Ep. 261 - The Best Sock Your Money Can Buy

Rob shares his experiences in over two decades of working and playing outdoors, often times in harsh and extreme conditions...in the search for the perfect sock.  He talks about the past six years of field testing the Darn Tough Vermont sock and the results from doing so.

~

Disclaimer : There are affiliate links in this article, where you also have the opportunity to support the podcast and the community by utilizing products or services actively being put to use by the community.   

Links:   

• Darn Tough Vermont Socks - Merino Wool Socks Guaranteed for Life
• Injinji® Performance Toesocks
• What Are the Benefits of Barefoot Shoes?
• Correct Toes® | Toe Spacers, Footwear & Foot Care
• King Toe - Red Wing Shoes
• Men's Merino Wool, Hiking & Running Socks by Patagonia
• Bridgedale Socks
• What I'm wearing today:
  • Men's Paul Bunyan Over-the-Calf Midweight Work Socks
• All Around Growth Community Group Chat (Telegram)   

~  

Connect and share on social media!  

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/allaroundgrowth
• Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/allaroundgrowth
• Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/allaroundgrowth
• Telegram Broadcast Channel - https://t.me/allaroundgrowthpodcast
• Telegram Group Chat - https://t.me/allaroundgrowth

~  

Subscribe to the All Around Growth Podcast Telegram Channel for show updates ONLY:    

• https://t.me/allaroundgrowthpodcast  

~

• Follow this link to ALL EPISODES   

~ 

• How To Leave a Rating & Review in Apple Podcast App
  • This really *does* affect the algorithm...
  • ...as of recording in December 2021 - I would invite you to do this!
  • The podcast game is changing - help us with a rating and review!

~

Have a Question or any feedback for Rob?

Send me an email at allaroundgrowth@gmail.com

~ 

Notes:

N/A

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host. Today we have a ventilating episode where we're going to talk about Zocks. Yeah. Yeah, that's right, Zocks. Um, while that may not seem all that exciting, I assure you that it will be accompanied with some details and life experiences of my own injected in there with the dialogue about socks, quality socks, and why we ought to consider wearing certain types of socks. But before we get into that, this isn't a show about fabric, clothing, or anything like that. This is a show that provides insight and tools to build the life and homestead of your dreams. And we also have a budding community forming largely through Telegram. And you can join us there at t.me slash allaroundgrowth on your internet browser. That is one way to engage without putting yet another app on your phone. So check it out, t.me slash allaroundgrowth. And without further ado, I guess we will dive right into the subject of socks. Ultimately, where this is going to end up is me talking about the current sock that I am wearing today. And for those who are maybe just interested in what I think the best Zoc is, without listening to a 20-minute ramble of the whole buildup before I just say what's the best Zoc. Let's just get right to it. At the core, after two uh yeah, two decades of working oftentimes outdoor and in harsh weather, I have come to believe that the best brand of sock is the darn tough brand out of Vermont. I the oldest pair of darn tough socks that I have is six years old. Seven years old? It's uh they are going into their seventh season. And they are they they they hold up well. Um they've held up well and uh continue to wear well. I wear them on average once a week. And don't really know what more I have to say about it. They it's it's the most solid sock that I've ever had, and that includes such brands as Smartwool, Bridgedale, uh those are the those are the other those are the two that come to mind. And I'm sure some other brands will come up. Like I've worn REI just uh like stock brand socks, do not recommend those. Um and yeah, so let's just let's let's talk about socks and and and and and all of my experiences with socks, right? Like I said, scintillating episode today. Um how I got turned on to darn tough socks. So you know I I grew up just like many other people, you know, normal middle class, uh, I guess upper middle class. Yeah, upper middle class home in suburban America. Uh we didn't, you know, it it we didn't really wear fancy clothes. You know, it was like hanes socks, fruit of the loom underwear. Um and that that's largely the way it stayed until I think until I moved until I moved out west. And and maybe yeah, I mean prior to that I was I was active in hiking and stuff like that, but it wasn't really until I moved out west uh in my early 20s where I really began to embrace the outdoor lifestyle. And in doing so, in addition to working outdoors, like I said, there was a lot of hiking, backpacking, um, trail running, uh, and and including movement towards a barefoot lifestyle and socks that are compatible with Vibram five-finger shoes, right? And for those of you who are into those shoes, uh, one brand of sock that when you you if you're into the shoe, you probably already know this. But if you're not into the shoe and have no desire to wear that style of five-finger shoe, this is still kind of a cool sock to experiment with. Uh, the brand is in in Jingy, I Nj I J I, and it is like a glove for your foot. It's well constructed, it feels a little funny at first, but there was a period of time in my life uh during the time when I was really embracing the the barefoot, the barefoot. It wasn't so much a barefoot lifestyle, but after developing some some pro you know, not not problems, but like an kind of a nagging injury running. Um I decided that I needed to revisit my form and in doing some research on how to effectively deal with this injury, I stumbled across a lot of mobility routines where people advised zero drop shoes andor uh minimalist shoes, a la barefoot style running. And I subsequently learned about this and incorporated much of this into my own life and my own routines, and those injuries went away. Part of this included a device called Correct Toes, like a toe spacer, and I found that I could wear these little toe spacers in conjunction with these Njinji socks inside my work boots if I purchased a pair of Red Wing King Toe series boots. And I wore these king toe series boots for probably five years. No. Uh the first pair I bought of these boots was in California. So I've been wearing these boots for ten years. I've been wearing these boots for a decade. And this is how long I've been I got crepes. I guess this is how long I've been doing this kind of, you know, the having this interest in mobility, motion, feet, uh, just just human natural movement because uh there were aspects of my life that were very sedentary, and I guess I've come to believe that this sedentary Western lifestyle is the root cause for most of the problems and uh dis ease that we experience as a culture. But that, friends, is another subject for another day. We are talking about socks. And this came up recently because I stumbled across a box of old clothes while I was upstairs. This past weekend, and I was looking I was looking for a book that I couldn't that I couldn't find. And um at any rate, I ended up pulling down this box of clothing and I unpacked some things that I forgot I had actually some some cold weather gear and some socks. And uh some of the socks that I've been wearing are are wearing through, and you know, anyways, like I said, grew up wearing like Haynes Fruit of the Loom, and uh that didn't really change much until I started getting outdoors, but then when I went back into the corporate world, yeah, I mixed it up a bit with some gold toe, you know. And the socks that I found in this box though were some of these uh older socks, at least one pair was a pair of socks that was gifted to me by an old loved mother. And uh one Christmas, and that was no, it was my birthday, and that was her thing that she did was every birthday, maybe it was Christmas, I don't know. I don't think it was Christmas, I think it was some let's just say birthday for Christ's sake. Uh every birthday she would give as gifts three pairs of good quality socks. You know, not not some not some garbage sock, but uh it was an unexpected gift because she picked up a pair of Patagonia socks, a pair of Bridgedale socks, and a pair of darn tough socks. And that was in 2015, and that was when I was first introduced to this darn tough sock. The Patagonia sock, pretty good, no wear on the bottom, but there is a tear in the body of the sock on the top of the foot. The Bridgedale socks also performed well with little wear, but the elasticity has lost its life, it's gone, and after a while they sag a bit. So still wearable, not the best, but the darn tough socks, on the other hand, have performed extremely well over time. They have main, I would say I I own uh three pairs. One is a summer, like a lighter weight, lower cut, uh, I guess that they would call that. No, I don't know. Um I don't know what that is called, but there's the there's the over the calf boot cut, and then maybe mid-calf and angle length. I have a mid-calf lightweight one, which is a nice sock. And I also have a uh two pairs of the bootcut. One of the two and over I bought another pair of of bootcut darn tough socks uh a few years ago after seeing how well these had performed. And um after you know, five or six years of a bootcut darn tough sock, if I had to rate the elasticity performance over time, I would say, you know, give it a that's probably 80% of what it was. You know? Six years, not bad. Um so I just recently purchased another pair, and this is a work sock. It's an over-the-calf midweight sock, and I've never worn that tall of a sock before. It feels kind of funny, but we're gonna see how it does because I'm wearing a different style of boot, like a Wellington pull-on work boot now. And I'm not 100% sold on these boots, but uh kind of interesting. It's a nice change of pace, and that's it, guys. I'm about to park the truck. Um, if you like what you hear, check out the show notes. I'll link to some of the brands and some of the stuff I talked about in the show notes, and I will leave it on you to share it from there. That's it, guys. See you in the next episode tomorrow. This is Robin Hydro