The 12 6 Days of Festivus, Part 6

Socks. Yep, socks.

I know, I know. A holiday-themed thing that's now stretched out for six nights with no sign of stopping any time soon, and I'm recommending socks as a gift? Kinda giving away which holiday we celebrate here at The Cycle World Headquarters, right?

But hear me out: I'm talking about wool cycling socks. The O.G. of the modern sheep-derived bike sock (and the one that got me hooked) is from Smartwool:

When I was wrenching for my pal Bill circa 199ish, we had a few pairs of Cannondale-branded Smartwools in stock, and he simply would NOT shut up about these socks. In fact, I still remember his pitch: "You know how you have that one pair of socks that you like so much that you dig through the basket of clean laundry looking for them? That's what these are." So I finally gave in and bought a pair. And I'll be danged if he wasn't right... great temperature management, wicking, and none of that weird wet-plasticky feel you get from even the best synthetic socks.

Since that gateway drug, I've fed my addiction with more Smartwool, DeFeet, Sock Guy, Fox River (an Iowa company!), you name it. Yeah, I have a problem. And yeah, I do feel kind of silly getting this excited over socks. But what can I say? Wool socks are awesome.

(Our Design Director/Chief Knitwear Technician would like me to remind you that a competent knitter can make CUSTOM wool cycling socks. I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't taken her up on that offer yet... which is kind of like Sacha White's kid riding an off-the-shelf Trek instead of this amazing Vanilla.)