Ready for a super niche post? If you, like me, enjoy finding “the best” of something, then you, like me, have likely been wearing Bombas socks for years now. They are, as they say, a hug for your feet. You might not have thought that a mere sock could be meaningfully better than another mere sock, yet, I give you Bombas. Once you wear a pair, it’s hard to wear anything else.
Yet, despite my love and adoration for them, Bombas socks suffer from a major, fundamental, egregious flaw. Namely, the main reason they are so comfortable is a “honeycomb” pattern that runs around the arch of the foot. While the compression feels great, these socks look terrible with loafers (or any other low-vamp-style show) given that the honeycomb pattern peeks out (sometimes quite a bit) and ruins the clean look of your shoe. Thus, Bombas cannot be worn with loafers. And if you, like me, find yourself wearing loafers very often then you’ll understand the dilemma.
Now, Bombas used to have dress socks variations in which the honeycomb pattern was almost invisible, but they seem to have changed how they did this as they are quite visible on the grey pairs I recently purchased from them. So, sadly, I have found myself on the Sisyphean hunt for an alternative.
While I cannot say I have truly found something as good, Proper Cloth recently released a line of socks and they are the closest I have yet come. They have both dress socks, and “crew socks” — and it is the latter that you will want, actually. They feature ribbing and ventilation around the arch of the foot. it’s not quite as comfortable as Bombas, but it’s the closest I have seen. The overall quality of the sock is up there with the greats as well. Plush, thick, seamless, and so on. They have been super comfortable to wear with loafer and dress shoes alike. And while they are not quite as good as Bombas (despite being more expensive, if you could believe it), they are only a small step down; a worthy trade-off to remove the eye-sore of the honeycomb pattern when wearing loafers. You’re welcome?