There are moments in life when you realise you’ve been moving so fast that you haven’t stopped to look back.
As I drive south through Puglia with my family, heading towards the heel of Italy, it feels like one of those moments.
The last six months have been incredible for Mardy Bum. So many of you have joined us, supported us, shared our socks, and most importantly, shared our belief that movement makes you feel good. And it made me think about where that belief really came from.
This is the bit from the heart. Movement has always been part of who I am.
Long before running became trendy or something to post on social media, I was the girl running on her own. I’d run to the tree and back when I was 11, sometimes racing myself, sometimes just because I needed to. Growing up in a very male-led family, I spent most of my childhood trying to keep up with the boys. They got their three-star canoeing awards, I got my two-star. I played every sport I could get my hands on. I was rarely the most talented, but I was always determined.
Running became so much more than exercise. I ran through my first heartbreak. I ran to escape revision. I ran to quiet my mind. I ran simply because it made me feel like myself.
That carried on through university, where netball became such a huge part of my life. Of course the sport mattered, but so did the friendships. Wednesday sports nights, lifelong memories, and my “party wife”, who became one of my best friends for life.
Sport has never just been about winning for me. It’s always been about connection, confidence, resilience and joy.
After graduating, I found another team I loved: buying. I joined Next, and honestly, I loved it. Even the bits my old colleagues will laugh about because they know I definitely didn’t love the admin quite as much as the rest! Buying felt like sport to me. You worked together, backed each other, solved problems together and celebrated the wins together. Next taught me so much about teamwork, leadership and what happens when great people pull in the same direction.
Then, on 26 July 2012, everything changed.
I was involved in a serious car accident.
The kind that involves an air ambulance. The kind where the people who love you are standing over your hospital bed under bright lights like something from a film.
It’s strange. I’m not particularly religious, but since moving to Italy I’ve discovered that 26 July is Saint Anna’s Day. Every year someone reminds me. Whether you believe in fate or not, it always makes me pause.
I was incredibly lucky.
My leg was shattered, held together with metal, but I kept it. I was told I would walk again. I was told I’d still be able to have children. Things could have been so very different.
Running has never felt quite the same since.
But determination never left me.
One person who has shaped my outlook more than he’ll probably ever know is Matt Hampson. Matt, my husband’s best friend, broke his neck playing rugby and has been paralysed from the neck down ever since.
Most people would understand if life had stopped there.
Instead, Matt chose to build something extraordinary. He has dedicated his life to helping other people rebuild theirs. He has always found purpose in what happened to him, and watching that has taught me more than I can ever explain.
His story reminded me that while we don’t always choose what happens to us, we do get to choose what we do next.
That became my “why”. I want women to move. Not because they have to. Not because they’re chasing a pace, a size or a personal best. Because movement makes you feel good.
Because sometimes a walk is enough. Sometimes it’s a run. Sometimes it’s dancing in your kitchen or stretching in your pyjamas. There is always another way to move if one way isn’t available to you.
That’s what Mardy Bum has always been about.
The socks? They’re fun. They make people smile. They start conversations. Some are cheeky. Some are bold. (Our collaboration with Fearne certainly proved that!)
But underneath every slogan is a message I’ve believed for decades: movement changes how we feel.
And now…
Mardy Bum is being sold on Next.
If you’d told the younger version of me, racing to the tree and back, or the buyer sat in the Next offices, or the woman lying in a hospital bed wondering what her body would be capable of again, that one day this little idea would come full circle… I don’t think she’d have believed you.
It means more than I can put into words.
So thank you.
Thank you for buying the socks, wearing the socks, gifting the socks, telling your friends about us, joining our community and believing in our message.
Mardy Bum has never really been about socks.
It’s always been about helping women find their way back to movement, in whatever form that takes.
And I promise we’ll keep doing exactly that.
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