Aaron Judge's socks: How Yankees slugger, Long Island company became a perfect fit

TAMPA, Fla. — Given that he is 6-7, there aren’t many people that Aaron Judge can say he looks up to.

Mike, Dan and Lisa Friedman are three of those people. And not just because Mike is 6-11 and Dan is 6-9.

It has to do with socks. Big socks.

And it has to do with 9/11.

The Friedmans, a family from Woodbury, own Tall Order, an apparel company that specializes in large-size socks.

Tall Order’s most famous client is Judge, who has size 17 feet.

But Judge isn’t just a client. After slipping on a pair of specially designed Tall Order socks before the 2021 season, Judge in November 2022 became an equity partner in the business.

“I instantly fell in love,” Judge told Newsday recently at Yankees spring training. “I said, ‘Hey, this is what I’ve been looking for. These are perfect.’ ”

And, asked about becoming a partner in the company, Judge said: “It fit for me.”

Idea born from tragedy

How did it all get started? It all started 20 years before Judge became a Tall Order devotee. It all started at Ground Zero in the days after 9/11. Lisa’s husband, Andrew, died in the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center.

It all started because of the family’s acts of kindness after an unthinkable loss.

“Growing up, my brother and I were known as the Twin Towers because of our ridiculous height,” said Mike Friedman, who along with his twin brother Dan will turn 35 on May 9. “Unfortunately, that name took a bit of a tragic turn when our dad, Andrew Friedman, was killed in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

“He was in the north tower on the 92nd floor, and we remembered vividly going into New York City at the time and doling out supplies to the first responders and rescue workers. And one of the things they requested in the care packages was clean, white socks, because their feet would get dirty in the rubble. We didn’t realize that would be a harbinger for the business that was started 16 years later.

“Initially, our goal was to provide fun, funky, cool dress socks for the big and tall market. While growing up, my brother and I had a hard time finding dress socks that could fit. The initial collections that we had were a success, because people could finally say, ‘Hey, now we have fun socks that we can wear for our big feet.’ ”

‘I know someone

in the sock business’

The business took off. Tall Order, which the family started in their garage in 2017, started making different styles and all sizes and added women’s sizes. But the company was not known for athletic socks until Lisa got a call from Joe Lee, a clubhouse assistant with the Yankees.

Aaron Judge needed socks.

“How that all started was Lisa and I have a mutual friend,” Lee told Newsday in a telephone interview. “We didn’t really have a need for dress socks. I had approached Aaron and said, ‘Hey, the socks that we have here that you wear on the field, do they bother your feet at all? Are they ill-fitting?’

“He goes, ‘Well, yeah. Every sock since I’ve grown up only comes to the middle of the bottom of my foot.’ So I’m like, ‘That’s got to be annoying.’ He says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve gotten used to it.’

“I said, ‘You should have said something. I know someone in the sock business and maybe they could do a custom sock for you.’ He’s like, ‘That would be great.’ So I called Lisa.”

Lisa, Tall Order’s chief operating officer (who stands 6-1), picks up the story: “The phone rings and it’s Joe Lee. I literally almost drove off the road. He said, ‘We have a sock emergency.’ I said, ‘What is the sock emergency?’ He says, ‘Aaron Judge’s feet are too big for what Major League Baseball provides for him. Is there any way you could make him a custom sock?’ I said, ‘Whatever Aaron wants, Aaron gets.’ ”

Socks a home run from start

The serendipitous part — as if more serendipity is needed here — is that Andrew Friedman, who stood 6-5, was a huge Yankees fan.

“My husband,” Lisa said, “not only did he coach all the kids in baseball in the Syosset/Woodbury area, he was a lunatic Yankees fan.”

So imagine how the Friedmans felt when Aaron Judge’s face appeared on a Zoom call so he could have input on the design of his special socks. Lisa sent Lee the tools to measure Judge’s feet and legs.

“She sent me a piece of white paper with, like, a leg on it and how to measure and stuff,” Lee said. “The heel to the toe. How wide the calf is. How long the calf is and stuff like that.

“On top of it, Judge wanted the socks to be long ones since he wears them long. He wants them over the knee. He wanted extremely long socks. And he wanted a gripper on the bottom because he said that his feet slip. It’s a common thing with ballplayers.”

Said Judge: “It really just started with a need for socks. I liked the socks I was using, but they weren’t up to what I needed as a player to perform my best. I kind of voiced my concern, and they made a kind of a custom thing. [Lee] said, ‘They did this for you. Let me know what you think.’ ”

“As an athlete, I need my foot to be a part of my shoe. They were able to do that for me, which was pretty special.”

According to Lisa, Judge first wore Tall Order socks on April 6, 2021. On that day, Judge went 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs.

‘Big order from the Mets’

But it wasn’t just Judge who started to wear Tall Order socks.

“When we got the socks for him, we also made some for everybody else in the clubhouse,” Lisa said. “We made sizes nine to 11 to 12 to 15, because we had a funny feeling that if Aaron starts wearing them and doing well with them, everybody’s going to want them. And that’s exactly what happened.

“Now we’re in about 25 of the 30 Major League Baseball clubhouses. We just got a big order from the Mets because of [Juan] Soto.”

Judge became an equity partner in the company less than a month after he set the American League single-season home run record with 62.

Judge heard the family’s story and saw their long history of giving back to the community. So he joined the team and helped create his own “Aaron Judge Top Drawer” apparel collection, which currently features socks, briefs and T-shirts.

Tall Order donates a portion of its profits to various charities. The company and its manufacturer, United Legwear and Apparel Co. under president and CEO Isaac Ash, also teamed up with Judge’s All Rise Foundation, and the Yankees got involved in 2024.

Last Sept. 1, the Yankees gave away Tall Order socks to the first 18,000 fans on “Performance Sock Day.” The club donated $15,000 — the check was oversized, of course — to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

“That’s where it kind of clicked for me to join with them and kind of be a part of it,” Judge said. “Hearing their story and everything that they’ve done for 9/11 and how they kind of started their company, it just means a lot.

“They were affected by a terrible event. But I think just seeing their resilience and how they kind of flipped it to, ‘Hey, let’s make something positive out of this. Let’s just not make it something that is terrible.’

“Obviously, they’re more than upset about it every single day, but it really resonated with me, and I was excited to partner with them.”

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.