Bass Pro Sued Over Alleged Refusal to Honor Redhead Wool Socks Lifetime Warranty

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A proposed class action alleges Bass Pro, Inc. has falsely advertised its Redhead Lifetime Guarantee All-Purpose wool socks in that the retailer no longer honors the product’s lifetime warranty.

According to the 17-page lawsuit, although Bass Pro used to recognize the socks’ “lifetime guarantee” warranty, meaning a customer could return the product to a Bass Pro store at any point and replace it with a new pair of socks, the outdoor retailer changed its practices around January 2021. 

Per the case, when a customer attempts to return a pair of Redhead wool socks pursuant to the lifetime warranty, the defendant replaces them with a different pair of socks that comes with only a 60-day warranty. The suit says the 60-day warranty socks are differentiated from the lifetime warranty socks in that they have a “distinctive stripe pattern”—presumably so Bass Pro employees know not to honor the warranty beyond 60 days.

The lawsuit claims that consumers have overpaid for the Redhead Lifetime Guarantee All-Purpose wool socks based on a “hollow promise” that the defendant no longer intends to honor.

“By making false, fraudulent, and misleading statements to consumers, Defendant Bass Pro has deceived thousands of consumers who have purchased the Socks under the false belief that the Socks come with the purported Lifetime Warranty,” the complaint reads. “Consumers have been misled, induced and defrauded into spending money on a product that cannot be replaced for any reason at any time during a consumer’s lifetime and as a result, Plaintiff and other purchasers have been harmed by Defendant’s fraudulent misrepresentations and false advertising.”

The plaintiff is a Missouri resident who says he purchased about 12 pairs of Redhead wool socks at various times between 2014 and 2021 based on the “key selling point” that he would be able to get them replaced for free if they wore out. Indeed, the suit relays that the plaintiff successfully had some pairs of his socks replaced by Bass Pro when he brought them to a Springfield, Missouri Bass Pro superstore.

The case alleges, however, that when the plaintiff attempted to return four pairs of socks in January 2021, he was informed that Bass Pro would no longer honor the lifetime warranty. Instead, the plaintiff was provided with the “distinctively-marked” socks that came with a 60-day warranty, the suit says.

In June 2022, the case says, the plaintiff saw an advertisement by Bass Pro offering to sell the Redhead socks with the lifetime warranty. The man placed an online order for the socks on the same day, but when the plaintiff received the product on July 6, the packaging had been stripped of any mention of the lifetime warranty, the suit states.

“Defendant did so because—despite its intentionally false and deceptive advertising— Defendant knows that it will not honor any Lifetime Warranty for those Socks,” the complaint alleges.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the U.S. who, during the fullest period allowed by law, purchased Redhead Lifetime Guarantee All-Purpose wool socks from Bass Pro at any time and at any location.

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