I want to buy socks that will last me a life time. in winter should i wear loose socks over tighter socks? does material matter or can i get a couple packs from walmart?
I want to buy socks that will last me a life time. in winter should i wear loose socks over tighter socks?
Get Darn tough, they have a lifetime warranty and will replace them if they wear out or tear.
They don’t technically replace them. They give you a voucher for the amount equal to the ones that are being replaced. So if you send them a pair that would cost $13 to replace, you get a $13 voucher. If you get the same model, you break even.
>but y tho?
Probably because they’re hoping you’ll spend more. You’ll already be on their website, and already paying a few dollars for shipping (it’s not included in the warranty), so you might as well buy more.
I’ve swapped socks three times with them. The first time was a pair of used for a 300+ mile thru hike. They were just worn out; no jokes or anything, just thinner than new. The second time was a really old pair that I think I stretched out by leaving them folded over themselves and in the bottom of a plastic tote and forgotten about. The third time was from a puppy that found them, which they say isn’t covered yet here we are.
>They don’t technically replace them.
except when I go to the store with my pair of darn toughs that have a hole in them they give me another pair right then and there for free
The nearest REI is 7 hours away.
Do thy make merino ski socks?
Yes.
https://darntough.com/collections/snowboard-ski-socks
I have a pair of their ski socks that I got at TJ Max for like 40% off. They don’t have a warranty though (they printed “slightly irregular” on the bottom).
this post made me order 3 pairs this week
t. all my old socks have a holes in them and fixing wont do it anymore
>Darn tough
sorry i dont buy from "inclusive" companies
>Every company should have values. Ours are straightforward – we value families, honesty, and, above all, we value differences.
wew, they must value their diversity hires more than their own family.
Darn tough are top tier, I like Farm to Feet as well, got some of their extra thick socks on sale for 6 dollars a pair. Costco also now sells merino wool socks in 4 packs, US made and fairly cheap if you can't afford Darn tough prices
>I want to buy socks that will last me a life time.
I want a million bucks. it ain't gonna happen though. Your next best bet is to get a high quality pair of wool socks (generally you want 75-80% wool and 15-20% nylon). Even wool socks will disintegrate over time if you wear them enough though.
That's why you buy darn tough and exchange them for a new pair when they wear out
I understand socks to be consumable, like shoes, I just buy a lot and wear my ultra cool ones rarely
socks last 6-12 months at most.
the best you're gonna do is something like darn toughs where they have a lifetime replacement policy.
>does material matter or can i get a couple packs from walmart?
yes it matters a lot.
merino wool is not durable make sure its blended with nylon if you want it to last. long term merino gets this crusty glossy texture even if there's no holes in the socks.
bison down socks are more durable than merino wool but expensive. long term it suffers from pilling.
cheap polyester athletic socks from walmart will last the longest by far, and also be the cheapest.
polyester is better in hot weather, wool & various exotic natural fibers are better in cold weather. polyester gets stinky but dries out fast. the other ones resist smell. choose according to your climate.
>socks last 6-12 months
I walk miles a day and my socks last 5+ years on average what are you doing to them anon?
I bet he washes them in a washing machine like I do. I'll well aware that this rapidly kills wool socks but I can't help myself sometimes.
wash them inside out
if you are a former gov worker/military/leo/etc, you can get good discounts at govx. some other sites have good sales too.
>if you are a former gov worker/military/leo/etc, you can get good discounts at govx.
i wish i had that kind of high paying job, i needed new deck pillow but decided my feet were more important
my old neck pillow
gov jobs aren't high paying. they tend to be lower paying to nongov but more stable. politicians make money because kneepads.
Been using danish endurance socks and they're pretty alri.
Usually wear whatever on my feet and they're good, but with these socks I can wear them for a day and a half before they go funky.
Socks wear out. More money generally takes longer to wear out.
Get some silk socks on (thin and slippery), then some wool socks over those. Super comfy.
I don’t want socks or underwear that will last a lifetime. I’m okay replacing those regularly.
What socks would be best for a month on a research vessel? Does it matter at all? I’ll have nonslip rubber boots from cabelas on most of the day
doesn't really matter but its not uncommon working on ships to swap your socks and baselayers on lunch break, at least back when i did alaska crabbing.
shouldn't really matter what kind of socks. i liked thinner synthetics so they'd hold less moisture. polypropylene holds less than polyester.
>loose over tighter
That is for hiking to reduce chafing. But obviously two pairs will be warmer than one.
>get wool
>preferably 75-80% or greater wool content
>british military recommended a thin liner and thick outer for 2 layers.
>you can also just oversize your boots 1 to 2 whole sizes and buy a boot sock that you just leave with the boots at night.
-ex: look up nordman, torvi, kanik, or steger boots and you will see they have a type of liner meant to sit over your sock and in the boot. works well as a sponge you can remove at days end and dry out separately or wear in the sleeping bag.
>I just get darn tough for warranty and size up if you are close to between size because they are a bit too tight. I just get heaviest cushioning too. size up accordingly. I use the military extra cushion. If you arent from US or warranty is too hard go for something else like surplus. I can give some canadian recommendations. For EU, i'd probably look for surplus, but again, aim for the 75-80% wool content or it will be too clammy.
>anything too tight will start to cut off circulation.
>i've been trapped at work for several months without a shower. Had to hand wash everything and while socks hardened after first month, they still worked fine.
>for canada, i'd probably go for jb fields
>for europe, i've always had luck with this site for reviews:
my wife had a pair of woolpower that she wore all the time and lasted a few years. I thought their base layers were rubbish
https://www.outnorth.com/men/men-s-clothes/men-s-socks?sort=rating
I also have sensitive skin, but don't get the NEED for merino for socks. For skin, it is usually upper body that I have itch issues with wool so I wouldn't be too scared looking at non merino alternatives.
As for a liner sock if you are doing the british recommendation, I don't know what would make a great liner yet. I recently tried a nylon sock that I felt was counter intuitive. Thin wool doesn't last long. Cotton holds water.
atm I tend to just use the thickest darn tough and oversize boot to use a thick boot sock liner. I like the stegler/steger wool
also a good insole can do wonder not just for comfort, but heat retention. I've had a lot of good luck with cork (although a lot of shitty cork out there). Currently like meindls cork insoles and just trim them down to fit. does a great job for comfort/heat. Reason why birkenstocks run warm.
The reason woolpower gets away with 60ish % wool is they are made with an open weave like a sweater your grandma used to make.
You need the insulation to trap heat, which a lot of insulation fails to do. To trap heat you need space.
Its amazing looking at something like polartec (the original fleece company) make something as fragile as polartec alpha direct that thru hikers often use but find it extremely warm do to its ability to trap heat. My stanfield 80/20 is similar in design.
For as much praise as ive given darn tough though they are very dense without a ton of insulation. So they arent efficient. Ive never worn a hole though in their extra cushion.
Hope that clears up woolpowers despite using more nylon and less wool. I wish their base layers were more durable or id choose them over the competition.
>You need the insulation to trap heat, which a lot of insulation fails to do. To trap heat you need space
why arent they wearing grandma sweaters then?
>I don't know what would make a great liner yet
silk?
guessing polypropylene. just dont know a good manufacturer yet. not buying silk for durability reasons.
>surplus alternative wool
https://colemans.com/u-s-g-thermal-wool-socks?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&_kx=aUzQdSMLJ40hmEG7zzwF0hGy_KJ5lNhOxkRlmm8DUxI%3D.TKNMRy
>bass pro shop
used to have a lifetime guarantee sock that they discontinued about 5 years back. they were really solid and warmer than darn tough to weight. You could just take them back to a bass pro and they'd allow you to exchange them on the spot. Only cost about $12 a pair too. After 2014 the quality dropped though unfortunately. They were made in America too.
>Cost Co
They also have good merino socks for a low price. Last time I was there they weren't in the store, so may only be a winter thing. or discontinued as well.
the more research I do into this the more I realize most people don't know what they are talking about. Clothing is a broke industry unless you are Nike or a fashion brand (Nike), in which case your prime focus is athlete chic and fashion.
There's Patagonia and Arcteryx whom tend to be two of the bigger forces pushing the future direction of function, but both have pushed society to synthetics since Patagonias partnership with MArtin Mills (polartec) is what created fleece, a synthetic fiber meant to imitate wool.
Wool has been on the decline since the 1970s, and unless it is like a twill, thin wool just isn't durable.
For any ecological, flame, and stink issues with polyester, it's more efficient as an insulation than wool. That polartec fleece too, like what swazi uses is durable too.
polypro #1 silk #2 with a massive gap in durability and performance when wet
I forgot what the word is too, but some materials are poor radiators of heat/cold. This is more of what you want because in winter/summer, the weather will win the radiation game. The outdoors will bring more cold to your boot than your foot can in heating it up and vice versa for summer.
Plastic/rubber/polyurethane/nitrile/leather are bad at this. Translation: when you are fighting the winter war, most your boot outsoles will get cold very fast and that will radiate to your foot.
Wool is a material that does not work this way, hence why it is a great insulator. It's a material that won't feel frozen when you first put it on in the morning like a cotton button up will.
People get around this by building footwear with massive amount of insulation. Think the white bunny boot the us military uses or the mickey mouse boot. This utilizes a shell that the heat/cold radiates and still freezes with lots of insulation that doesn't give a frick because the outdoor radiation doesn't affect it much and the shell blocks most water and wind.
EVA is one shell material I have found that doesn't give a shell what elements the outdoors puts out. It's what crocs are made of. Torvi and nordman are made with them. Made in Russia where they are very popular because it is effective and cheap. There is a us (chinese) company called tingley too with a super cheap model here. I recall a polish company too. Lemigo I think if you hate Russia for whatever reason.
Like many 'rubber' type boots though, they don't breathe and just opening up the calf vent will still leave a lot of sweat, but this is where the boot/sock liner comes in to pick up a lot of your foot juice. By this metric, you can easily bring a spare boot liner, remove the old one, wipe down the inside of the boot, insert new boot liner and have a dry boot in short order. A super thinsulated leather boot (that weighs 5 pounds in contrast would take days to dry out properly).
The advantages of EVA:
>Extremely lightweight (rubber/wellingtons) weighing in at like 2 to 3 lbs.
>Good amount of cushion (croc material)
>works extremely well with a liner
>cheap
Disadvantages (everything has tradeoffs):
>do not leave out in sun or fire. Same with crocs, the material can shrink. I've seen crocs last a decade, but they aren't buy it for life or anything like that. I've never had them shrink because I wore them out in the sun.
>A large thorn or nail could technically pierce the material. I've never had it happen. I have lots of thorns where I live but they aren't super long (blackberry) and the spongey material tends to just flex and not pierce the material. Not sure how well they would handle cactus, or osage orange (crabapple), or loose nails though. Nordman/Torvi have some models with rubber plates underneath to assist with abrasion.
>Steger
Is also a good boot made in USA for not that much (pic rel from previous post), but they work better for dry snow unless you do a good job waterproofing.
>kamik
I used to use these. Canadian made boots and cost not much at all the kamik hunters were like $60 last I checked and used the same principle with a boot liner. I got about 3-4 years out of them before somewhere in the plastic rubber cracked. They shell material would get cold though and they weighed about twice as much as my EVA boots. Still a good boot and you can find them at dicks. Their boot liners are a weird material that has insulations layers instead of just a wool felt or fleece.
>sorry for derailing
just think that a lot of the poor decisions with warm feet have to do with shitty boot choices and fitting fatass wool socks into a tiny shoe. Most the all in one designs suck (leather with thinsulate) unless it meets your perfect weather pattern or you need the highest in durability, and a lot of winter boots in general aren't made for a wide foot or layering many socks in. By the time you size up 2 whole sizes they dont lace tight
>pic of bunny boot for insulation context. Now imagine your salomons being able to fit that much insulation. They won't. Their footwear is too narrow in the first place. Most boots are either too narrow for even a thick layer of socks, and they wont lace tight enough.
here's a pic of a popular boot here, the m77. this is a shell boot in its a single piece of leather and that is it so that you can customize the insulation. Great in theory, but in my experience the lacing needs more work because once you have 2 layers of socks in your 1-2 size upsized m77s, the lacing is wonky. The lower laces don't hold down well once you move up the lace chain and your foot starts to slide around. If you tighten too much at the instep too you cut circulation off to your lower foot and then what's the point of wearing all those socks?
There are a ton of blood vessels right at the top of the foot above the arch that the smallest amount of circulation cut off and your foot starts to freeze.
>it's a 4/5 effort, especially for being an almost 50 year old design. the leather is 2/5, the lacing 3/5, the foot width is 4/5 but needs to be wider for winter. It's a design that should handle customization better between lacing up for summer and winter and there's just no way around it because it doesn't.
This is the problem and wall people face. If you want a good design engineered to succeed in bad conditions, chances are it will be frick ugly. Think crocs, think birkenstock. Look at the stegler design above. Chad has his feet kicked up despite it looking like roblox made his threads.
>one other obvious thing with warmth.
keep the core of your body warm, because thats the part pumping out warm blood to the rest of the body. use a hat too. keep your gay wool skull beany in your jacket so its there with you.
oldgay here
polypro > silk > coolmax > wool for liner socks
polypro is just simply the perfect material for the task. but it has fallen way out of favor with outdoors brands since the 90s when patagonia replaced all their polypro stuff with calipne.
right now if you walk into an outdoors outfitter silk is the best you will find. if you want polypro you'll have to buy them marketed as dress socks and hope you get a pair thin enough.
rei are fricking Black folk because they stopped selling their polypro liners and replaced them with coolmax in 2016.
polypro and silk perform similar except polypro works better when wet & has like 10-50x the lifespan. you will never blow out non stretch polypro liners and silk ones last like a year.
wool is not durable enough for the task, if you insist on using wool go with the injinji toe sock liners. they last the longest. i'd go with silk if you want to stay natty.
coolmax should get some honorable mention though, they're great for running and dayhiking in warm months. their main problem imo is they stink like shit after a day. polypro and wool are both stink free.
There are only two brands I shill for: Darn Tough socks and Jaybird earphones.
>I want to buy socks that will last me a life time
fools errand
>city
one pair of wool socks is fine
>literally any snow
one thin pair wool sock
a liiquid barrier, trashbag/plastic bread bag
fleece sock ontop
cover the insole with thermal blanket foil
t. minnesotan whos sat watching frack water tanks overnight in north dakota
Any Injinji master race here?
I've used a few, Woolpower 800, Smartwool Mountaineering, Darn Tough, and the norwegian raggsokk, and honestly I've prefered the raggsokk. Just keeps me warm and has good cushion, which is weird because the other socks mentioned definitely seem more high tech. I was thinking about trying some alpaca socks in the future, but ill have to do some more research as I see many different companies with different wool content/blend.
I don't double sock tho, I think a single wool socks + altberg boots (+ pullover boots) is a good all year combo that follows the layering system well
remember to learn how to cut and file you´re toenails before buying expensive socks
wrongly cut toenails will eat trough them socks like they were butter and be uncomfortable at the same time