A Man’s Guide to Socks

November 09, 2017

Why Socks?

Socks are an interesting piece of clothing; we pay so little attention to them and yet they’re central to our overall comfort in several ways: socks protect our feet from abrasion, wick away our perspiration, and keep our dew beaters snug in our shoes. They’re also a small detail that can either pull your outfit together or serve as an unwelcome distraction.

Today we’ll give this often overlooked piece of clothing a thorough look over, if for no other reason than to ensure that when you spend your hard earned dollars you are buying the best socks for your needs.

Common Rules Concerning Socks

1. Your socks should match one another and not have holes or visible stains

Now some of you are thinking this is incredibly obvious; however, I mention this rule for those of you who fail to see the problem here. Assuming you keep your shoes on and never expose your torn and mismatched socks, there very well may not be an issue. But for most of us, failing to heed this rule is going to lead to an embarrassing situation when we unexpectedly have to remove our shoes; instead of striking up a conversation with a potential business partner, we’ll be worried about concealing our protruding big toe.

Side Note – it was an embarrassing situation with torn socks at a Japanese Tea house that led entrepreneur Samy Liechti to form the company Black Socks. His genius idea? Provide men sockscriptions, where 3 pairs of black socks are delivered by mail every few months. Wish I would have thought of this!

2. Your socks should match your trousers

A man cannot go wrong following this advice, as it serves to create a streamlined look with no unnecessary color contrast until the eyes meet the shoes. Many men also like this rule as its rigidness leaves no room for interpretation and confusion.

However once a man has a sense of his own personal style, he should feel free to break this rule. Doing so enables him to introduce into his wardrobe a wide range of patterned and perhaps even lively colored socks that conservative dressers would avoid. I’m a bigger fan of a man coordinating his choice of the sock with his neckwear and shoes; although more difficult than the aforementioned rule of matching your trousers, the tradition of coordinating your shoes, socks, and neckwear has a 100-year history and can help liven up an otherwise dull outfit.

3. Wear knee length vs. ankle length socks

This rule is based off the belief that a gentleman should not expose his bare leg unintentionally. A bit archaic, I know, but it still holds sway nonetheless as the flash of white hairy skin when wearing a dark suit can be distracting. And that’s not what we want.

In practice, this rule is hard to abide by as most sock manufacturers do not make socks that rise anywhere close to the knee. The extra material increases the cost of the sock by 25% or more, and most manufacturers are competing on price. If you want knee length socks you’ll need to look to menswear stores vs. most department stores and be willing to pay a bit more.

4. Your socks should match the dress level of the rest of your ensemble

If you’re wearing black-tie, then choose a quality, lightweight, knee-high sock with a sheen appearance. If you’re wearing a sport jacket and grey flannel trousers, heavy wool argyle socks work perfectly. Jeans, a nice t-shirt, and leather casual footwear call for a dark sock that simply pulls the shoes and denim together. A trip to the gym? Here’s where you wear those white tube socks.

Sock Construction

Hosiery knitting machines first appeared around the year 1600 but didn’t start to have a large impact on the industry until 1800 when inexpensive cotton made mass manufacturing profitable. Today modern circular knitting machines and the automation of most of the manufacturing process enables large manufacturers to churn out socks in huge numbers. This has been great in the sense of making socks affordable for everyone; the negative effect is that most socks today are made to be disposable and fit only a small percentage of men well. If you’ve ever bought a pair of tube socks at Wal-Mart that range in size from 6 to 12 you know what I’m talking about – you may get 12 for 6 dollars, but good luck on fit and durability.

Higher quality socks, on the other hand, are manufactured using both better materials and the process for manufacturing them is often 50% longer. More time is spent on creating stronger seams, a higher percentage of hand guided sewing is required, and higher quality controls are enforced. Also, quality sock manufacturers make a wider range of sizes. Although this adds complexity to the line from a manufacturing perspective, from the consumer side it translates into a better fit. On the downside, quality socks can cost 5 to 20 times more than their less expensive brethren. If you’re searching for quality socks, look for ones made in the US or UK as they will typically be constructed with greater attention to detail.