Socks are an odd thing to review, they are important as they are the buffer between your foot and your shoe but largely they are invisible. You don't necessarily notice a good sock but you do a bad one. My sock of choice for the last 6 months or so has been an Inov8 trail sock.
They are good socks, good elastic support and comfortable. The main issue is durability. Where the sock rubs on the shoe the fibres wear through leaving them threadbare in the exact spot that you need, er, thread. Look in my kit drawer and you can see the fibres that have worn loose.
I've also been wearing some nike road socks that are again, decent socks, they are thin, polyester and quite durable. They offer little by way of cushioning and are more a liner.
Contrast with the Ashmei trail socks that I, along with a bunch of other wannabe ambassadors, were given as a gift for attending the ambassadors day. The first thing about these socks is that they look like a traditional running sock but someone like Hilly or Thorlos. Predominantly white with some coloured trim they sit just below the ankle but have a large cushioned tab at the back.
Putting them on and you can feel the support through the arch of the foot and also the length of the foot. Elastic through the heel holding the sock firm.
In the week since I was given them I decided to stress test them a bit by wearing them for 5 days worth of run commuting. A week where I also increased my mileage a bit. I wasn't washing them in between either. This was to test the durability and also the odor busting mix of merino wool and carbon. Marrying the natural wicking properties of merino with the thirst of carbon.
I ran 10 times over the 5 days and covered 38.9 miles. I was wearing an Adidas Boost shoe for all these runs.
Remarkably after a week the socks did not smell. I don't have a particularly good sense of smell so managed to persuade Mrs. B to test them. Reluctantly she had a sniff, early in the week she said they smelled like damp wool, that was after I had just taken them off. Later in the week nothing really. Quite something considering. Consider that this is the sock, the clothes are made of the same/similar weave and so should perform the same.
As for durability, well the integrity of the sock was maintained, they did not feel sloppy or loose at all during the week. The elastic keeping taught. They were a bit bobbly towards the end of the week, a inevitable (?) by product of using wool. They also showed some signs of rubbing on the big toe as you can see in the picture. There was no obvious wear and no signs of any weak spots.
These are very good socks, the fact that they don't smell means makes them ideal for someone like me that run commutes. I get through a lot of kit and sometimes at the end of the day to run home it can be quite nasty putting on the mornings gear. Not so with these socks. I really liked the oversized tab at the back of the socks, this made getting them really easy and at no time did it feel like pulling it would damage the sock.
The best feature though, for me, was the elastic support given to the foot. From the heel through the length and then on the bridge of the foot this is a really supportive and secure sock.
The longest run I did in these was around 7 miles, the shortest was 2.5, as I've already mentioned I wore my adidas boost trainers for all runs.
While these were a gift the review is honest and unbiased. It is actually quite hard to review a sock as there's not a lot you can really say. These have clearly been thought out and designed to be functional. They are quite expensive but as a measure of how good they are I have subsequently ordered another pair.
I would wear them with confidence on a long run and suggest that you could do so out of the box such is the performance of this item.
Top class socks!
