Bridgedale Trekker Socks
[BTS]

I’ve been a fan of Bridgedale socks for a while – I’ve used the Summit series whilst wearing boots for about three and a half years. The Summit socks are extremely comfortable, hard wearing and fairly lightweight; I expected big things from the Trekker’s!

I have to say, they do not disappoint. I’ve only had them for a short period of time but I know that these will last me at least another two years and probably then some! In order to give the socks as comprehensive test in as short a time possible, I decided to wear one pair as often as I could and not wash them (not a regular practice of mine!) in order to try and find their limit of use.

I received the socks on a Friday and put them on straight away. I immediately thought that they were very comfortable to wear, more so than any other sock I’ve worn, including the Summit series. In terms of sizing, I have about a size 10.5 foot and so I asked for a Large size (suitable for size 9-11.5). They fit perfectly but would accommodate the range of foot size advertised very well as they’re quite stretchy.

As sad as this is, I decided to wear the socks when I went out on Friday evening. I went to some pubs and then a nightclub, so I wasn’t just sat around all evening wearing the socks! When I took the socks off after I got home, my feet were slightly damp, as were the socks but they didn’t smell at all. A good start considering a pair of white trainer socks would be horrendous after such extended use!

Saturday morning and a trip to the gym produced a similar result (I had turned the socks inside-out and hung them over a chair to dry out overnight) as the previous night – my feet weren’t very sweaty and the socks hardly smelled of feet.
Wearing them for the rest of Saturday, then repeating the same procedure that evening and the same again on Sunday meant that I had worn the socks for nearly three days in a row with little noticeable effect.

I next got a chance to wear them (still the same pair) on Thursday for the afternoon and evening. My feet were still only very slightly damp after taking the socks off but the smell was more obvious. Nothing too bad though.

On Friday, I decided to wear the other pair in my Lowa (Goretex) boots, to test the socks thoroughly. I was only walking around town in the boots but I found the socks to be comfortable enough. A potential issue is that they don’t stretch very far up your leg – they were only sitting a few centimetres above the top of my boot (which are the same high as Combat Assault Boots). I guess that with prolonged, arduous use the socks could slip down and cause chafing but this wasn’t an issue for me.

After taking the socks off after about nine hours wear, they were fairly damp but not excessively so and the smell wasn’t too bad. Obviously more varied terrain would make for sweatier feet but I was still pleased with how the socks performed. They were certainly no worse than my Summit socks after a day’s use.

On Saturday, I switched back to the first pair. Wearing them through the day and then on another night out finally seemed to ‘break’ them. On Sunday morning the socks had a quite noticeable smell (not very bad but enough to want to wash them).

This is a pretty impressive track record though. After around five days of wearing them for at least five hours at a time they had finally warranted a wash. In comparison to the white trainer socks that I normally wear, the Trekker’s have performed very admirably.

To summarise, if you are after a pair of lightweight, hard-wearing socks to wear in a hiking or combat boot, you could do a lot worse than the Bridgedale Trekker series of socks.
In trainers, I found that my feet only ever got very slightly sweaty and even after three days of use the socks didn’t smell bad.

In boots, my feet emerged slightly sweatier and the socks were quite damp to the touch but I would put that on par with most other socks. Bear in mind though that I have been wearing the socks in October in England, hardly the hottest climate!

The socks would be good for use in a combat boot – you can probably squeeze two pairs into the same space you’d put one thicker pair and you won’t gain much weight. Overall, I’m very pleased with the Trekker socks – they have lived up to Bridgedale’s reputation and I’m sure they will last me a long time yet.

Date Added: 26/10/2010 by Arrse Reviews