Gachon University Startup Club Develops Socks for the Visually Impaired

[Asia Economy (Seongnam) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The startup club at Gachon University has developed socks for the visually impaired.

The social problem-solving startup club 'Re;sight' team, affiliated with Gachon University Startup Support Group, announced on the 22nd that they recently developed 'Socks to See with Fingertips.'

These socks allow visually impaired individuals to distinguish colors by the number of snap buttons attached to the top of the socks.

One button indicates white, two buttons black, three buttons dark gray, four buttons beige, and five buttons mustard color. Although the use of Braille was initially considered, buttons were chosen due to attachment issues on socks and the low Braille literacy rate.

The Re;sight team originally planned to develop clothing for the visually impaired but started developing socks after hearing a story from a visually impaired person who said, "I bought 30 pairs of white socks to avoid the embarrassment of wearing mismatched socks."

The Re;sight team was selected as a startup club and received 2 million KRW in funding from the university, and also received 1.5 million KRW in production costs through Seongnam City's Youth Haebom and Challenge Haebom programs.

Since last month, they have sold 250 sets and 1,300 pairs (worth 3.3 million KRW) of the Socks to See with Fingertips through social funding, gaining recognition for their marketability.

Da-bin Lee, CEO of Re;sight (21, Department of Business Administration), said, "Seeing visually impaired people satisfied with the products we developed gave me great fulfillment," adding, "We will contribute to creating a better world with ideas that solve problems in unseen places."

The team name Re;sight means "non-disabled people seeing the difficulties of disabled people again."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.