What does quality mean for socks?

Socks are regularly stuck between tight shoes and sweaty feet, chaffed and pulled as we walk and then thrown in washing machines, where they are often washed too hot. The whole process then starts again like a savage ritual! So what qualities does a sock need to survive daily life, as unharmed as possible, for as long as possible?

The yarn

As with every piece of textile, the length of the processed yarn is a critical factor. The longest cotton fibers are found in Peruvian Pima cotton, cultivated in the foothills of the Andes. Due to climatic conditions the cotton grows longer before being harvested, while American or Indian cotton grows in a tropical climate and therefore has a shorter fiber length. After harvesting, the Peruvian cotton is spun together with other fibers to make the yarn. The more compact the yarn, the more resistant to chafing the fabric is once woven.

The colour

Cotton is beige in its natural state so all textiles that are not beige are either bleached or dyed. With dyed textiles, like socks, the colour-fastness is an important criteria. Black dye has a tendency to turn grey or matte quickly, just look at the variety of shades in your current sock drawer to see! Only high quality colours do not bleed and can survive the daily strains. To avoid skin irritation, our socks are dyed with Oekotex certified dyes, meaning they are considered absolutely harmless.

The reinforcement

Socks come under the most pressure at the heel and toe. Therefore the yarn used to make our socks is either stronger or woven into multiple layers during the production process.

The workmanship

A firm yarn must be knitted as tightly as possible in order to achieve maximum durability. Our socks are knitted on CNC operated knitting machines, specially developed for Blacksocks to ensure maximum tightness and guarantee a longer sock life.