Brasher Wool Ultra Socks - First Look

Brasher Wool Ultra Socks - First Look

 

Price: £14 (3-4 Season),  £12 (2-3 Season)

Weight: 90 grammes (3-4 Season), 50 grammes (2-3 Season)

Features: Walking socks made from Merino Wool Utra, Lycra support bands in arch and ankle areas, double cuff, Y-shaped heel seam, flat link toe seam. Loop stitch padding throughout with high density areas on toes, ball, heel and ankle. Extra toe zone protection.  73% Merino Wool Ultra, 23% Nylon, 4% Elastine. Available in both 2-3 season and 3-4 season versions.

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What's It For?

Walking comfort - socks need to provide a combination of cushioning, next to skin comfort and moisture control. The latter is important because when wet, skin loses elasticity, swells up and eventually blisters.

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The Techy Bits

Brasher has decided to use merino wool for their new socks - merino combines traditional wool qualities, with greater comfort because the very fine merino fibres are non scratchy, so even if you find traditional wool itchy, you should be fine with merino. Added Nylon and Elastine improve stretch and fit and increase durability.


Merino deals well with moisture, absorbing much more than synthetics and staying comfortable in the process as the water molecules are held away from the skin.

Brasher has also put a lot of thought into the design of the socks. The Y-shaped heel seam is intended to give a snug heel fit and the company has specced a flatlocked, non obtrusive toe-seam to minimise any danger of rubbing.

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How It Performed

There are two versions of the Wool Ultra, a longer 3-4 season sock which has lots of loopstitch padding all over for general insulation and cushioning when wearing high-cuffed winter boots and a less lavishly padded 2-3 season variation which is shorter and lighter. Both have extra padding where you need it, on the ball of the foot, heel toes and ankle.

Both versions give excellent intial comfort, great fit and ample padding where you need it. The unpadded top section of the 2-3 season version means it's not as warm as big brother, but fits better in lightweight spring / summer / autumn boots. It feels light, but there's still padding where you need it and the thinner areas on top of the foot enhance fit in closer fitting footwear and improve cooling. The 3-4 season ones are significantly warmer, but also bulkier.

In use, they fell effortlessly into the 'simply didn't notice them' camp. That's a good thing. No sweaty damp feet, no discomfort, no complaints.  Ideally we'd have liked a shorter cut option on the 3-4 season sock as well, but that's really just quibbling. We also found we could wear them on consecutive days without ponging, but as with any sock, the padding underfoot does start to pack down.

Initial Verdict

So far we're dead impressed. The Brasher Ultra Wools aren't cheap, but they fit well, perform in a quiet, effective and non-intrusive way and seem to wash well. The padding has started to pack down slightly, but that happens to all socks in time and so far, it hasn't impacted on performance or comfort.

The one question mark over merino, in our experience, is long term durability. The finer fabrics of merino wool seem less hardy over time than more traditonal wool, though the Nylon element in these socks may help with that. We're also interested to see how well the loopstitch padding holds up. We'll carry on wearing them and see what happens. But so far, so good.

Classic non-pong merino wool performance with carefully thought out design.  Winter socks are quite long, which you'll like or not.

Brasher web site

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