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Something struck me the other day. I was watching a video from Kelly Starrett, the guy who has helped me recover so much of my body with his book, Becoming a Supple Leopard, and I noticed a theme in his videos.

The guy never seems to wear socks.

Being that this was a video addressing the nature of being barefoot and how you can adapt your shoes to be more conducive to a natural human foot, the idea was not out of place that he may be intentionally doing this.

Naturally, I searched for what reasoning this might be for in my head and thought about my own socks and how I had been noticing they are pretty tight on my feet and particularly on my toes.

I took my sense of wonder to the internet and couldn’t find anything about Kelly Starrett in particular, but I did find some validating information on the ideas I had. It made me realize what I can do to take my foot’s natural movement beyond just minimalist footwear, but to my socks.

Here are some of the things I have noticed about regular socks and some of the conclusions I have drawn:

Socks are Too Tight on Our Toes

Think of it this way, socks are like winter mittens but for your feet. Usually a little too thick, somewhat tight, and definitely restrictive.

Would you want to wear mittens over your hands all day long, especially if they were tight like most socks are? I certainly wouldn’t.

The toes cannot spread out or “splay” inside of socks. This is a major problem because that’s exactly what they were designed to do when the foot strikes the ground, splay!

This is how your joints like the ankles, knees, and hips get properly engaged and stabilized but your socks are altering that from happening.

Socks Promote Slipping in the Shoe

This was an interesting point I came across on the internet. With socks, you end up slipping around the sole of your shoe because of the lack of friction a sock gives.

Without socks, your toes are able to spread wider and grip the sole of the shoe more, not to mention the increased amount of friction provided by your heel.

Slipping is an important point because although subtle, it’s happening all the time and it’s unnaturally engaging your joints like the ankles, knees, and hips to stabilize, which can lead to misalignment in these joints.

Not to mention slipping pushes your toes into the walls of your shoes very often, teaching them to develop bunions, hammertoes, and curl under themselves as a result.

Problem Solving

We need something that allows our toes to splay more. This is the most important outcome to aim for without a doubt. It solves multiple problems and is integral for lower leg musculature and joint health. 

Here are the best options I could come up with:

Don’t Wear Socks At All

My first thought upon realizing the detriments of socks was to stop wearing them all together. I was excited at the prospect of this but then thought of how smelly my feet can get when I go barefoot in my Vibram FiveFingers.

I’m not willing to wash my feet after almost every time I take my shoes off so I put this idea on hold for now. I won’t let this stop me altogether though.

I love wearing my Vibrams in the warmer months with no socks. It’s much lighter and freer for your feet. Try it for yourself and see how it goes!

Some people may be thinking their feet will be cold if they don’t wear socks.

Honestly, I find our feet being cold in the wintertime to be somewhat of an overblown problem. I wear nothing but some regular socks that I wear year-round inside of my minimalist boots while I’m walking through snow or in below zero degrees fahrenheit temperatures and I’ve never had an issue. 

To customize this idea, you could ditch the socks in the warmer months and wear them in the colder months. This is something I tend to do naturally.

Wear Bigger Socks

Another interesting point from the internet was brought on by a person suggesting to simply buy socks in a bigger size. Most of us wear socks that are shorter than our foot if you laid them out next to each other because we know they will stretch when put on.

However, this is what causes the aforementioned problems.

The more your socks have to stretch, the tighter they will be on your foot. So the suggestion is to either start buying socks that are one size larger than before or get socks that are as long as your foot when laid out (not stretched). 

This can also be interpreted as wear looser socks such as diabetic socks. These could prove to be a less irritating, less binding, less tight option for anyone looking to improve circulation through the ankles and feet.

Wear Separated-Toe Socks

Wearing toe socks is something I used to think was a pointless trend….but look at me now. 🙂

This is the option I have chosen for myself, now that I see toe socks as such a major problem solver.

They will let my toes splay more, they will keep my feet from smelling, and they will stop foot slipping if you wear socks with some grip on the bottom like the ones I just got.

I can also wear these socks in any of my shoes if I want which I couldn’t before with the Vibram FiveFingers. Having worn my toe socks a couple times now, I even like the feeling of wearing them inside my round-toe minimalist shoes (they aren’t just for Vibrams).

I can feel my toes spreading further inside the shoe than ever before which is great. I’ve essentially traded away all the previous negatives for positives with no consequences.