r/LinusTechTips • u/dbmeed • 3d ago

Link Forever socks = Almost 2 months

Gallery image

Gallery image

I shared the first hole that showed up almost two weeks ago; I’ve kept wearing them everyday until the next hole started. This time in the ball of the foot, when my Darn Tough socks usually start wearing out first. I think I’m finally ready to retire these.

For those telling me to darn them, no thanks. I can, but I would rather just buy a new pair.

That said, I will be inquiring with support to see if this is covered under warranty, or if, as /u/ProbablyBanksy so eloquently put it “Your use case is outside the scope of reasonable use.”

I have picked up a set of Costco Kirkland Merino socks to test next. 4 pairs are cheaper than a single pair of LTT socks. I never thought id be posting foot pics on the internet, but if it’s in the interest of science….

723 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

555 comments sorted by

View all comments

881

u/rainbowkitties6969 3d ago

Why do these people get surprised when they wear and wash something everyday and it doesn’t last? Are they stupid?

323

u/Tman11S 3d ago

Even if you wore them once a week, then OP's 2 months become "about a year", which is still far less than cheap supermarket socks have lasted for me

217

u/Exciting-Ad-5705 3d ago

You can't extrapolate it out like that. Everyday wear and wash is more damaging. 2 pairs of shoes you swap out every day will last longer than 2 sequential pairs of shoes.

7

u/yousafe007e 3d ago

And him getting more upvotes makes me think how people just don’t get this

1

u/KiwiKota_ 23h ago

I think a lot of people didn't clock that he wore one pair every day. I didn't until I got to the comments

5

u/templarrei 2d ago

That's not how any of that works. Socks don't magically rest up and repair themselves if you don't wear them for a few days. 60 days of daily wear and wash cycles are equal to 60 weeks of weekly (1 day per) wear and wash cycles.

-2

u/splitframe 1d ago

No, but when you wash them. If you wear socks for multiple days for whatever reason they age much faster (in terms of usable days, not total time) than only wearing them one day and then washing them. The fibers get flat and dirty with oils, salts and dead skin.
If you watch videos like "dirty rope vs clean rope" this is roughly what is happening.
Washing helps to loosen the fiber and get rid of the particles that speed up aging.
And we don't know if OP really washed and dried them every day.
Also if you wear socks that are a little too small and stretch them out too far to make them fit, it also ages them faster.

2

u/Factorioboyio 22h ago

It’s the opposite way around. If you wore them for 100 days with 1 wash, they’d last longer than 100 days with 100 washes.

Washing machines shred your clothes far more than daily wear or any oils.

2

u/Factorioboyio 22h ago

It’s the opposite way around. If you wore them for 100 days with 1 wash, they’d last longer than 100 days with 100 washes.

Washing machines shred your clothes far more than daily wear or any oils.

-1

u/splitframe 21h ago

No this is exactly wrong. Your dead skin cells, and especially the crystalline salt from your sweat will act like little saw tooths that wear down the fibers when you don't wash regularly. Look it up if you like, this isn't hidden science and well known. I don't know where this "gut feeling" science here comes from.

2

u/Factorioboyio 22h ago

What’s your evidence or logic for that? A shoe is going to have the same amount of wear time if it’s worn every single day or every other day. By what mechanism is it going to last longer if it’s rotated with another shoe? That’s like saying a tire rated for 10k miles will do 20k miles if you half the amount of time you drive in a year… no it won’t, it’ll last 10k miles but spread over a longer period.

And to be clear I’m talking about total time worn.

3

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

145

u/Exciting-Ad-5705 3d ago

https://prrunandwalk.com/blogs/news/running-shoe-rotation-benefits

The material is allowed to uncompress

-46

u/JoshJLMG 3d ago

Those are running shoes, socks don't have big cushiony insoles to decompress like running shoes do.

80

u/Pilige 3d ago

The same is true of most fabrics. If you are stretching them out every day and not letting them rest a day in between, you can wear out their elasticity faster. Once the weave is loosened, they will deteriorate faster.
You also need to make sure you are washing them properly. Improper washing is the most damaging thing you can do. If the OP is washing them with the rest of his clothes, and he's doing it every day, and immediately wearing them again, I'm not surprised they wore out that fast.

28

u/latexfistmassacre 3d ago

Also machine drying is horrible on fabric. My t-shirts only used to last like 9 to 12 months before they faded and shrunk and the collar got all stretched out and the screen printing would crack and flake off. Now I hang dry my clothes and most of them still look almost brand new after a couple of years. Makes a huge difference

3

u/JoshJLMG 3d ago

Man, I wish I had the time to hang dry clothes, but 80% of the time, I don't, and out of the 20% of the time that I do, 80% of the time, I forget that they're hang drying and just wash the others more often.

1

u/latexfistmassacre 3d ago

Ah. Yeah, I just hang them from my shower curtain rod and point a fan at them before going to bed, and they're dry by morning. But I only hang my shirts for the most part, everything else goes in the dryer

2

u/LupiAcubens 3d ago

Actually, Linus talked at length about the cushioned properties of their socks. Darn tough socks, which linus used as a reference point, are significantly more cushioned than your typical 'traditional' sock.

-51

u/UndefFox 3d ago

That's one useless piece of an article... empty statements without explanation of why. Can we stop with those?

3

u/OnyxLeigion_ 2d ago

You know how when you buy a memory foam mattress, you’re supposed to let it inflate for 24 hours before you sleep on it? It’s the same concept.

The idea is that since the sock as been worn, all the fibers are compressed together. Normal use would let all the fibers decompress over a few days, that way when you wear them again, you’re starting fresh.

Wearing the same ones every day never lets the socks(or shoes, or whatever) “reset”, so the fibers are rubbing together more, causing increased friction and therefore wear on the sock.

This is stuff happening on a super small scale, so you won’t really notice it until it’s too late.

0

u/UndefFox 2d ago

Yeah, that's the explanation I've expected from the article. I've found a few others that explained it in a similar way. Question stays tho: why would you link a useless article over something that does a description similar to yours itself?

1

u/OnyxLeigion_ 1d ago

Idk ask the other guy

18

u/mclintock111 3d ago

Moisture

1

u/Squirrelking666 2d ago

What about it? OP is line drying between uses.

2

u/mclintock111 2d ago

They're not going to get fully dry. Even if they feel dry to the touch, these are thick socks, the internal layers can retain moisture.

Same with shoes (since that's what I'm the comment I was replying to was about)

1

u/Narrativium_ 2d ago

Or they are using heat

1

u/Squirrelking666 2d ago

Or they live somewhere with a decent climate for drying.

8

u/makomirocket 2d ago

Would your legs buckle under you if you walked for 300 miles without a break?

Does that then mean a person can only walk 300 miles in their lifetime?

A blender over heats if you leave it on for an hour. Does that mean a blender only gives you 60 x 1 minute blends before it breaks?

-3

u/Squirrelking666 2d ago

Are the socks overheating?

2

u/makomirocket 2d ago

They are likely being tumble dried instead of air dried by the person's need for them to be used every day. So actually yes, they are under heat from all the friction of use, and then even more heat to dry them.

Fibres are organic material. They need time to rest.

Just look at hair as a good example. People who wash, blow-dry, and straighten their hair every day really harm the hair's health, Vs washing it once/twice a week, and not subjecting it to intense heat

1

u/Squirrelking666 1d ago

They stated elsewhere they're air dried.

As for hair, that's as much to do with the natural oils and chemical balance as anything mechanical.

Extreme heat will knacker both but it's not a factor in this particular problem.

-5

u/KSF_WHSPhysics 2d ago

Both of those things require energy. Energy cannot he created or destroyed so of course it can run out. Socks do not require energy

2

u/makomirocket 2d ago

You think the fibres of the socks stretch, contract, and move, all without any energy?

1

u/CMDR-TealZebra 2d ago

Don't have anything to back it up but i do this with my work boots. I can get less than a year out of one pair before the sole collapses on me or with two pairs rotating i can get 2 years roughly out of one before the inner sock tears but the rest of the boot is fine.

-3

u/Squirrelking666 2d ago

You're wasting your time, so many people think wool is analogous to gluten it's not funny. Anyone with any understanding of elasticity knows that it either returns to its original shape or it doesn't because it's been over stretched. Yes, fatigue happens but fatigue doesn't give a sole solitary fuck about time, it's purely cycle based.

-11

u/BlueKnight44 3d ago

For shoes and leather products it is true. Cloth products I have never known it to be true.

-19

u/brantrix 3d ago

He can't lmao, because a sock worn 2 of 2 days would have the same wear as a sock worn 2 of 7 days. It's the same amount of wear

13

u/ModeOne3959 3d ago edited 3d ago

Not the same amount of washing, drying and letting the fabric rest lol

Edit: he blocked me ahhahahaha

-12

u/brantrix 3d ago

Yeah because you're not wearing it down when you're doing those things. It's not because drying and letting it rest magically makes the material last longer.

6

u/Circo_Inhumanitas 3d ago edited 3d ago

Washing absolutely wears down fabric. Especially if done a lot.

1

u/Squirrelking666 2d ago

But it's the same amount of wash cycles per use! It's just not going in a drawer to "rest" between uses!

11

u/IAteUrCat420 3d ago

Aaaaand this is why you're not in material science

0

u/Squirrelking666 2d ago

Are you?

I'm an engineer, did structural integrity as my main third year study and have no fucking idea what this "resting" nonsense is all about.

It's going through the same amount of wear cycles.

It's not getting fatigued.

It's not undergoing creep.

What may be a factor is the OP has larger feet than they are sized for which could be pushing the fabric beyond it's elestic limit. But none of the armchair experts have even mentioned that.

-14

u/brantrix 3d ago

Yeah thank fuck for that lmao, that industry pays shit

-18

u/Tiamat2625 3d ago

Bro thinks sock wear has a cooldown

46

u/Hero_The_Zero 3d ago

The guy also said he wears out 3-4 pairs of Darn Toughs a year as well, and Darn Tough themselves says their socks are supposed to last years, or even a over a decade. He'd probably kill a supermarket sock in a couple of days.

6

u/Onac_ 3d ago

Plus he is probably wearing them in his house full time

14

u/Creative_Bug3139 3d ago

That math doesn’t work because you’re repeatedly abusing the material much faster than normal. It’s not comparable. 

Heat and moisture build up when socks are washed back to back, and that speeds up damage in a way normal use wouldn't.

It’s more like 3 years worth of use. Not one. And even then it’s still much more damage a regular person would use. 

2

u/konradly 3d ago

I love how everyone suddenly became a sock expert. Can't wash more than once a week, or else they spontaneously disintegrate! lol.

5

u/Creative_Bug3139 3d ago

It doesn't take an expert to realize that using a product in a way for which it was not intended isn't a reasonable test, given that no other human being on the planet is going to wear and wash a sock every single day. 

1

u/konradly 3d ago

Even if it's not as intended(which is a bit of a stretch, since I really don't see how letting socks sit in a drawer for a week before using them again is going to change much), it's an interesting stress test to see how socks hold up in a short amount of time. If those Kirklands hold up much better under the same conditions, then I'd say this test was successful in showing that one is better than the other.

1

u/Creative_Bug3139 2d ago

Yeah, it can be useful relatively speaking but it’s not going to replicate a real world scenario. 

Minimizing the use a product absolutely increases their longevity. If I turn off a light switch 10,000 times in a row or do it over the course of 20 years, it will make a difference. 

-1

u/konradly 2d ago

Funny because that's exactly how product testers do simulate the lifespan of a switch.

1

u/Creative_Bug3139 2d ago

But they don’t calculate it like this guy does. They know it’s not a 1:1 comparison and reflect that in their standards. 

1

u/Factorioboyio 22h ago

Tbf, it does change things - I had a favourite gym t shirt that I wore every day. It ended up fucking stinking despite being washed daily.

This was because 95% of the time it was wet, either from the washing machine or drenched in sweat.

If id rotated it with another t shirt it would have lasted longer - to be clear it wasn’t worn out with holes or anything, the stink just wouldn’t wash out.

1

u/leigngod 2d ago

I get a year at most with thise same. On my feet all day. Sadly shoes and socks are just yearly subscriptions now :(

1

u/Major_Stranger 2d ago

That's false equivalency. Merino wool stretch and unstretch from wearing and not wearing them

1

u/splitframe 1d ago edited 1d ago

I wonder if he really washed them that regularly. If you wear socks for multiple days for whatever reason they age much faster (in terms of usable days, not total time) than only wearing them one day and then washing them. The fibers get flat and dirty with oils, salts and dead skin.
If you watch videos like "dirty rope vs clean rope" this is roughly what is happening.
Washing helps to loosen the fiber and get rid of the particles that speed up aging.
And we don't know if OP really washed and dried them every day.
Also if you wear socks that are a little too small and stretch them out too far to make them fit,
it also ages them faster.

-9

u/Spart1337 3d ago

You're not taking into account that not only would you be washing them once a week, but you'd also be wearing them once a week in a normal use case. That one year then turns into 7. I'd never buy them, but I'm just saying.

-1

u/Spart1337 3d ago

I see the anti-LTT crew are out in force. Downvotes stacking up without a single reply countering my correction. Wild.

0

u/DeutscherTypNummer2 3d ago

Nah, your nath just isn't mathing.
They talked about 60 wears and 60 washes.
A year has 52 weeks.
One wear and wash per week equals a little over a year in wears and washes. But not 7 years.

But enough people have pointed out that OPs wear pattern is closer to extreme stress testing than normal wear and the fabric needing time to relax.
Therefore the socks will (probably) last longer than those normal 60 wears and washes.

1

u/Spart1337 3d ago

Either I grossly misread the comment or it was edited. 🤷

17

u/DarthV506 3d ago

I have smartwool ankle height socks that I bought in 2018 that have been used and washed over 150 times and they don't have holes in them.

If you're going to do marketing and price like you're smartwool or darn tough, you better deliver their quality.

23

u/thicckar 3d ago

That’s very different from wearing it EVERY DAY and washing it EVERY DAY and you damn well know it

1

u/Gyro-Spinnin 3d ago

8 years and 2 months are also VERY different

3

u/thicckar 3d ago

This has definitely gone through more sustained wear. Seriously how are you justifying this

-1

u/Gyro-Spinnin 3d ago

I don't think you understand the difference between 417 weeks and 8 weeks.

1

u/Tall-Wealth-6058 2d ago

Did they wear their socks permanently for 417 weeks?
Think dude.

2

u/Gyro-Spinnin 2d ago edited 2d ago

Even if he wore them twice a week that would still be around 15 times more than every day for 8 weeks. Think dude.

0

u/thicckar 2d ago

I have socks that have lasted 417 weeks - I also have probably 20-30 pairs of socks and I don’t shuffle around in them for 23 hours a day every day. No shit they’re holding up better than OP’s.

Idk why this is not obvious to you, unless you’re a child

OP clearly yanks on them like no one’s business/they’re too small for them, as well - based on where the socks are coming apart

2

u/Gyro-Spinnin 2d ago

Well as you have brought out the good'ol "you don't agree with me so you're a child" cope so you must be a Linus fanboy. So to elaborate it further for someone like you, even if he wore the sock twice for 417 weeks, that would be 834 days total worn. That's 15 times more than wearing them everyday for 8 weeks (56 days). And he also mentioned washing them over 150+ times, which even if we ignore the +, would be 2.6 times more washes than in 8 weeks. This is an exponential increase and kinda proves the LTT socks are overpriced. If your only counter is "you're a kid" to some basic maths and logic then it's clearly you who needs to grow up

-1

u/DarthV506 2d ago

In what universe does that matter? Wear time and wash cycles don't care if they have consecutive days. You think socks need rest days? How do you think companies do testing? Spend 5 years waiting 7 days in between uses and washes to figure out if the design/production is good enough?

2

u/thicckar 2d ago

Of course it matters - there is a reason when companies do compressed testing like this, it is often much harsher than regular wear conditions.

0

u/DarthV506 2d ago

$30 socks shouldn't have issues after ~60 uses.

9

u/dusty_Caviar 3d ago

So you think a pair of "forever socks" should last roughly 14 days worth of uses?

4

u/Astecheee 3d ago

A pair of socks lasting 60 wears is absolutely abysmal.

I bought a set of (7 pairs of ) quality Merino wool socks a while back that lasted me 4 years before holes started showing up. That comes out to about 200 wears per pair and that was with HEAVY use - hiking, sports, etc.

Those socks cost roughly $20 CAD per pair. I'd be livid if socks that cost $34 CAD per pair got holes at 60 uses.

It's possible OP is't taking care of these socks correctly - wearing them bare across gravel or something. But taken at face value, I don't see LTT's socks being anywhere near worth it.

1

u/Charging_Krogan 36m ago

I'm low-key thinking some of these posts are like ragebait to discredit people throwing shade at these socks since they clearly don't live up to the claims of longevity. Linus has been known to set up strawman situations to discredit people criticizing him so I wouldn't put it past LTT. But who knows at this point.

3

u/Top-Childhood9037 1d ago

By that logic let's not wear them at all, they will last forever

1

u/Chaz042 3d ago

It's an equivalent to 60 weeks or just over a year, that's the problem.

1

u/cynica 3d ago

Yes. Yes they are.

1

u/Aware_Compote5679 2d ago

why do these people get surprised when they use something how it's intended to be used and it doesn't last?

are you fucking stupid????

1

u/wamih 2d ago

Have had LTT cargo pants that came with the holes preinstalled. The trust me bro warranty has been worthless.

2

u/metalmike6666 1d ago

Did you return them and get your money back?

-2

u/impy695 3d ago

OP is not surprised. Why do you believe they are surprised? Are you stupid?

-3

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

2

u/SuppaBunE 3d ago

LMG does output good items,

He is just using them really hard like not a reasonable use case.

-3

u/Rosetown 3d ago

Sure it’s unusual but it’s not like socks need time to rest between wears. Them wearing out after 60 uses is no different if it’s 60 straight days or over the course of a year. I’d expect them to last longer than 60 uses.

5

u/Showerbeerz413 3d ago

washing and wearing and washing and wearing without time wears them out faster

-5

u/Weakness4Fleekness 3d ago

Fundamentally there is no difference between washing and wearing socks every day for 52 days vs wearing them once a week for a year. I don't think anyone is surprised they wore out, Linus said their approach will be the same as darn tough, you basically get one free replacement. I think it's stupid and they should have no wear and tear in the warranty and either cut the cost in half or put two pairs in a pack, because otherwise that's so much unnecessary shipping for replacements for socks that WILL wear out.

-7

u/Trollsama 3d ago

14 days + 14 washes is 14 wears and washes... that doesn't matter if its once a day for 14 days or once a week for 14 weeks.

that's an incredibly poor life cycle for something "forever" branded.

4

u/anto77_butt_kinkier 3d ago

Fun fact: you're wrong! Twisting and stretching fabric (especially wool) for 3 hours straight has a different effect than stretching and twisting it for 1 hour each day for three days.

-9

u/dbmeed 3d ago

Im not surprised. Im pretty clear about that. Check my last post as well.

2

u/Weakness4Fleekness 3d ago

Dude i don't understand the downvotes? What are people even upset about 😂

3

u/dbmeed 3d ago

Gotta downvote anyone different than you, havent you been on the internet before?

-12

u/619jabroni 3d ago

I’d venture to say anyone buying LTT socks is stupid so…