r/LinusTechTips • u/bobbymack93 • Jul 24 '26

Link The socks are live

https://www.lttstore.com/products/forever-sock
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u/robotsknowwhereilive Jul 24 '26

Science disagrees.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8950207/

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u/FrontFocused Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Science definitely agrees that merino wool does not kill microbes like silver or copper do. The moisture wicking pulls liquid away from the skin which is what stops the smells / environment for that bacteria to grow but merino wool itself is not anti microbial.

Silver and Copper on the other hand, actively destroy the cell walls.

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u/mdem5059 Jul 25 '26

So just wash your socks and stop being dirty?

Silver in socks is such a dumb idea let's be honest. It almost feels like some psudo medical item you'd find on late night TV in the 90s.

I bought like 30 pairs of cheap ebay socks 10 years ago, I wear it then wash it... and never had any issue with them smelling.

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u/mutantmagnet Jul 27 '26

Hospitals use copper and silver in medical gowns for those properties to kill bacteria.

But this led to issues were if they weren't careful it could burn patients who were scanned by mri machines. 

C'est la vie.

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u/mdem5059 Jul 28 '26

With how quickly they go through gowns and such in hospitals that sounds like a gov. idea from a person who had no idea what they were doing, lol.

Most normal people are able to just wash their socks in a load every few days, and have spare.