Socks — Blog — Healy Chen

Sweat stinks, but Arrid works

If you are like me and have sweaty extremities at the mere hint of any kind of bodily motion, it’s quite a chore to handle the water-fest that comes. After, of course, you curse at your awfully unlucky genetics. Because like that famous deodorant commercial, a sweaty guy is not in the least attractive.

A sweaty head is easy enough. Anytime I am doing anything active, a sweat band goes on. It doesn’t stop the sweating obviously, but the primary function I need it for is to prevent the droplets from interfering with my eyes.

Sweaty hands just means frequent glove changes when I am involved in any dirty jobs. Partly why I buy single use nitrile gloves on Amazon by the 1000s. Environmentalists please don’t come for me. I have a monthly donation to the NRDC since 2016. Think of it as buying carbon credits, but on an individual level.

Drippy feet are a more difficult issue to solve, unless I literally don’t go outside ever (read: wear shoes). On the regular, I absolutely must wear wool socks. Cotton or synthetic (or both) socks would soak up the moisture and utterly stink up the proverbial joint. Painfully, wool socks are hilariously expensive. The Darn Tough ones I bought are $20 for a single pair. At least there’s an unconditional lifetime warranty…

However, I’ve found wool socks to not be the best for running - it isn’t thin enough. How to avoid the stink then when wearing cotton blend? Foot powder. I’ve had great success using Dr. Scholl's. It is hugely cumbersome to use: you’re essentially sprinkling it on the feet before putting on socks. The powder gets absolutely everywhere, so the best place to apply is in the bathtub or shower area. Other than that, it does the job fantastically: soaks up the sweat, no stink.

I might try dousing my hands with the product before using gloves…

Expensive socks

I’m the type of human that sweats easily. Get me into a sauna, and within five minutes I’d be creating lakes underneath me. It is what it is, nothing I can do about genetics. At least I don’t stink when I sweat, at least not intensely enough that I notices it. Isn’t it something like if you can smell your own dankness, you must really stink?

Anyways, a problem my sweaty self creates is stinky socks. Not the feet, just the socks. There must be something in the material that causes my socks to soak up the sweat and incubate something horrible. Worse, I don't even know or remember on the packaging what my socks are made of. Some blend of cotton and polyester, most likely.

I’m the type of human who doesn’t think a lot about socks. I buy the bulk package from Costco, and when the socks wear out, it gets tosses and I buy another package. Easy, cheap, and utterly forgettable.

But not when those socks are stinking up the place! There are antiperspirant sprays and powders for the foot, though I would prefer a more natural solution before throwing chemicals at the problem. Turns out there is a sock material that’s natural, moisture-wicking, and controls odor: wool. The only downside to wool? It’s bloody expensive.

Instead of paying $20 for dozen pairs of socks, I can’t believe I paid $20 for a single pair. That’s how much it costs to buy from Darn Tough Vermont. The company’s socks was what got recommended to me by ChatGPT when I asked “what’s the best wool sock to buy that’s available on Amazon, as recommended by Reddit?” $20 is indeed very expensive for socks, but Darn Tough has an unconditional lifetime guarantee. Customers can send any damaged socks to the company in exchange for a new pair. No questions asked.

It’s entirely possible I just bought my last pairs of socks ever. Solvency of Darn Tough Vermont withstanding, of course.

As advertised, the wool material absolutely stops any foul odors. My feet are still sweating into them - again, nothing I can do about that, but I will gladly take the lack of stink. The Darn Tough socks smelled neutral even after a heavy eight hour day, right off the feet. If you share my unfortunate sweat problem, I can now provenly recommend paying a lot more for wool socks.