Article
Courtesy of Are You Kidding Socks
Math,

Sock CEOs

These brothers design and sell socks–and raise money for charities

By Jenny Morber
From the March/April 2023 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will use partial quotients to divide numbers related to a sock company owned by two young brothers.

Lexile: 750L; 690L
Focus Area: Fractions and Decimals,
Standards
  • CCSS: 5.NBT.B.6 TEKS: 5.3C

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Lexile® measure

  • 750L
  • 690L

Sebastian Martinez has always loved socks. The more colorful and crazy, the better! When he was 5 years old, his mom suggested that he start designing his own. Sebastian grabbed his crayons and got to work. In 2014, Sebastian, now 15, and his older brother Brandon, now 17, started their company Are You Kidding? to sell their socks.

Since then, the company has sold more than 500,000 pairs of socks! But for the brothers, it isn’t just about making money. Through nationwide charity events, they have raised more than $350,000 for pediatric cancer treatment, diabetes research, and other causes.

Sebastian Martinez has always loved socks. The more colorful and crazy, the better! When he was 5 years old, his mom said he should design his own socks. Sebastian grabbed his crayons and got to work. In 2014, Sebastian started a sock company with his older brother, Brandon. They named their company Are You Kidding?

Sebastian is now 15 years old. His brother is 17. Since 2014, their company has sold more than 500,000 pairs of socks! But the brothers don’t sell their socks just to make money. They also donate to charity. They have raised more than $350,000 for causes such as pediatric cancer treatment and diabetes research.

Courtesy of Are You Kidding Socks 

The brothers draw new sock designs on paper.

How do they come up with a new design? “We get inspired by things people like,” says Brandon. “We made an astronaut design because everyone loves space!” When the design is ready, they send it to a company that makes the socks and sends them back. Then the brothers add the design to their online store and promote it.

Running a business during a pandemic taught the brothers to expect the unexpected. “You have to come up with a backup plan in case things go wrong,” says Brandon. Before the pandemic, they used to sell their socks at in-person fundraisers. Now most of their sales are online.

The brothers feel lucky to be working as a team. “There are so many benefits to working with family,” says Sebastian. “You can help and learn from each other.”

How do the brothers come up with a new design? “We get inspired by things people like,” says Brandon. “We made an astronaut design because everyone loves space!” They send each finished design to a company that makes the socks. The company sends the completed socks back. Then the brothers add the design to their online store and promote it.

Running a business during a pandemic taught the brothers to expect the unexpected. “You have to come up with a backup plan in case things go wrong,” says Brandon. Before the pandemic, they used to sell their socks at in-person fundraisers. Now most of their sales are online.

The brothers feel lucky to be working as a team. “There are so many benefits to working with family,” says Sebastian. “You can help and learn from each other.”  

Math Talk

If you were going to design a sock, what math tools might you decide to use?

Math Talk

If you were going to design a sock, what math tools might you decide to use?

Division With Partial Quotients

What to Do

When you're dividing large numbers, partial quotients can help you break the problem down and use multiplication to solve it.

Example

For one fund-raiser, the brothers made $3,600 selling socks at $15 per pair. How many pairs of socks did they sell?

  • Set up the division problem: $3,600 ÷ $15   
  • Next, choose a friendly number, like a multiple of 10 or 100, that can be multiplied by the divisor ($15). Place it to the right. Multiply your friendly number by the divisor and subtract the product from the dividend ($3,600).
  • Repeat this process with other friendly numbers until you can no longer subtract.
  • Finally, add the numbers in the partial quotients column.
    The total is your answer, or quotient!

So the brothers sold 240 pairs of socks.

Division With Partial Quotients

What to Do

When you're dividing large numbers, partial quotients can help you break the problem down and use multiplication to solve it.

Example

For one fund-raiser, the brothers made $3,600 selling socks at $15 per pair. How many pairs of socks did they sell?

  • Set up the division problem: $3,600 ÷ $15   
  • Next, choose a friendly number, like a multiple of 10 or 100, that can be multiplied by the divisor ($15). Place it to the right. Multiply your friendly number by the divisor and subtract the product from the dividend ($3,600).
  • Repeat this process with other friendly numbers until you can no longer subtract.
  • Finally, add the numbers in the partial quotients column.
    The total is your answer, or quotient!

So the brothers sold 240 pairs of socks.

Now You Try It

Use your division skills to answer the following questions.

Use your division skills to answer the following questions.

On their website, the brothers sell a design to raise money for the nonprofit Stand Up 2 Cancer. For each pair sold, they donate $4 to the charity. If they donated $640, how many pairs of socks did they sell?

On their website, the brothers sell a design to raise money for the nonprofit Stand Up 2 Cancer. For each pair sold, they donate $4 to the charity. If they donated $640, how many pairs of socks did they sell?

At a fundraiser for a local charity, the brothers sold their socks for $16 per pair. If they earned $6,880 at the event, how many pairs of socks did they sell?

At a fundraiser for a local charity, the brothers sold their socks for $16 per pair. If they earned $6,880 at the event, how many pairs of socks did they sell?

It costs about $11 to make each pair of socks for Are You Kidding? If the brothers paid $2,750 to the company that makes the socks, how many pairs of socks did the company make for them?

It costs about $11 to make each pair of socks for Are You Kidding? If the brothers paid $2,750 to the company that makes the socks, how many pairs of socks did the company make for them?

In the brothers’ online store, you can buy a set of food-themed socks for $17. If your school principal spent a total of $1,105 to buy socks for all the students in your grade, how many sets did your principal purchase?

In the brothers’ online store, you can buy a set of food-themed socks for $17. If your school principal spent a total of $1,105 to buy socks for all the students in your grade, how many sets did your principal purchase?

Continue Your Learning

  • Play the game “Number Ninjas: Dividing Sugar Cubes” (above) to practice your division skills.
  • Rewatch the video “Are You Kidding? Socks” (above). Then think about what product you would want to sell if you had your own business. Create a poster advertising your product. Include at least 5 number facts in your poster, such as the cost of your product, its length, width, and height, or how many stores will sell your product.
  • Ask a friend or family member for a 4-digit number and a 2-digit number. Then roll 2 dice. Divide the 4-digit number by the 2-digit number using partial quotients. Try to break the problem into the number of partial quotients you rolled. For example, if the number you rolled is 4, try to solve the division problem using exactly 4 partial quotients.

Continue Your Learning

  • Play the game “Number Ninjas: Dividing Sugar Cubes” (above) to practice your division skills.
  • Rewatch the video “Are You Kidding? Socks” (above). Then think about what product you would want to sell if you had your own business. Create a poster advertising your product. Include at least 5 number facts in your poster, such as the cost of your product, its length, width, and height, or how many stores will sell your product.
  • Ask a friend or family member for a 4-digit number and a 2-digit number. Then roll 2 dice. Divide the 4-digit number by the 2-digit number using partial quotients. Try to break the problem into the number of partial quotients you rolled. For example, if the number you rolled is 4, try to solve the division problem using exactly 4 partial quotients.
video (2)
video (2)
Activities (6)
Question & Answer Sheets
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
video (2)
video (2)
Activities (6)
Question & Answer Sheets
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

1.  SPARK ENGAGEMENT.

Play the video “Are You Kidding? Socks.” Then, before or after reading the article, spark a discussion based on the following questions.

  • If you were to start your own business, what product would you sell? 
  • What traits are important for the leader of a company to have? 
  • List two methods you could use to solve a division problem

2. INTRODUCE THE MATH CONCEPT AND VOCABULARY

  • What does partial mean? (Answers will vary. Possible answers: part of, incomplete, not whole) 
  • What is a quotient? (the answer to or result of a division problem) 
  • We can use partial quotients to divide large numbers. This is a step-by-step method of division where at each step, a partial answer is found to get the final quotient. 
  • Play the math video “Introduction to Division.”

3. WORK THROUGH THE “WHAT TO DO” BOX.

  • What was the divisor multiplied by to find the first partial quotient of 3,000? (200) Why do you think this multiple was chosen? (Answers will vary.) 
  • After you find a partial quotient, what’s the next step? (Subtract it from the dividend until you reach 0.) 
  • How was the final quotient calculated? (The partial quotients of 200 and 40 were added together.) 
  • What operations are used in the partial quotients method? (division, multiplication, addition, subtraction) 
  • If you had a number left over that was less than the divisor, what would that represent? (the remainder)

4. REINFORCE WITH MATH PRACTICE.

Have students complete questions 1 through 4.

EDITOR’S TIP:

Encourage students to write out the first, second, and tenth multiples of the divisor in a vertical line. They can also divide the tenth multiple by 2 to find the fifth multiple. Then have students use a different color to add a 0 to each multiple to show 10 times as much. —Victoria J. Dixon, San Antonio, TX

EDITOR'S TIP:

Encourage students to write out the first, second, and tenth multiples of the divisor in a vertical line. They can also divide the tenth multiple by 2 to find the fifth multiple. Then have students use a different color to add a 0 to each multiple to show 10 times as much. —Victoria J. Dixon, San Antonio, TX

Community Building:

Sebastian and Brandon sell certain sock designs to raise money for charity. Encourage your students to participate in an act of charity as a class, such as donating to a local food bank or writing cards to send to a local retirement home. Discuss as a class why you chose this particular act of charity, and prompt students to reflect as a group after they’ve completed it.

Community Building:

Sebastian and Brandon sell certain sock designs to raise money for charity. Encourage your students to participate in an act of charity as a class, such as donating to a local food bank or writing cards to send to a local retirement home. Discuss as a class why you chose this particular act of charity, and prompt students to reflect as a group after they’ve completed it.

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