Cotton Socks, Pack of 3

Details

Three pairs of calf-length everyday socks: 78 percent combed cotton, 20 percent nylon and 2 percent elastane, knitted on a 144-needle machine in Ludhiana, about 52 g a pair in size L. A sock is the one garment on this shelf where the honest answer is not 100 percent cotton, and that is worth explaining rather than hiding behind a rounder number. A pure cotton sock wears a hole through the heel in weeks, because cotton has very little abrasion resistance and no recovery at all. The nylon is there because it does not wear through, and it is concentrated in the heel and the toe, which is where a sock actually fails. The elastane is in the cuff, because it is the only thing that keeps a sock up. So the word blend is covering two completely different things here. Nylon in the heel is engineering. Seventy percent polyester through the whole sock, sold as a cotton sock because polyester costs a third of what cotton costs, is the cheat, and the only way to tell them apart is to print the figures and say where each fibre sits. The last honest thing worth saying is how long they last, because nobody says it. Worn once a week and washed cool, a cotton sock at this weight gives about twelve to eighteen months before the heel thins. Worn daily, four to six months. That is the real number, and a brand implying otherwise is not counting wash cycles. What ends a sock early is the tumble dryer and then the toenail, in that order.

• 78 percent combed cotton, 20 percent nylon, 2 percent elastane, confirmed by FTIR and printed rather than described as cotton rich
• Nylon reinforcement concentrated in the heel and toe, elastane in the cuff only
• Combed rather than carded, so it does not pill inside the shoe
• Terry cushioned sole, a full towelling loop under the foot rather than a flat knit
• Linked flat toe seam, so there is no ridge across the toes
• 1x1 ribbed cuff 6 in high, so it stays up without gripping the calf
• 144-needle gauge, about 52 g a pair in size L, which is the weight that makes them last
• Azo-free dye below the 30 ppm limit for restricted aromatic amines, and free formaldehyde below 75 ppm, because a sock sits in sweat all day
• A terry sole is warmer and thicker. Inside a close-fitting leather shoe it will feel snug, and a flat-knit sock is the right one there
• Three pairs of one colour, all black, because a sock fails one of a pair at a time and three of a colour means one loss does not retire the rest