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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Socks

Sometimes, when a company sales rep comes to visit to give us our product training they bring presents.  Or rather, items for us to use and then hopefully sell better to the customers.

The rep from Bradshaw Taylor tends to come armed with Icebreaker socks.  I've had a pair of running socks and a pair of midweight hike socks on previous visits.  They are good quality and nicely made, but they haven't fitted my feet quite right.  I wear them for kicking about, the hike socks are lovely and warm for wearing with winter slippers, but can't use them for running or walking as they are the wrong shape in the toe box (or, my feet are the wrong shape for the socks...) and the excess fabric bunches up and rubs.

This time he came armed with new multisport socks.  To be precise, the Womens Multisport Ultralite Micro but in bright pink, not the grey version on the website.  These are very light weight for a sports sock, with no cushioning at all, however there is a cushioned version.  They have a ventilated area on top of the foot and lycra in the instep to give a snug fit.

They are a different fit to the others I've had - they fit my feet.  I wore them on a Cosmic run at Cheyne Hill and no problems.  I thought I might notice the lack of cushioning as I use fell shoes which don't have much cushioning either, but I didn't.  They are little short in the ankle and I got a bit of heather down them, but they make a Mini version with a higher ankle cuff.  I've worn them to cycle to work a couple of days too.

There's a little bit of wear to the heel of each sock and some black lycra threads starting to show, so I'll have to see how that fares.  Generally though, they are comfy and I am contemplating using them for the Durris race next week.

I have also had a box of Tesco Naturally Powered non bio powder to test as well.  So the filthy, muddy, wet running kit went in the wash with that.  The verdict on the powder is that it doesn't dissolve and wash through the drawer well enough, but the cleaning is fine if you add it direct to the drum.  Hopefully Tesco will fix that.  See below for before and after wash pictures of the socks.  I didn't expect the white writing to stay white, and it didn't, but otherwise the rest of the peaty mud has gone and they smell washed.

Muddy socks
Muddy

Clean socks
Clean