Wow! First and foremost, what a GREAT company SwiftWick is to work with. My initial contact couldn’t have gone easier. A whole pack of socks arrived; not only to be reviewed but to be used as a giveaway to members of the team. AHEM, I’m still looking for those community reviews for those that received some socks!!
After picking up a new “dread“-mill, I put some of the calf length socks to the test along with some others. First impression is the sock felt lighter on then they did beforehand. The seemed like they had a bit of weight and density but once slipped on they were extremely tight. Not in a bad way, I mean tight as in the really held the calf region together well.
I’ve been trying to use more of a mid to front foot strike in my running and with that I have had a ton more soreness below my calf in the soleus muscle. It not only hurt quite a bit during runs but afterward, for days, I would be in near agony. Ok, well not in agony but it sucked to walk let’s say that. Because of the compression in the Swiftwicks both the soreness while running and after was alleviated quite a bit.
I would leave them on after runs, I even slept in them one night in hopes of being able to work the next day. Besides the fact I had just started getting back into running more per day and had changed my stride, I was pleasantly surprised at how I felt the next day. There was still some deep muscle soreness but overall, for once, my soleus did not feel destroyed and I was able to work a normal shift with minimal limp, haha!
They also sent some ankle compression socks to test out and I wear them all the time. I am a stinky, sweaty foot kind of guy, so being able to wick away the moisture is awesome! My son who has inherited the same sweaty, stinkiness wore a pair one day on a run with me and commented on how dry his feet were afterward. That was after prerunning the F.I.T. Challenge course with lots of snow and wetness, yet our feet were surprisingly dry. The stink? Well, Swiftwick can’t perform miracles, can they? The wicking in both the ankle and calf socks are great is what I’m saying.
One thing that always concerns me about wearing such a light sock is that they will slip around a bit in my shoes and cause blisters and such. This did not happen with these, my foot stayed put and were good to go! They were put to the test at our recent Unleashed training where we were jumping, running, climbing, etc. Again, there wasn’t any slippage and after 2 hours of a grueling workout and an hour of open gym my legs felt great.
Overall I am extremely pleased with these. I definitely prefer the calf socks be a little thicker, but these were quite a bit more tight so I felt like that may have helped more. I’d recommend these 100%. Check out their site at http://www.swiftwick.com/
And don’t forget, those that received socks you owe me a community review!! 🙂
