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Aly Raisman Designs Socks Featuring Her Parents Nervously Watching Her at the Olympics

Aly Raisman's parents have officially gone from memes to sartorial sensations. (Photo: Getty)
Aly Raisman’s parents have officially gone from memes to sartorial sensations. (Photo: Getty Images)

American gymnast Aly Raisman won gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio as part of the “Final Five,” and her parents, Lynn and Rick, won our hearts as the most hilariously, heartwarmingly anxious parents in the stands. Anyone who watched the gymnastic competition on television knows that to say Raisman’s doting parents were on the edge of their seats is an understatement.

The official website for NBC, which aired the Olympic Games, created three videos that spliced Raisman’s routines with her parents’ hair-raising reactions and seat-fidgeting antics. Keen observers recall that the stressed-out duo’s behavior actually stretches back to the 2012 London Olympics. In one particularly funny video, NBC was actually able to isolate the vocals — and, essentially, the backseat-driver-like coaching — of Raisman’s mother.

Ever the good sport, Raisman is now paying homage to the fame of these two viral sensations by working with the brand Feat Socks to develop a pair of socks with her parents’ anxious faces blazoned across them. As part of her existing collaboration with Feat, the Aly Raisman Line, the newest pair of socks will feature cartoon drawings of her mother on the right sock and her dad on the left, both swaying nervously to the right, as they did in so many TV cutaways, YouTube montages, and memes. While her new design has yet to be released, the existing socks cost between $14.99 and $21.99.

Raisman announced the new sock design on Instagram to all of us who have been eagerly awaiting this footwear brilliance. “For all the loving, crazy, embarrassing parents that can relate. COMING SOON. #FeatByAly @featsocks,” she wrote (along with three laughing-so-hard-I’m-crying emoji, of course), combining an image of the new pair of socks with a now-iconic image of her parents in their “we literally cannot deal” poses. She added, “Love you mom & dad and of course @brettraisman cheek,” referring to the numerous cameos of her brother Brett’s cheek captured on camera as he sat next to Lynn and Rick.

That's my cheek on the right. I'll try not to let the fame go to my head.

A photo posted by Brett Raisman (@brettraisman) on Aug 7, 2016 at 6:33pm PDT

The announcement has garnered 122,000 likes and almost 800 comments from prospective buyers who are champing at the bit to get their hands — or feet, as it were — on a pair of Raisman-parent socks. “Your parents show what we ALL feel!!!!!! Love them and love these socks!” one user wrote. Another added, “Besides the final five ur parents were olympic best!”.

Other socks already available from the gymnast’s line include three graphic pairs, sales of which raise money to fund treatment for breast cancer fighters, animal-print designs, and a series of colorfully patriotic socks, which are part of Raisman’s signature collection. She even has a pair called “Lips N’ Sticks,” which is peppered with images of lipstick tubes and stained pouts. Every order arrives with a limited-edition, collectible card, according to Feat’s site.

Raisman lounging poolside in one of her signature designs. (Photo: Courtesy of Facebook/featsocks)
Raisman lounging poolside in one of her signature designs. (Photo: Courtesy of Facebook/featsocks)

Via Instagram, the company also announced that 12 new orders would randomly come nestled in limited-edition gold boxes — in honor of Raisman’s and the Final Five’s gold medals, of course.

When asked about her parents’ thinly veiled anxiety and their Internet celebrity, Raisman told Today‘s Hoda Kotb back in August, “I have no idea. I really don’t know. They think that they’re doing gymnastics. I don’t even know what they’re doing.” When the Games were over, she told Cosmopolitan, “We’re really excited that it’s over. Now they can relax and they’re not so stressed out anymore,” adding that her parents “didn’t sleep a lot the last couple of months.”

Hopefully, now that they know for sure they’ve raised a poised, gold-medal-winning daughter, Lynn and Rick Raisman can laugh about their meme-worthy reactions — and don a pair of the socks they inspired while curling up in front of a fire after a long, well-deserved spa day.

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