Think of the difference between running in heavy hiking boots versus lightweight racers. When you strip away the excess, you feel faster. It’s the same psychological and physiological "Ferrari Effect" you get when you finish a period of resistance training (like rucking with a heavy pack) and finally drop the weight. You feel light, springy, and agile.
Here’s a question we get almost every day:
“What’s the best running sock?”
It’s a fair question.
After all, runners will happily spend $350-$450 on the latest carbon-plated shoes, analyse their cadence, obsess over VO₂ max and debate the merits of one energy gel over another…
…then head out wearing the oldest pair of cotton socks they found at the bottom of the drawer.
Let’s be honest.
Nobody wakes up on race morning thinking:
“I’ve trained for six months. My nutrition is dialled in. My pacing strategy is perfect. Now I just need my feet to slowly cook themselves inside my shoes.”
Yet every year it happens.
If there is one question we get more than any other, it’s this: "What is the most durable pair of hiking socks I can buy?"
It’s a valid question. We’ve all been there—you buy a pair of "lifetime guarantee" socks, head out for a multi-day trek, and by day three, your heel is starting to look like thin, see-through cheesecloth. I have spent years testing socks in the field—no white lab coats, just rain, mud, sand, and thousands of kilometres of trail. Through that experience, I’ve learned that while some socks are built to be disposable, others are engineered to be companions.
Every time I walk onto the track or into a clubhouse to coach, I witness the same pattern. Athletes rocking carbon-plated super-shoes worth half a week’s rent, wearing watches that claim to know their VO₂ max better than their own lungs, and recovery gadgets that look like they were stolen from NASA.
And then… they peel off their shoes and reveal socks that look like they were part of a school uniform pack from 2009.
Are you thinking about walking the Kokoda Track, but not quite sure what socks to wear? Here are some tips to help you choose the right pair of hiking socks.
Few things ruin a good run faster than a blister. You lace up with the optimism of an Olympic marathoner, step out the door, and within three kilometres, your foot feels like it’s hosting an underground friction rave.
Sock liners are super thin lightweight socks you wear underneath your existing socks. The whole idea is that the sock liners will take sweat from your feet leaving you more comfortable when outdoors and prevent any nasty blisters from appearing. What should you look for when buying? Read More............
What are the best socks for the Bloody Long Walk, a charity 100km challenge, or any multi-day endurance trek? There is one non-negotiable reality: 100 kilometres is a hell of a long way. In this our ProLab series, we talk about the best socks, how to plan and care for your feet.
Don’t be the one that risks it and spends the walk thinking about the friction hot spots and then screaming for mercy in your toe box.
This is a question we get asked all the time and despite socks, for some being a boring item, lets face it we spend a lot of time trying to get it right. In our ProLab series we discuss the best running socks for everyday runs, marathons, Hyrox and more.
Your gym has changed. Your socks probably haven’t.
Once upon a time, going to the gym might have meant lifting some weights, sitting down, lifting some more weights and finishing with ten minutes on the treadmill.
Your socks weren’t exactly being put through military service. That’s not how everyone trains anymore. Let’s take a look at better socks.
Toe socks are divisive. Toe socks are brilliant. Toe socks are weird. Toe socks are the oyster of the sock world.
Some people swear by them. Some people try them once and say never again — the same way some people taste an oyster and immediately decide they’ve just eaten cold snot.
And that’s exactly why this review needs to exist.
There’s a particular kind of silence you get on Mt Bogong in winter.
It’s the sort of silence where you can hear your own breathing, the crunch of snow under your boots and, occasionally, the quiet voice in your head asking why you thought carrying 30 kilos up a 1,986-metre mountain was a good idea.
At 1,986 metres, Mt Bogong is Victoria’s highest peak. In summer, it’s a serious walk. In winter, throw in snow, ice, crampons, mountaineering boots and a pack loaded with enough equipment to make a small expedition, and things get considerably more interesting.
So naturally, one of our team decided it was the perfect place to test a pair of GearSocks Buffalo Lightweight Hiking socks.
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