Gear Reviews: Injinji Socks

So, all my runner buddies read Born to Run a few years back, and everybody got excited about barefoot/minimalist running shoes, like the Vibram Five Fingers.  Hey, I’m all for running in whatever shoes/gear works for your body and makes you happy,* but it’s not my bag at this time.  Besides, those things look ridiculous.  Behold:

Seriously.

I’ve heard from friends that Vibrams, when you use them barefoot, make your shoes psycho crazy smelly,** but this can be cut down by using socks with them.  The only problem is that you can’t wear standard socks with Vibrams, so you have to find socks that enclose each of your toes individually, like the shoes do.  Enter Injinji!

Whee!  A sock for each toe!

Even though, as previously stated, I don’t wear Vibrams, I’ve been curious about trying these socks, as they’re supposed to cut down on toe blisters.  In a normal sock, your toes are all crammed together in the front, so if any rubbing occurs during a race, there’s nothing standing between your poor little toes and the potential for massive friction blisters.  Although I’m not normally prone to this, every now and then, I’ll see this happen, particularly if the weather is wet, like the Newport Marathon in Oregon, a few years back, or if I’m running long on trails.

So very damp, this run.

That's me on the far left in pink.

The ladies at the aid station are handing out oyster shooters.

Seriously, do this run.  It was awesome.

When I was at our local running shop, Tortoise and Hare, recently, I saw a pair of Injinji’s on the sock wall and decided to bring them home for testing.***  I first wore them on a five mile easy**** run one Monday morning around the neighborhood.  They worked well for me, although they felt really weird at first when I put them on at home; you know when you never wear gloves, and then put on a pair and it feels weird to shove fabric between your ring and pinky fingers?  Yeah, that.  The pair that T&H had up for sale was the lightweight, no show cut, in pink (because of course), and I took a size medium; I seemed to be on the lower side of the medium, so some of the fabric bunched just a tiny bit around my little toe when I initially put them on.  I was glad to find that the socks fit fine over the compression band I wear around my arch on my right foot, and as I continued my run, the socks seemed to form to my foot a bit; by the time I finished, the excess fabric around my little toe had fit to it quite nicely (it’s also possible that my feet swell during a run, so this could be the solution to this situation).  I also liked that the no show cut had a generous tab on the back of the sock, so even though it was no show, it still had a section of fabric to protect my heel against any shoe-induced rubbing.

Feet!

Since the initial run, I’ve done another easy run in them of 5-6 miles, and again, they fit well.  The weird excess fabric thing was back when I put them on, but it seemed less this time.  After each run, the socks were thrown into the washer with the rest of our running/workout cloths and underwear for the normal cycle on hot.  I did hang them up to dry as opposed to running them through the dryer, and overall, they’ve come out well both times.

Overall, I think I’ll buy Injinji’s again, but I might plan on finding a pair that’s a bit heavier in weight for actual trail running or longer distances.  I think the lightweight version might not be strong enough for the crap I put them through.

Later!

Amy

* Cue me still loping around in my 10 year old, $6 running shorts bought from the Reebok outlet in Casa Grande.  Chris says they’re eventually going to disintegrate, but I think they’ll last FOREVER.

** At Ragnar Del Sol one year, we saw a group resting at an exchange with a pair of Vibrams duct-taped to the windshield of the van.  We’re pretty sure it’s because the rest of the team couldn’t stand them inside the van any longer.  When your gear gets kicked out of a Ragnar van, it is capital-S Smelly.

*** I paid for them first.  Don’t worry.  $12.00 for one pair, by the way.

**** As easy as a run can be two days after an afternoon-long beer festival.  I pulled like 13:25 on my first mile.  It was the run that would never end.