Saturday, January 24, 2009

The Perfect Sock

This may have been a “vague-half-asleep-midnight” thought, but I haven’t been able to forget it. Is there anything like the perfect sock?

Everything else that we wear from our clothes to our privates, from shoes to jewellery, we always try it on, see it fits well and can compare that there is a difference between the fit of one versus the other. But what of socks?

Think about all the socks you have. Can you pull out a single pair and say that this is the perfect one; and there is no other sock that fits just as right?

I have no foot fetish, but even I know that my toes are of a different size and that I have a heel. It seems that many sock makers don’t seem to agree. They seem to think that all my toes are the same length and that a heel is just an inconvenience. Now that may be so for Achilles but I happen to like my heel and I like my sock to hold it well.

Then there is the fabric. I mean come on, cotton please. I live in a place where many people ask you to remove your shoes at the door. But no one seems to realise that there are those who prefer wearing polyester (ugh) and the experience of sweaty polyester clad bare feet is not something I would wish on my worst enemy. It’s gotten to the extent that the more sensible people now ask people to please leave their shoes on before coming in.

Next is the elasticity of the sock. How can you make a good sock with elastic, I ask you? Lycra is the way to go. It stretches just right so that you don’t have to work up a sweat getting into your socks and then actually comes back to being fitted so it doesn’t sag in and around your shoes. And when you wash them, they actually carry on being the same shape. Nice!

Isn’t it strange, to know these things about socks and to still pick them up as and when they are needed and from the first convenient location. And yet when we want anything else, we will hunt all the stores in town to find the perfect fit, feel and look. If we don’t find what we are looking for, we don’t settle for what we get. We wait and keep looking.

I think for the sheer experiment of it (and the fun it will be), I am going to go sock hunting and shall ask to try on each pair, until I find the perfect one. Will I find my perfect sock?

No comments: