Rayon, poly or nylon for liner socks?

[Brett Peugh]

I was thinking about liner socks yesterday and was wondering what is the best material for them? I am probably going to buy dress socks to use because then I can use them with my Chaco sandals in the summer at work. I looked around a few places yesterday and it seems you can get them made out of poly, rayon and nylon. I am assuming that poly would be the best at wicking but these usually stink up pretty fast. Nylon seems to not stink up that much but I don’t think it works that well at wicking. As for rayon, I have a few Hawaiian shirts that use rayon but I don’t think my experiences with those would translate to socks. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Daryl and Daryl]

I have used nylon for 40 years or so. They last decades and dry quickly. Other materials wear out much faster for me.

Don't know about wicking or smell. My feet are always wet (sweat, rain or streams) and they always stink, regardless of material.

[Barry P]

“Any thoughts or suggestions?”

Socks are probably my most experimented-with commodity. My rule of thumb is: wash them. Let them air dry. Whichever dries first are the ones I use backpacking.

I’ll wear one or two socks with my sandals. If it gets cool, then I wear 2 socks. My fast drying socks take about 30 minutes to dry after I walk through a stream. They’re made out of “poly, rayon and nylon”. I don’t know if it’s so much the material but how the weave is done.

For the ‘liner’ I like a fairly squishy sock. I found the perfect squishy sock. It had no cotton. It felt so good. But then it took 8 hours to dry. That’s bad. So I didn’t take them.

For the 2nd sock, I use a tough wool by Fox River. Wool doesn’t dry as fast but it’s the fastest drying wool I’ve seen – even more than ‘smartwool’. And it keeps my feet the warmest.

None of my socks have cotton. Cotton feels great, but they just don’t dry. And they’re poor wet insulators.

When it gets even colder (20F), I also pull a sealskin over my 2 socks. There is a point when the snow is too deep for sandals. I break down and wear my boots. I’m impressed Joe Valesko can handle deep snowy treks in his sandals.

My socks never stink since I’m constantly walking through streams and they’re getting constantly air dried.
I do have some hiking buddies, that when they take off their shoes, stand back…

I like black socks so people can’t tell I have black teva sandals on. My backpacking sandals are the same ones I wear to work. And thus my everyday socks are also my hiking socks.

Have fun with socks,
-Barry
-The mountains were made for Tevas

[Anonymous]

Hi Brett,

Neither polyester nor nylon is inherently wicking in nature, the fibers have to be altered–this is due to the hydrophobic properties. The three most common ways is to extrude the fiber in shapes that add more surface area–so instead of a completely round fiber (typical of older or cheaper synthetics) something like this * (looking at the end of the fiber) would be extruded, the second is to have the inner, skin facing side have smaller fibers and the outer layer have thicker fibers (denier gradient), or chemical finishes (not permanent).

Cheaper dress socks don't usually use wicking synthetics that i'm aware of.

Some liner socks that i've tried that work decently, wool–cool max polyester blend socks, about half wool-half nylon thin sock, and about half nylon half silk thin sock. Thin nylon should work ok too. Would be nice if it was a wicking nylon, but that's unlikely to find for a sock in general, let alone a dress sock.

My ideal liner sock for winter, which does not exist, would be a blend of polygiene treated wicking polyester (35%), wicking nylon also treated with polygiene (40%), and wool (25%), and relatively thin. My ideal liner sock for summer is something like 70% wicking nylon to 30% tencel or linen. If you find anything like these, please let me know.

A cheap trick to increase both wicking and odor control temporarily for socks, is to soak them in some water with some dissolved borax in same, but don't do it with any sock that has any protein content–meaning keep borax away from wool, silk, alapaca–none of the protein based materials can handle higher ph well. A weak solution is more than fine for polyester, nylon, and all cellulose based materials.

[Brett Peugh]

I have some old Columbia Trail Dawgs that are 47% Coolmax Poly, 36 Nylon, 15 Silver polyester and 2% lycra. Maybe I should just keep using those? Of course they don't make those anymore. One of the few good finds at TJ Maxx for $3 a pair. It seems the nylon dress socks are going for that much nowadays. Oh well.

[Nick Gatel]

Its been years since I wore liner socks, I have a drawer full of them. The best were a silk blend.

[Author]

Posts