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welcome to boot spy my name is william and today i'm talking about the five best work socks you can get for your money let's get into it [Music] guys thank you so much for joining me as i said today we're talking about the five best socks for work boots so let's get it kicked off with number one kicking off our list for the best steel toe work boots is the fox river heavyweight work socks now the reason why i like these socks so much is because they're made with a hundred percent performance fabric so while cotton and wool and other natural fabrics can tend to trap heat within your feet and make them very very sweaty these are heavy weight but they really do a good job at wicking out the moisture on top of that they have super thick padding all throughout the ball of your foot the heel and there's some extra padding on top at the top of the toe which helps a tremendous amount you know when your feet are kind of banging up against that steel plate or whether it's composite toe anything like that these help out a lot in just protecting your feet in general i actually measured out the padding in the tip of the toe here and it measures out to 1.5 centimeters thick which is incredibly thick for a work boot sock as you can kind of see this is heavy duty that is not just like a thin piece of cotton right there that is some serious squishy material fox river makes all their socks here in the usa and this pack right here is sixteen dollars for two so coming in at eight dollars for a pair of socks that's not really really cheap like some of the brands you might see like hanes or anything like that but as you're going to see throughout the rest of this list when you're getting into high-end sock level high-end socks i don't know but when you're getting to that level when you want a pair of really really quality work boot socks you're going to spend a little bit more there are some options on this list that are like 30 for a pair so the fox river is a really really solid value coming in at eight dollars for a pair of socks or 16 for a pack of two looking at the second item on our list it's the best pair of over the calf work boot socks and that one is going to go to darn tough for their trek over the calf socks now you might want to use over the calf socks if you are wearing eight inch boots like lager boots guys working on really hectic construction sites there is some added value to having that over the calf sock one it doesn't creep down in your boot so if you're wearing an 8 or 10 inch shaft boot that's going to help out make sure that it stays up above your calf and so you're actually getting that extra protection up around there cold weather it's also very helpful that helps you know keep that foot really nice and insulated there's also another really good option this is darn tough they're trek which is a lot for mountaineering or hiking they also have their tactical line which is another fantastic over the calf sock this is also heavyweight just like the mountaineering trek version the reason why i would choose darn tufts tactical or trek versions over their own work versions is these actually have more merino wool in them the mountaineering trek version has 72 merino wool and the tactical version has i think it's what is it like 76 yeah 79 merino wool in the tactical so these offer a lot more warmth they're a little bit thicker a little bit more durable than the work counterparts which i believe have somewhere between like 50 and 60 merino wool there's still a fantastic sock those darn tough work socks are still really really good but when it comes to over the calf what i want is a very heavy weight very thick sock that's going to offer a ton of protection and a ton of warmth and for that reason i would go with the darn tough either the trek over the calf or the tactical like all darn tough socks these are made in the united states in vermont so they're really really well constructed like they say they are darn tough they last a super long time something to consider with both of these socks these run about thirty dollars a pair that's the pair i was mentioning so these are very very expensive for a pair of socks or a lot of people have that like sticker shock where they're like whoa thirty dollars for a pair of socks but no joke there are people online and forums darn tough has an awesome reputation for the quality of the socks how long these last so if you're looking for a really powerful pair of socks that's going to last you several years before there's any holes or too much wear this is like literally a piece of equipment so i would think of it more that way if you're getting a pair of work over the calf socks think of it as an investment in equipment safety equipment that's really what these darn tough socks act like um so thirty dollars for that maybe not so much um but then on the other side if you just want something to add some comfort for steel-toed boots that's kind of why i recommended the heavyweight fox river you know steel toe boot work socks those are a little less expensive but also still very quality but if you want top of the line like absolute best i would go darn tough the third item on our list it's the best work socks for hot weather and sweaty feet if that sounds like you you need the carhartt men's force socks these bad boys are made with 100 performance fabric they are manufactured in china and that is not their quality of those socks is not necessarily as good but on the upside you can find a three pack of the carhartt men's four socks for about 12 to 14 depending on the size so it allows you to get a pretty big bundle of these socks for relatively cheap if you want something that is usa made i would probably recommend the darn tough cool max but the cool max uses merino wool it's not necessarily as sweat wicking so while it stays while it stays somewhat cool the carhartt men's force that sock is really really good at keeping the moisture away from your foot so that's especially good for sweaty feet which also at the same time that sweat wicking keeps the foot cool if your boot isn't too thick or insulated you should have no trouble getting through a tough hot work day you know back like southern california used to work down there in construction being on roofs it can get pretty pretty hot so having a nice sock with a lot of breathability is important in those conditions and for that i would recommend the carhartt men's force item number four this one is the best for cold weather it is the real tree heavyweight merino wool over the calf sock that's a mouthful but basically this one wins the top it's the top of the top for cold weather like we're talking zero degrees 10 degrees fahrenheit even sub-zero temperatures anything where it's freezing because this has 80 wool in its makeup it's actually really really warm i wore a pair of these in 10 degree weather and i felt like my feet were getting a little bit sweaty it was almost a little too warm with a pair of boots so with these socks you want a little bit of spandex you want a little bit of a stretch a little bit of technical fabrics in there but the real tree these socks they have more wool than darn tough and they actually come in at a much less expensive price point at fourteen dollars per pair again like i said it's eighty percent merino wool but has 20 technical fabrics like spandex that actually helps strengthen the sock you do want that you do not want a 100 wool sock ink in any sort of working situation because those will the way it's your foot's moving around in that boot it can really tear the wool apart make it fray very quickly and you can get holes in your socks quite quite fast after you know like 10-15 wears but because realtree has a a pretty good in my opinion balance 80 20 of wool and then technical fabrics you're getting a lot of that strength and durability of the technical fabrics that stretchability of technical fabrics but you are getting a lot of warmth from that high wool percentage item number five in my opinion these are the best overall work boot socks because they do the best blending cold weather hot weather steel toe boot all those things these if i was going to buy 10 pairs of socks and just call it done for the year and wear these throughout the week i would go with the fox river lightweight steel toe work boot socks now these are very similar to the first entry on this list which was the same thing as just the heavyweight version but to me the fox river lightweight version like i said it's such a good blend of all the different things you'd want from a work sock throughout the year so it's again 100 technical fabric so it is quite breathable and because it's lightweight you know your your foot is releasing that moisture pretty easily pretty quickly that also depends on the boot you have if you have a boot with very thick leather or if it's insulated that's going to add a lot more heat and warmth to your foot so some of that's on on the boot you choose but with these socks again they're pretty lightweight but they still have significant amount of padding in the toe area so you still have the steel toe area this is one centimeter thick now you might remember i said that the heavyweight one had a one and a half centimeter thick that toe area is one and a half centimeters thick so that is going to give you a lot more protection there 50 more protection and padding as you can see this is just like a really soft squishy material so that's going to add plenty as much protection as much cushion as you need there if you wanted to you could find these in a half crew so that adds a little more breathing room for your upper ankle if that's something you need if that's something you're into but again these are a two pack for 15 that is a really really good deal seven dollars per pair that is such a good balance of value of comfort of sweat wicking so this is really just like an overall if you just want to pick one pair of work socks and never think about it again then i would go with the fox river lightweight crew work steel toe sock if you haven't already please hit that subscribe button down below and also give me a thumbs up both are super helpful for the channel and i really really appreciate it let me know what you do for a living and which one of these work socks appeal to you all these have different use cases i know some guys in minnesota they're going to be going for those heavyweight these heavyweight work socks i know some guys living in southern california they're going to be going lightweight all the way so let me know what you do down in the comments below and until next time put your best boot forward
