Grip that breaks ground.
A new product category.
It wouldn’t be fair to write an article about grip socks without acknowledging our friends at TruSox as one of the 1st to give this new athletic technology a go. However, with their early success has recently come a gluttony of new brands trying to capitalise on this young and exciting niche with cheaply-made socks that are showing evidence that they struggle do the job effectively and cost you more in the long run.
James and I saw the potential that grip socks could have for our athletes’ performance. Our intuition and experience as athletes ourselves said that this simple concept made complete sense; if your foot is sliding around in your shoe, your balance will be off, your sprint speeds will be slower and you’ll be losing power each and every stride. These small margins could be the difference between winning or losing and so we set about designing a grip sock that would help you reclaim those margins back.
A deeper dive.
Now when we looked at the core problem, we found that almost all grip socks on the market have at least 2 key problems:
Poor quality grip material
Grips on the outside only
First, we started by evaluating the grip material itself and we found that every sock on the market uses a simple rubberised material. While it is fairly grippy on the first wear it is fragile and wears down quickly meaning that your grip reduces after each game. Working with the team at PremGripp, we decided to utilise medical-grade silicone for our grips. It is far more heat tolerant, more hardwearing/longer lasting and ultimately medically safer for athletes allergic to rubber and latex compounds. The specific application process for this silicone also has a naturally smooth surface meaning that risk of blistering is mitigated, compared to rubberised materials.
Second, we also noticed that almost all grips socks out there are only doing 50% of the job by using a single layer of grip on the outside of the sock and to fully optimise your speed returns and capture that extra 50%, we could not compromise in this area and had to apply grip to both the inside and outside of the sock. This ensures that the sock grips both your foot and the shoe creating a rock solid foundation for your explosive movements on the field.
Finally, in the socks that did have grip on both sides (note - we could only find 3 out there!) the PremGripp team showed us how placing the layers of grip dots directly on-top of each other created an uncomfortable pressure on the sole of the foot while playing, creating discomfort and distracting from the game. We therefore moved the outside layer of grips forwards to create an ‘offset’ pattern where the grip alternates inside - outside - inside - outside meaning that when you press your foot into the ground, the grips all level off and work with each other in unison, rather than pressing against and sliding over each other which would defeat the intended purpose. Our athletes have let us know just how comfortable this change makes the socks, so much so you forget they are even there after a few minutes!
grip to the future.
We wholeheartedly believe that grip socks are here to stay and we are so proud to have teamed up with PremGripp to develop what we consider to be the absolute best grip sock available on the market.
Every detail has been thought through to optimise your performance:
2-layers of ‘offset’ medical-grade silicone grip
Targeted breathability zones
Durable cotton construction
Enhanced ankle support and protection
Anti-blister technology
We are also incredibly excited to be working with Newcastle University to extensively lab-test our next addition to our grip sock line-up, stay tuned!
