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Boston Start-Up's Odor-Fighting Socks Made Of Recycled Coffee

BOSTON (CBS)- In the business world, perhaps one of the worst possible experiences is when you wind up wearing your coffee on your clothes.

But for MIT start-up Ministry of Supply, they're actually using recycled coffee as one of the materials in their latest clothing product - a high tech pair of odor-fighting socks.

If you haven't yet heard of Ministry of Supply, the company was picked last year as a finalist in the MassChallenge contest for its innovative anti-sweat dress shirt.

After major success selling their Apollo dress shirt on Kickstarter.com, surpassing their $30,000 goal by about $400,000, Ministry of Supply has returned to the site with its latest invention.

"We thought it'd be a great place to tell the real story of the product," company co-founder Gihan Amarasiriwardena said.

The socks that they're now selling are not just any old socks. They're made of a blend of cotton, recycled polyester and recycled carbonized coffee. Ministry of Supply says the coffee is recycled from coffee roasters and shops, and is processed to remove the coffee oils. That process removes the coffee smell and allows the socks to absorb odor. The recycled coffee particles are then infused with the polyester and cotton.

The combination of materials results in an anti-sweat and anti-odor material that also happens to be pretty comfortable.

Ministry of Supply has already tripled their $30,000 goal for the socks. As of July 3, they had received 1,500 pledges and had raised more than $100,000 for the new venture.

With their success, MoS is starting to look more and more like a shoe-in as a future favorite in the business clothing industry. But they hardly consider themselves fashion experts.

"We don't see ourselves as a fashion company, but as a product design firm. We see a problem and try to solve it through innovation," Amarasiriwardena said.

Amarasiriwardena says MoS is planning to follow up its black Atlas socks with options that include stripes and additional colors.

The company is hoping to make their products more easily accessible. Currently, Ministry of Supply products are only available online, but they're opening up a showroom in South Boston on July 8.

Bobby Driscoll contributed to this report. Driscoll is a student at Franklin Pierce University. He is currently interning at CBS Boston for the Summer of 2013.

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