’ve already made a thousand times for other people’s products. The difference is that this time, our name is on the label. And that work hasn’t stopped: we still produce private-label collections for partner brands across multiple continents, holding their products to the same uncompromising standard we hold our own. Sihman is what happens when that standard finally gets to wear its own name, but the craft behind it serves both sides of the business, every day.
Concretely, that shows up in how Bulg Nr. 788 is built:
• 100% combed cotton — the longest, softest fibers, gently brushed to remove every short or rough strand.
• Premium luxury-grade yarns selected for feel, structure retention, and how they age.
• 200-needle compression knit — a dense, smooth hand-feel that wraps the foot with a gentle, low-pressure hold. Supportive without squeezing, structured without stiffness.
• Terry-cushioned sole that absorbs impact quietly, with midsole elastic that keeps everything in place, whether you’re at your desk or on your feet.
• Anatomical R/L shaping — each foot gets exactly what it needs, no more and no less.
• Zero polyester — no microplastics, no trapped heat, no synthetic shortcuts.
• Melange (marled) yarns — multiple fiber tones blended before spinning, so the color is woven into the yarn itself rather than dyed on top. The palette is intentionally quiet: subtle enough for a suit, honest enough for everything else. It doesn’t compete with your wardrobe; it completes it.
• Yarns spun using wind energy, because the details that matter most are often the ones no one sees.
Bulg Nr. 788 is not a sock that tries to impress you. It just does. It’s designed to disappear into your day, not because it’s unremarkable, but because it does everything right.
There are cheaper places to make a sock. There are faster ways to get something onto a shelf. We’ve seen what those shortcuts look like from the inside, and we’ve never been interested.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been smooth, and I’d be suspicious of any founder who says it has been.
The biggest challenge has been the identity shift, going from a business that quietly powers other brands to one that has to stand on its own in front of customers. For 25 years, our reputation was built inside the industry: manufacturers, buyers, and factory teams knew who we were. None of that translates automatically into consumer trust. We had to learn, from scratch, how to speak to someone who just wants a pair of socks that doesn’t feel like every other pair they’ve tried.
The second challenge has been personal. Launching a brand during early motherhood is not for the faint of heart. There’s no version of this where the baby sleeps on cue, and the calendar stays clean. I’ve had to accept that some days I’m a better operator and some days I’m a better mom, and that trying to be both at 100% on the same day is a fast track to burnout.
The third is operational. Running a Dallas-based brand with production in Turkiye means time zones, customs, samples in transit, and constant context-switching. We’ve gotten good at it, but it took a year of uncomfortable lessons to get there.
We’ve been impressed with Sihman Inc., but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Sihman is a family-owned sock brand headquartered in Dallas, with manufacturing in Türkiye. Our debut collection is called Bulg Nr. 788, and yes, the name is literal. It is not a style code. It is a receipt. The sock was rebuilt 78 times before we were willing to put our name on one, and it was finally ready in the 8th month. Bulg Nr. 788.
What sets us apart isn’t a story we had to invent; it’s the one we already lived. Most new sock brands start on the marketing side: pick a category, find a contract manufacturer, design a logo. We started on the opposite end. We’ve spent a quarter-century on the production floor, which means every decision: fiber length, needle count, yarn supplier, energy source, is a choice we’ve already made a thousand times for other people’s products. The difference is that this time, our name is on the label. And that work hasn’t stopped: we still produce private-label collections for partner brands across multiple continents, holding their products to the same uncompromising standard we hold our own. Sihman is what happens when that standard finally gets to wear its own name, but the craft behind it serves both sides of the business, every day.
That standard is what put us through 78 prototypes before we shipped one. The yarn, the needle count, the terry density in the heel, the compression in the arch, the R/L anatomical shaping, the melange blend, the stretch on the cuff, every one of those got tuned, retuned, and retuned again. We weren’t aiming for “good enough to ship.” We were aiming for the pair I’d want to hand to someone I care about. The number in the name isn’t branding: it’s the receipt. A small, honest reminder that there are no shortcuts in our house.
There’s a version of this business where we source a cheaper yarn, add a touch of polyester for “stretch memory,” find a mill that quotes 30% less, and go to market three months sooner. Every brand gets that pitch. We turned it down, over and over, because we’ve spent 25 years watching what those shortcuts do to a finished product. You can feel them in the first wash.
Concretely, that shows up in how Bulg Nr. 788 is built:
• 100% combed cotton — the longest, softest fibers, gently brushed to remove every short or rough strand.
• Premium luxury-grade yarns selected for feel, structure retention, and how they age.
• 200-needle compression knit — a dense, smooth hand-feel that wraps the foot with a gentle, low-pressure hold. Supportive without squeezing, structured without stiffness.
• Terry-cushioned sole that absorbs impact quietly, with midsole elastic that keeps everything in place, whether you’re at your desk or on your feet.
• Anatomical R/L shaping — each foot gets exactly what it needs, no more and no less.
• Zero polyester — no microplastics, no trapped heat, no synthetic shortcuts.
• Melange (marled) yarns — multiple fiber tones blended before spinning, so the color is woven into the yarn itself rather than dyed on top. The palette is intentionally quiet: subtle enough for a suit, honest enough for everything else. It doesn’t compete with your wardrobe — it completes it.
• Yarns spun using wind energy — meaning the spinning mills that turn raw cotton into thread are powered by wind turbines rather than fossil fuels. It doesn’t change how the sock feels on your foot, but it changes what it costs the planet to make. The details that matter most are often the ones no one sees.
Bulg Nr. 788 is not a sock that tries to impress you. It just does. It’s designed to disappear into your day, not because it’s unremarkable, but because it does everything right. That’s the b
What does success mean to you?
A few years ago, I would have answered with titles and milestones; that’s how I was trained to think in corporate life. Then my son was born, I left, and stepped into our family’s 25-year-old sock business. Not to slow down, but to build something new on top of it. We kept producing private-label collections for partner brands around the world, and added our own brand to the same factory floor. Success, for me now, is keeping both sides at the same standard: the partners who trusted us for years, and the customer reaching for Bulg for the first time. No shortcuts on either, no matter whose name is on the label.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sihman.shop
- Instagram: sihman_socks
- Facebook: Sihman Inc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sihman
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SihmanInc
