Cotton is a traditional natural fiber and a comfortable textile material, which is still widely used. However, for the requirements of sports, especially outdoor sports, the performance of cotton itself has great limitations. Cotton fiber has good hygroscopicity and fast hygroscopicity, but it cannot drain water. Cotton fiber will slowly dry when it is wet. Therefore, if there is no good logistics supply, try not to wear cotton socks in outdoor activities, especially in rainy summer. Cotton socks can be dangerous when they are soaked.
Wool is also a traditional natural fiber, which is famous for its good warmth retention. However, ordinary wool is not suitable for socks, so it is necessary to choose high-quality wool, such as merino wool and Australian new wool, which are good materials for underwear and socks. But many people will find that wool is rarely used to make close-fitting clothes, and even if it is available, it is expensive, which is mainly determined by the structural characteristics of wool itself. Under the microscope, we can see that wool fiber has many scales, which are arranged a bit like bamboo leaves, and each scale has a keratinized tip at the top. This keratinized tip is easy to cause adhesion between wool fibers, also called adhesion. At the same time, this keratinized tip makes wool feel itchy when it is close to the skin. Therefore, if wool is used as close-fitting clothing such as socks, this keratinized tip must be removed. With this treatment. Wool itself is warm, and its hygroscopicity and moisture drainage are poor. After blending or weaving with other fibers, it can be made into good winter warm socks.
Lycra, spandex and rubber band are all elastic materials. Lycra is a registered trademark of DuPont Company in the United States. In fact, it is a kind of spandex, so it is also called Lycra spandex. However, it feels much better than ordinary spandex, with good extensibility and resilience, and it is not easy to age. Now many outdoor brands choose Lycra as elastic material. A rubber band is actually a rubber band. Of course, they are much thinner for socks, as thin as yarn, and are woven into socks during the manufacturing process. Rubber band is easy to age, and it is easy to lose its original extensibility and renaturate after being corroded by sweat or caught cold in winter. For socks that are more expensive for outdoor sports, this feature makes them less economical. But now there is a kind of rubber band in Japan. It is said that the durability is very good and it is still in the promotion stage.
For sports socks, especially professional sports socks for outdoor sports, some special fibers must be added to highlight their professional functionality. COOLMAX is often used. COOLMAX is a patented fiber product of DuPont company in the United States, and it is also called four-channel profiled polyester fiber in textiles. Ordinary fibers are mostly solid circular or oval in cross section, while COOLMAX fibers are hollow in cross section, just like four pipes juxtaposed. This structure increases the contact area between fibers and air, and also ensures that there are many gaps between fabrics. This ensures that COOLMAX fiber has strong hygroscopicity and moisture drainage, and the fabric doped with COOLMAX fiber has good air permeability. It should be noted that COOLMAX is a kind of functional fiber with moisture absorption, perspiration and breathability, not a kind of thermal fiber. This is just a hot environment to keep the moisture as dry as possible. THERMOLITE is a special kind of thermal fiber. THERMOLITE is also a patented fiber product of DuPont. Like COOLMAX, it is polyester fiber with the same hollow structure. It is reported that THERMOLITE was developed inspired by the hair structure of polar bears. Its cross section is round, and the middle is hollow, like a tube, which can improve the bulkiness of fibers and thus achieve the effect of keeping warm. This principle is somewhat similar to down. THERMOLITE is an ideal material for warm socks in winter, with good warmth retention and perspiration effect. (It should be pointed out here that when COOLMAX and THERMOLITE are used as socks, they mainly use short fibers. Pilling is inevitable in the process of wearing. The tighter the structure of socks, the less pilling. Using COOLMAX and THERMOLITE long fiber will not pilling, but it feels that socks are hard and not suitable for making thick socks. Just make thin single-function lining socks. )
Nylon (nylon), some components are also called nylon on the logo, which is specially used to strengthen the firmness in outdoor sports socks. How can nylon prolong the service life of socks and prevent them from being damaged?
Thermolite and coolmax are both moisture-absorbing and sweat-wicking fibers. Thermolite, also known as hollow thermal fiber, pays more attention to the function of keeping warm when sweating, which is more expensive.
COOLMAX socks can be roughly divided into full coolmax socks and coolmax/ cotton blended socks: it is almost impossible for socks to achieve 100%coolmax, and spandex yarns need to be added when producing socks. Generally, the content of all coolmax socks is 70%-85%. In coolmax/ cotton blended socks, the total content of coolmax and cotton is about 70%-85%, and if it is 50/50, coolmax accounts for 35%-43%. Theoretically, the higher the coolmax content, the better the moisture absorption and perspiration function.