The Hong Kong teen trading sleep and a social life to help artists around the world
Darren Lee, the founder of Sababu Socks, talks about providing a lifeline for under-represented artists from the Philippines to Tanzania
It’s midnight on an ordinary Thursday and Darren Lee is wide awake, hunched over a laptop, sending off emails. While most other university students might be winding down after a day of lectures or grabbing drinks with friends, Lee’s nightly routine has just begun.
“Nothing beats the feeling of being able to help someone,” says Lee, a self-identified night owl who’s squeezing business administration lectures at the University of Hong Kong into just three days so he can spend the rest of the week expanding Sababu’s reach.
He launched Sababu at the end of 2024, using HK$12,000 in start-up funds he had scraped together from red-packet savings and fees from his freelance web design work, a skill that allowed him to build the brand’s website himself.
The result: biodegradable socks, retailing for £11.90 (about HK$120) a pair and crafted from 100 per cent organic cotton. These socks feature vibrant prints, often drawing inspiration from the artists’ cultural or personal backgrounds.