Socks.ie

Skater Socks

Posted on 26. May, 2010 by admin in Socks

When you’re talking skater socks, you’re really talking old school tube socks.

The tube sock has dominated the skate scene since its inception in the 70s and although hyper-pro athletic socks come and go, the classic Three Stripe tube sock still rules.

The striped Tube Sock started to infiltrate American pop culture in the 1960s. For the first time, sport was moving out of backyards and spare time into something resembling the highly managed and highly funded entertainment industry as we know it today.

Kids, and adults everywhere took to emulating their sporting heroes with a vengeance. When they weren’t practising their moves on the field, they were wearing the apparel. Enter the tube sock.

Skateboarding was taking off at around the same time, as an off-water way for surfers to stay in shape. Like the hula-hoop and the yo-yo, it crashed in the late sixties, until ten years later the urethane skateboard was born and skating was back on the streets. Along with skating socks.

The color of the stripes changed, and the height of the sock might vary, but the basic construction stays the same. A tube of elasticated poly-cotton that clings to the foot and leg, culminating in three stripes that tell the world you are in your skater socks and ready to roll.

Taking a board out into the street and killing hours and days, before dumping your smelly skate socks onto the floor for Mom to wash. It’s a shared memory as American as apple pie.