Tube Socks
Posted on 29. Nov, 2009 by admin in Socks
Tube socks are the Old School sports sock. From John McEnroe to bubble-gum chewing rollergirls to pro-skateboarders who risked their lives on those narrow boards, the tube sock has left it’s Three Blue Band mark on our cultural history.
A tube sock is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – just a tube sealed at one end. They became popular during the war, when all the good folk at home were knitting life-saving feet-warmers for the boys at the Front. Not only were they fast and easy to make, which sped up production in civilian loungerooms all over the world, but they were practical: A sock with a badly fitted heel can be crippling, especially in the unsanitary conditions of the trenches.
The tube sock was born.
They were revived in the 70s as an athletic sock, but instead of being made with wool, they were machine-woven using the synthetics that that decade was crazy for. No-one really knows where the blue bands at the top came from, but they became the signifier of the true tube sock. Now they’re no longer used by serious athletes (after all, your foot is not shaped like a tube, so why should your sock be?) but they have not been forgotten by Retro Funksters. Tube socks make regular appearances in music videos (usually teamed with killer hi-tops) and on the red carpet (who would have thought that tube socks and high heels could actually work?).
For those of us who remember them the first time round, there is still a particular kind of pleasure to be had when you dig through your drawer and come up with the Compression Bandage in a sock. Nothing quite like them for watching the game.
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