We're hot-foot from a clandestine meeting with sock supremo
Bridgedale's marketing maestro - deep breath - and while we can't
reveal all the fascinating details of the company's future plans, we
can tell you that merino and lightweight footwear loom large in the
socky future...
Interestingly,
while lightweight footwear has become more and more popular with UK
walkers, none of the sock brands have grasped the nettle and produced
socks specifically designed to work with closer-fitting, lower-cut
mid and low-cut outdoors shoes.
Fast and Light
That's set to change early next year with Bridgedale launching a
new 'Fast And Light' series of socks featuring a lower cut -
including a trainer-liner style ankle sock - and some neat
construction - that's not it on the right by the way.
What marks the new socks out is the combination of very thin mesh
combined with strategic padding in high friction areas like the ball
of the foot, toes and heels. Some of the colour schemes look quite
funky as well and we reckon they should be ideal for the combination
of low bulk but decent cushioning you need with lighter shoes.
Fabrics look highly technical too, which brings us to...
Merino and More
We're not going into full details, but Bridgedale is also going to
be using merino wool in 2007 and the fast and light range features
several models using the fine-fibred, non-irritating wool.
Merino has natural anti-pong qualities, but it's also being
supplemented with a synthetic anti-microbial fabric which
incorporates a blend of silver and 11 other minerals to produce a
permanent anti-microbial, anti-fungal and deodorising element to the
sock.
The new fabric has actually been tested by selected OM forum users
with particularly cheesy feet apparently with excellent results.
More details of the new socks and fabrics close to the release
date early next year. Meanwhile, you can see the current Bridgedale
range at www.bridgedale.co.uk
and investigate the wonders of wool fusion while you're at it.
Marcus Crompton
