A man is suing Bass Pro Shops for changing their lifetime guarantee on socks

• A man sued Bass Pro Shops after he said the store refused to fulfill a lifetime guarantee on wool socks.
• Kent Slaughter said he had previously been able to exchange the socks whenever he wanted.

After years of exchanging his worn-out socks for new ones, a man is suing a Bass Pro Shops for changing their policy on socks that he claims were supposed to have a lifetime guarantee.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in a Missouri district court and obtained by Insider, alleges that Bass Pro Shops "misrepresented" and "deceived" customers with a lifetime guarantee on their "Redhead Lifetime Guarantee All- Purpose Wool Socks."

In a photo provided in the suit, the sock label states that it is the "The last sock you'll ever need to buy." The document also cites a 2018 YouTube video of a Bass Pro Shops employee in Nashville, Tennessee, advertising the sock.

"If anything ever happens, if the dryer steals one of them, you bring the other one in, and we give you a brand new pair of socks for life," the video states.

Kent Slaughter, who filed the lawsuit, said he had been able to return the socks and receive a free replacement each time. Slaughter bought around 12 pairs of socks between 2014 and 2021, the lawsuit states, and the lifetime guarantee advertised is what encouraged him to invest in the brand.

He began to replace the socks in 2015, typically 2-4 at a time, the lawsuit said. In 2021, the lawsuit said, Slaughter returned to a Bass Pro Shop to find that he could no longer replace the socks with lifetime guarantee socks — instead he was offered socks with a 60-day warranty.

The lawsuit says, however, that Bass Pro Shops continues to sell the socks with a lifetime guarantee.

In a statement to Insider, a representative for Bass Pro Shops said they did not comment about ongoing litigation.

Andrew Bluth, a lawyer for Slaughter, said in a statement that he was looking forward "to holding Bass Pro accountable."

"This lawsuit is about one simple principle: a corporation's obligation to tell consumers the truth," the statement said. "Bass Pro made a promise to its customers when it offered its RedHead socks with a lifetime guarantee. Those words should mean something. Especially today when consumers are facing skyrocketing prices on even the most basic of necessities, it is critical that businesses act with integrity."