Sock logic

July 18, 2024 2:10 PM

Every 12-14 months I buy six pair of Dickies black ankle socks for $16. Am I better off buying higher quality socks less frequently?

I lose the Dickies to holes in the heel or toe. should I learn to darn them?

what is your sock process?

posted by mecran01 to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (16 answers total)

I started wearing Darn Tough socks ten years ago and stopped replacing socks. I used to wear through a pair of Smartwool in about a year, always in the same spot by my big toe. Darn Tough have a lifetime replacement program, but I have yet to need it.
posted by advicepig at 2:14 PM on July 18

six pair of Dickies black ankle socks for $16

That's 2.67 a pair, so do the math based on that.

should I learn to darn them

Sure, why not? Toes are usually easier than heels.
posted by trig at 2:55 PM on July 18

Darning is effective and not hard to do once you have the hang of it — it’s a chill activity to do while listening to a podcast. There are lots of great tutorial videos on YouTube. Darning can get another six months or a year out of your socks. It’s better to darn before holes develop, when your socks are just starting to thin. That “a stitch in time saves nine” thing is very real.

Even better than darning is reinforcing your socks before you wear them. It’s easier and faster than darning, and it’ll extend the life of your socks even more. Here’s a good tutorial on the technique, called “running”.

Of course…you probably won’t regret getting higher quality socks, if you can swing it. Darning isn’t hard, but it can get tedious if you’re doing a lot of it. It is an investment of time - investing that time in higher quality socks will have a better return.
posted by ourobouros at 3:25 PM on July 18

If you go to a close out store like Marshall’s or Burlington, you can get six packs of probably the exact same socks (but with different brands) for half that or maybe less. Not sure what that does to your math
posted by toodleydoodley at 3:42 PM on July 18

The answer to this question kind of depends on you, really. What is your budget? Would it cause you monetary stress to buy six pairs of good socks at once, knowing those socks will last you several years? To use advicepig's brand as an example, six pairs of Darn Tough socks will set you back about $120-140. If you do that once, you're set for socks for probably 4-5 years if not more (I have several pairs of these socks and can vouch that they last ~forever, and I also have several Smartwools that are going strong after 5 years). On a purely mathematical basis, this is more expensive than your current sock purchase method, but it's arguable that these are better quality socks, so is that worth the extra cost to you?

Another way to do this, and what I generally do, is that if it's sock-buying time, buy one or two pairs each payday for two or three paydays in a row. Before long, you've got your all new set of socks for the next X number of years.

But to frame your question another way: does it bother you to spend what you currently spend on socks? If you're OK with both the money you're spending and the socks you're buying, stick with it - it doesn't sound as if you're spending an extravagant amount of money currently. If you use them to failure, you're getting your money's worth, after all. And as others have mentioned, you can always learn to darn them if you really want to stretch your sock dollars.
posted by pdb at 4:14 PM on July 18

I can report that I have some worn out Darn Tough socks... Black ankle socks, in fact. Some of the wool yarn has worn away in the arches and instep so they look patchy, but the nylon is still holding up and the cushioned foot is still just fine. They don't have holes in them and I could keep wearing them if I didn't care at all how they looked.

I bought them in June 2016. So, eight years. The replacement cost is $19, so that's about $3.20 per sockyear, compared to your $2.60 per sockyear.

To me, it's worth it because:

1) They're very comfy. (I highly recommend the light running cushion for everyday wear!)

2) They looked basically brand new the whole time, until the patchiness started.

3) I do place some value on my own time, and i haven't had to think about replacing them yearly, make a judgement call as to whether they really are worn out enough to throw them away, work through my guilt about wasting the Earth's precious resources, shop for new black ankle socks, etc. for eight years.

I could return them for new socks. Their policy is "If these aren’t the longest lasting socks you’ve ever owned, you can return them to us for another pair." No conditions (notably, no requirement that you prove you own or have owned other, longer-lasting socks). You just fill out a form and send them the worn out socks and they send you a code to buy new on their website.

Since, yeah, these probably are the longest-lasting socks I've ever owned, I guess using the warranty is kind of a dick move? But if I were to return each worn-out pair for a new pair and they last as long, that takes them down to $1.60 a sockyear.
posted by BrashTech at 6:46 PM on July 18

I buy new socks all the time. I get white ones, so I have to replace them when they look grungy. Honestly, it’s kind of satisfying to put a fresh clean brand new sock on your foot. It is not outrageous to do this annually.
posted by shock muppet at 9:36 PM on July 18

Socks with stretch in them, and wool socks, last longer if you dry them on a rack instead of in the dryer. Takes a lot less time than darning (but only helps if you start with new socks).

I have bras and underwear that also get air dried, so I have a pile of delicates bags and a dedicated hamper for delicates. Then I just yank the delicates bags out when moving from washer to dryer.
posted by nat at 5:47 AM on July 19

As a Vermonter I am required to buy only Darn Tough socks, so thank goodness they are awesome. And they have a a lifetime replacement why would I want to wear anything else?
posted by terrapin at 6:06 AM on July 19

Hearing "sockyear" as a unit of measure has tickled me, thank you.

Please do also consider sock-loss in your calculations, which will raise the cost/sockyear of the more durable options. I have never worn out a pair of Darn Tough socks, but I have a couple of them who have lost their partners.

(My personal sock-logic is several pairs of Darn Toughs for everyday wear, and a bunch of cheaper cotton socks for the gym/workouts. Surprisingly, I find I can wear the good merino wool socks a few times before they need washing, which is helpful in extending their life and reducing laundry hassle).
posted by hovey at 6:39 AM on July 19

Another Darn Tough recommendation. And that's coming from someone who generally buys cheap clothes, so it felt weird to spend more on a pair of socks than I usually do on a dress shirt. Buy one pair to see if you love them as much as the rest of us. If you do, about 5 pairs should hold you for years; if not, you can either keep one pair or return them.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:45 AM on July 19

I am also tickled by the concept of a sockyear, and I, like BrashTech, have worn out Darn Tough socks, with exactly the same failure mode. (FTR I have not yet worn out a pair of Smartwools.)

I think the question comes down to "do you actually like wool socks?" I'd start with a single pair of black ankle socks from DT, wear them a few times and decide if you like them as well as or better than your current socks. If so, use pdb's one-pair-per-paycheck strategy to gradually increase your wool stash. This has the added benefit that your socks will not all wear out at the same time.
posted by spamloaf at 7:13 AM on July 19

It depends on how many pairs you have, but for things like socks and underwear, more is better.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:25 AM on July 19

For what it's worth, I as someone who apparently has sock-killing feet have never really found a deep correlation between durability and quality/price. I do agree that material matters to some degree, which is probably where the recommendations are coming from so far, but I do go through wool socks as well, and for me it's not really so different from lighter materials. Also, the summer weight wool ones seem to me to last proportionately less time. So in the end I mostly just wear socks that I like, and no longer try that hard to optimize lifespan. (My favorite sock material is actually bamboo, but not so much for lifespan.)
posted by advil at 7:51 AM on July 19

I am all for having identical and cheap socks -- I hate sorting socks so a couple decades ago I threw out all of my socks and bought two dozen identical pairs of black socks. I can just grab any random two black socks out of my drawer and they will match, and they all fade and wear out at the same rate. Every few years when they are all starting to look too faded and thin in the heels it is time for Sockapocalypse -- all the socks get thrown out and replaced with a new set of plain black socks.

Sure, $25 per pair fancy-schmancy socks may outlast my cheapo black socks, but I never worry about any of them going missing or having a hole or whatever.

I still have a few pairs of nice expensive wool hiking socks, but they sit in the bottom of the drawer for when they are needed.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:28 PM on July 19

Please do also consider sock-loss in your calculations, which will raise the cost/sockyear of the more durable options. I have never worn out a pair of Darn Tough socks, but I have a couple of them who have lost their partners.

For this reason, I recommend buying a batch of identical socks. Then two lost socks doesn’t mean two pair eliminated, only one. And when it is time to replace some or all, try to get socks that are not exactly the same, or find a way to add your own mark to them. I cannot bear it when my laundry service (by which I mean, Mr. Tech) matches two socks that have significantly different wear levels. (Well, it’s not so bad as to make me want to do my own laundry, though.)
posted by BrashTech at 11:21 AM on July 20