Socks are the latest trigger for inter-generational debate
Sock height is the latest style skirmish: ‘If you are wearing low-cut socks, it means you are 30-plus.’
Standing in line for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Disney World, 36-year-old Matthew Hubbard experienced an epiphany. He might be old. Or at least, look it.
A group of teenagers ahead of him were snickering and gawking at his footwear — specifically the no-show socks peeking out from his Adidas running shoes. The kids, by contrast, were all sporting socks that hit midcalf.
“It was very hot, so I couldn’t understand why anyone would want tall socks, but I also didn’t want to feel like the elderly Disney millennial,” says Hubbard, an author who lives in Chattanooga, Tennesee.
The next day, he slipped on a pair of grey, midcalf high socks he’d packed for sleeping.
Across gyms, workplaces and the internet, a fierce controversy is kicking around about sock height. Higher socks, such as those that cover ankles and go as tall as midcalf, were popular in the 1980s and ’90s. But now, they are seen as stylish and the socks to wear by teens and Gen Z-ers.
“If you are wearing low-cut socks, it means you are 30-plus,” says Chidebe Ndibe, a 26-year-old software developer in West Hartford, Conn. who mostly wears crew socks.
Generations have long clashed over style and aesthetic choices, from Gen Z declaring that side parts make people look old to young shoppers nearly killing the millennial-favourite skinny jean in favour of wide-legged versions. Gen Z often feels the need to distinguish themselves – and dunk on – the previous generation, even if their preferred styles predate their own existence.
The humble sock, in particular, tends to rile people up. We tussle over whether to wear them to sleep, whether they are obliged to match an outfit and whether socks with sandals are ever OK.
This new wave of young crew-sock fans insist the higher, the better. They point to inspirations old and new, including Princess Diana donning crew socks with biker shorts, Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner leaving gym class wearing high socks with leggings, and fashion editorials featuring loafers with socks folded over.
“I feel like it makes an outfit look more complete,” says Kendall Maynard, an 18-year-old high-school senior in Grand Rapids, Michigan. agrees. “With my legs, specifically, I feel like it almost helps them look longer,” he says.
Short-sock devotees argue the opposite. “I am 5-foot-2 on a good day and have short legs, and so if I wore crew socks, there’d be no differentiation between my thighs and ankles,” says Krista Figueroa, 32, an X-ray technologist in Westchester, N.Y. “It does not look cute.”
Besides, Figueroa associates high socks with her boomer father, who often wears crew socks with New Balance shoes and an FDNY T-shirt. “That is old-school,” she says, “ultimate dad style.”
Brands, however, are seeing the youth trend toward taller socks reflected in sales data.
At Hanes, sales of socks that rise above the ankle are up 5.9 per cent since 2021, while sales of low-cut socks are down 3.8 per cent, according to the company. At Aritzia, crew socks that reach midcalf are selling twice as fast as ankle styles, says Heather McLean, the company’s executive vice president of product.
At Bombas, socks that show now make up 42 per cent of the company’s business in April, compared with last year’s 33 per cent. Sales of no-show socks dropped 9 per cent this April compared with last, according to Randy Goldberg, Bombas co-founder and chief brand officer.
Angelica Mejia, 19, has a front row view to sock habits. She is a retail associate at a Finish Line store at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J. She says the store is constantly restocking crew socks from Adidas and Nike, but “nobody really ever buys an ankle or no-shows.”
The sock divide has generated countless social-media skirmishes. “Seeing someone wear Air Forces with no-shows hurts my soul a little bit,” Godsway Williams, a clothing designer in Melbourne, declared on his TikTok.
‘Visceral reaction’
Phoebe Parsons, a 34-year-old Pilates instructor in Brisbane, shared her observations about the inverse relationship of sock height and age in a TikTok that drew 3.7 million views. In her Pilates studio, Parsons noticed students in their 20s wore high socks while older students wore lower ones.
“As millennials, we are stuck in the mindset of skinny legs, and we think our legs look better when you can see your ankle, but Gen Z doesn’t care,” Parsons says. She’s tried to fit in with her Gen Z clients, but concedes, “I’ve had a visceral reaction to crew socks. It feels wrong.”
Yet Gila Pfeffer, a 50-year-old author in London, recently made the jump from no-show socks to crew. She was seeing higher socks on her 21-year-old daughter and all her friends. Following her daughter’s encouragement, Pfeffer bought some for herself.
Initially, Pfeffer had a flashback to her own teen years, when she sported white scrunched socks with Keds.
“I thought, ‘Wait, do I want to go back to the ’80s? Not so much,’” she says. “But I do like an old take on new things.”
The Wall Street Journal
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