FAQ

Have a question not answered here? Let us know, we’re passionate about making our socks and we enjoy talking about them!

General questions

We’re asked this a lot! We say it zƏ-kah-no’.

The origin of our name is Native American and is intended to pay homage to the rich Cherokee history here in our town, Fort Payne, AL. The name loosely translates as a state of "being good”. We strive to honor this philosophy through our commitment to the environment by a better manufacturing process and using earth friendly materials to make our socks.

Being good makes us all feel good. Physically, mentally and spiritually. Hence our slogan Be Good. Feel Good

We are the manufacturers of our socks and knit them from start to finish (and ship them) from here at our small mill in Fort Payne, AL.

We opened our mill and became sock manufacturers in 1991. We introduced our first brand, zkano, in 2009 and celebrated our 10th birthday in November of 2019.

Our organic cotton is proudly grown on small farms in the Southwestern U.S.A.

All of our socks have a seamless toe closure, with the exception of socks from our Basics, Sport and Kids collections.

All of our socks are latex free. The elastic used in our socks is nylon with a spandex core.

Our sock contents vary depending on the style. You can find this info on each style’s product page on the “Sock Details” tab.

We have a whole page on this one! Please see our Sock Care Guide.

My socks look small after I washed and dried them. I’m afraid they don’t fit.
Shrinkage on the first wash / dry cycle is normal and should not affect the sizing of your socks.

After washing and drying our socks for the first time, they should fit snugly and conform to your foot. We design them this way intentionally and your zkano’s should never stretch out or lose their shape.

No. Never, ever will we give your email address to anyone, for any reason. We collect emails for order information when you shop with us and for our newsletters (if you’re signed up) we send out when we have new product launches, sales and announcements.

If you would like to make any changes to your order after it was placed, please contact us right away. We are happy to make any changes as long as your order has not shipped yet.

Customer service contact:
Email: info@zkano.com
Phone: 256-845-9801 ext.1

Our Gift Cards are delivered to the purchaser via email and can be forwarded to the recipient.

We know this isn’t the most ideal way but it’s as tech as we can be right now.

We do! Our little shop is located inside our mill at 1715 Airport Road, Fort Payne, AL 35968.

We don’t have a sign (yet) and it’s easy to miss. We share a driveway with “Dixon’s Radiator Shop”. Our shop is the first door in the front of the building with the large glass windows.

Yes. In our shop, we have all the styles you see on our website and many times, we have specials and large discounts on past season styles, samples and 1 of 1 items that are not online.

Some people visit thinking that we are an “outlet store”. We are not.

We are open Monday - Friday from 8am - 4pm CST. We are not open on the weekends at this time. If you are visiting Fort Payne over the weekend and would like to buy our socks, let us know. We would love to refer you to one of the local shops in town who carry our socks.

Sizing

All our adult socks are offered in Medium and Large. We have a few styles available in XL.

-Our size Medium fits a U.S. women’s shoe size 5.5-9.5 and men’s shoe size 4-7.5


-Our size Large fits a U.S. women’s shoe size 10-13 and men’s shoe size 8-12.5

-Our XL fits a U.S. men's shoe size 13-15


Most of our Basic + Sport styles are offered in both Medium and Large. We have a few of these styles available ins size XL.

We offer some of our women’s fashion socks in size Large. To find these easily, please select “Women’s Size Large” from our Shop menu.

Our kids socks are offered in sizes Small, Medium and Large.

Size Small fits baby/toddler shoe size 2-7.
Size Medium fits toddler/kids shoe size 8-13.
Size Large fits youth shoe size 1-3.

*Children's sock sizes vary by age, please use shoe size to determine the best fit for your little one.

We offer a variety of lengths in our socks.

Our women's socks are available in No Show, Ankle, Crew and Knee High.

Men's socks are available in No Show, Ankle, Crew and Over the Calf.

Our children's socks are available in crew length only at this time.

Please visit our Sizing Guide for more info.

Environment & sustainablity

Low-impact dyes are considered eco friendly. They are free of toxic chemicals, including heavy metals and mordants, which fixes the dye to the fibers. Low-impact dyes also have a high absorption rate and require less rinsing, meaning they use less water than conventional dyes.

Our process is streamlined. All the steps of our manufacturing process, order fulfillment and shipping happens under 1 roof here at our mill. We can do this because we are the makers of our socks. It is very common in the industry for these individual processes to take place at different mills. Meaning, the socks are shipped from place to place through each step of the manufacturing process. Not only do the different processes happen at different locations, sometimes they can even take place in different towns, states and even different countries.

Keeping our process housed under 1 roof drastically reduces our carbon footprint as a business.

The supply chain of our organic cotton is entirely in the Southern United States.

And, we like to keep all of our other materials needed to run our business close to home too. Our sock packaging, marketing materials, corrugated boxes, etc. are produced within a small radius of our mill in Alabama and Georgia.

Making our socks in small batches helps to eliminate waste and overages in inventory.

The waste that is created from our process is recycled, reused, or repurposed, oftentimes by local crafters who ask us for pound goods.

We recycle or reuse all of the packaging materials that come to our mill from yarn shipments and any other type of shipment that comes through our mill.

We donate irregulars to homeless shelters in Alabama and community organizations as well.

Our sock labels, as well as our packaging and shipping materials, are minimal.

We don’t offer an “unboxing experience” when you shop with us online because we think it’s too wasteful.

We have a recycling program for your old socks! See more on zkano Recycles.

We do all that we can to make our entire process from start to finish as Earth-friendly as we can and we’re always looking for new ways to make it better.

No. We add no chemicals to our socks during any of our processes. It’s the norm in the sock industry to add chemical softeners and solutions in the “finishing” process of manufacturing. We do not believe in this and we don’t do it.

We’ll absolutely take any of your old socks off your hands, regardless of what brand they are or what materials they are made of. For more info, please visit our zkano Recycles page.

Shipping & returns

We offer these convenient shipping options for you.

FREE Standard Shipping on U.S. Orders Over $75
First Class and Priority Mail
U.P.S. Ground and 2 Day Air
Shipping rates are calculated by weight and the carrier & service selected at checkout.

All orders are processed on weekdays and ship in 1-2 business days. We strive to ship your order the same day it was placed or the next business day.

Some order processing and delivery times may vary during the month of December.

Shipping rates and specials apply to orders from the Continental United States only.
We are unable to ship orders outside of the United States and Canada at this time.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us and we will be happy to assist you.

We are happy to return any full price item that is unworn (not tried
on the foot), unwashed and returned to us within 15 days from the time
of original receipt. 

Socks must be returned to us in the condition they were received, with labels fully intact.

Socks are a base layer and due to the nature of feet, we cannot
sell returned socks that have been tried on. If you have concerns about
sizing, please reach out to us before removing your socks from their
original packaging. We would be happy to answer any questions you may
have.

Email us at info@zkano.com within 15 days of receiving your order and we will issue a Return Authorization. 

Domestic Orders- Should you wish to have a shipping label emailed to you, we are
happy to do so. If our shipping label is used, we will deduct a $5.00
shipping charge from your refund amount.

Please include the original packing slip or your full name with your shipment so that we can process your refund quickly.

If the return meets the above requirements, we will refund your
account within seven days of receipt of the returned items; you will be
notified by email once your refund is issued. Please note that it can
take up to seven additional days for the refund to appear on your
account. 

Unfortunately, our system cannot process exchanges.

We are unable to pay for shipping on returns at this time.

The original shipping amount will be deducted from your refund.

We do not take responsibility for any items lost during the return shipping.

All sale items are final and cannot be returned for a refund or exchange.

For health and hygiene reasons, we are unable to resell socks that have been tried on the foot. Our socks fit true to their sizing. Once you have received your shipment and suspect they may not fit, give us a shout. We are more than happy to help with any questions you may have about your socks before you try them on.

If you have already tried on your socks and they just don’t work, please get in touch with us so we can try to find something that you will love. We appreciate you and want you to be a customer for a long time. We want to help in any way that we can.

Call or email us right away. Sometimes the package has been delivered to the wrong mailbox and will end up in your hands the next day. Sometimes, porch pirates happen and packages are sadly stolen. Let us know if this happens; we’ll check with USPS and do everything we can to help get your socks delivered to you.

This is a manufacturing defect. We try our hardest to prevent these things from slipping through our inspection process. But we are human and sometimes these get past us. And in some cases, there’s an issue with the knitting that goes unseen till the socks are worn.

Good news though! We’ll replace them for you free of charge. Just email us a photo of the bad socks so that we can take a good look at the defect. This helps us tremendously in stopping the issue. That’s it, no need to worry about returning them to us. Once we have your photo, we’ll process right away and ship you a fresh pair of socks.

Rewards program

We can only accept 1 promo/discount code per order, which also includes gifts earned from our Rewards program.

We hear ya. This is confusing and we’re doing our best to make it better. Even though your points were deducted and look as though they were redeemed, your gift is still there in your account for you to use when you are ready. You can see any gifts available to redeem when logged into your account. Contact us with any questions. We are more than happy to help.