Samson Socks review or…
There is no R in Running Socks or…
What the L ?…
Running kit for me has been a case of trying lots of things and sticking to what I like if I find it. After three years of trial and error I have pretty much narrowed down my kit to:
Shorts – I went through numerous pairs before finding the Nike 2-in-1 style that includes a compression short underneath. These I love and have several pairs.
Top – Again numerous but after a few chafing nipple bleeds really I try to wear the right material. The CEP graffiti shirt and my new favourite Adidas Roschach pattern tee I got in the sale are my new go to shirts.
Shoes – After an extensive and at times expensive search On Cloud Racers and soon to be purchased Clouds are my shoe for the year.
Socks – I am not sold on any particular brand, I have Hilly mono and twin skins that are great, Balega, More Miles, Nike. I did try Injinji and Nike toe socks but didn’t get on with them. I have a few pairs of compression socks too, with CEP being the most expensive and worn.
Compression Sleeves – Again, not sold on any particular make, but do have CEP, Zensah, 2XU, and Skins
So given my uncertainly in socks and compression wear I was excited to find and try Samson Hosiery a new brand on the market that is both inexpensive compared to the big brands in sportswear and based here in the UK, in Manchester. Now on their website there are just the regular socks, mostly knee high and either hooped or novelty and in my humble opinion the website needs a bit of work.
However, if you go on the Bay of E you see a lot more including Compression Socks with calf support, and cushioned athletic socks and many colours and variations of both. I decided to give both types a try and here are my findings before, during and after my tempo run last night.
CUSHIONED ATHLETIC SOCKS
I wore the cushioned socks for the run and they are lovely and padded in all the right places. Despite this being a tempo run, so at speed, I didn’t have any discomfort at all on the balls of my feet as I normally do. So that is a big tick there.
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| Cushy |
The compression socks I wore for later for recovery because I did push it a little and on initial inspection I was a little confused.
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| Am I being special? |
I turned to the Twitter running community to understand why I had two left socks and no right, and I emailed Samson themselves to ask for a right sock, please, only to be informed that the L was not L for Left but L for Large. LOL.
Although, and it has been pointed out by numerous people since, hence me not needing to, that high end running and compression socks are padded differently for the right and left foot, your instep and out-step need different types and levels of padding so the L does mean Left for all those aforementioned brands (CEP, Balega etc). And that is what Samson will need to do to step up to the next level.
They will need to consider the right and left foot padding and change their L to mean Left and not just Large to expand into the market. And I, for one, would be absolutely happy for them if they do that, given I just spent £30 on a pair of CEP compression socks V 2, while the Samson ones are a fraction of that.
The compression socks were very comfortable and I ended up sleeping in them to let my poor legs recover and they did the trick there. I think maybe the sock company thought of sizing S, M or L goes out the window when it comes to compression sleeves though as foot size is only one of the two measurements, you need to consider the calf size more than anything, so L will not necessarily fit everyone with the same shoe size.
Good luck to them though, diversifying into the runner arena is a good move and with these initial offerings I hope they will grow. Check the guys out on Twitter @SamsonSocks I recommend them.
Runners Knees 