I Like Wrightsock

I’ve been wearing Wrightsock Double Layer Coolmesh socks for at least 10 years, and I had a great customer service experience with them, so I thought I would relay it.

Recently, the company changed from Coolmesh to Coolmesh II, which has a different mix of fibers. The original Coolmesh were prone to developing holes in the external layer of the sock due to wear. While the holes didn’t substantially change the sock’s performance, they were unsightly. The new Coolmesh II is less prone to developing holes in the external layer — I know this because I’ve been wearing them for 5 months and not a single sock has developed a hole (compared to a higher loss rate for Coolmesh).

However, the Coolmesh II’s new mix of fibers have a different problem — they shrink more when dried at medium heat in the dryer. The shrinkage causes irritation on my ankle because, in my recommended size, the socks shrink just enough that they ride lower on my ankle and allow my trail running shoes to cause abrasions on the skin.

Now, when I looked into this problem, I found out that I wasn’t supposed to be drying any of the socks in a dryer. I missed that on the care label. But, even if I had seen it, I’m not certain I would have paid any attention to it.

Given the problem, I wrote to Wrightsock and they told me to stop drying the socks. However, they were nice enough to send me new Coolmesh II socks to replace the ones that I had shrunk. I thought that was really nice of them, and that’s the reason they’re getting this great review. But, since I’m also a scientist and I have a large enough collection of socks to form a good sample, I took the socks and immediately began experimenting.

I separated the new socks into two experimental groups. Group 1 is washed but not dried in the dryer. Group 2 is washed identically but dried in the dryer. I then measured the distance from the floor to the top of the sock after I had pulled it on. I happened to be doing laundry and I wash cycled the socks a total of 5 times. The mean shrinkage on the dried socks is approximately 4 mm after 5 cycles. The mean shrinkage on the undried socks is a little more than a 1 mm but this may be measurement error.

Cheers.