Awhile ago UnderMyPants published a blog post on ‘why we wear underwear’. It was a solo venture into the perils of gentile diseases, chafing and more but one exploration which was highly educational and worthwhile. A few months on and with summer quickly coming to Australia, we have started to ask ourselves ‘why do we wear socks’?
Thongs are so comfy mainly because your feet are free to breathe and even walking around thongles or shoeless has its simple pleasures. And of course, lets not forget the new metrosexual trend of wearing boat shoes with no socks.
So just what are the advantages of socks?
How big’s a pint!?
Pretty big right?! Without getting carried away, a pint is the manliest sized drink you can have. 570ml of mothers milk going down the gurgler, what more do you want? We’ll imagine drinking half a pint everyday of sweat? That’s what your feet would be doing if it wasn’t for socks absorbing the sweat. Emma Stevensons from the College of Podiatry was recently on record stating that “on average your feet sweat half a pint everyday”.
So with that much sweat coming out of our feet what are the potential consequences?
Athlete’s foot is real?
I thought Athlete’s foot was a 90’s term for an ingrown toe nail. It is something I have heard a lot of but I have never known someone to suffer it. But turns out, if you leave your feet to absorb half a pint of sweat then you are at risk of getting fungal disease. The first of which is Athletes foot. Athletes foot is a ‘scaly rash’ (gross!) that causes itching, stinging and burning… Now that sucks.
Of course, odors.
If the threat of athlete’s foot isn’t enough then perhaps consider the consequences to your self-esteem and friendships when you’re walking around with smelly feet. Foot odors are the worst, they are embarrassing and much more potent than a fart. The smell is thick and it is relentless, I swear your nose can’t get used to it. So please, don’t let that half a pint of sweat sit in your feet and build up a smell that will destroy you and everybody around you. Be smart and wear some socks.
The best practices of wearing socks
As always there are things you can do to prevent the above outside of just wearing socks. For example, Emma suggests that you put dry tea bags in your shoes after you wear them so they can dry out any excess moisture. It wasn’t mentioned but I’m guessing that tea bags will also help put a nice odor in your shoes. Kind of like a potpourri.
Lastly, it is suggested that you don’t wear the same shoes two days in a row and that after you wear your shoes you leave them outside to air out and dry.
