Best Socks for Wide Feet: What to Look For
At Softstar, we advocate being as close to barefoot as possible to strengthen your feet and improve your balance. However, urban environments, cold floors, safety, and cultural edicts mean our feet spend a lot of time wrapped up in socks and shoes. While buying minimalist footwear is known as a health conscious choice, many people are surprised to learn that choosing the best socks for their wide feet is also an important part of building foot strength and balance.
Socks are terrific for keeping your feet warm and protecting your skin. If you have a goal of healthy, strong feet, you may think ditching your shoes for just socks is a great idea—but you might be ignoring the most fundamental problem…
What's wrong with my socks?
The #1 problem with most socks is they are too tight in the toe box with angled shapes that squeeze your toes together. Building strength through natural movement requires your toes to be free and unrestricted. Even though the sock fabric may stretch easily, if your toes are pinched together, they are spending a lot of time out of proper alignment.
Think of tight, angled socks as a cast for your toes. The shape, flexibility and strength of your toes is influenced constantly by the socks you choose. An effective solution is to choose the best socks with wide, foot-shaped toe boxes. Fortunately, there are many companies that design foot shaped socks to choose from.
Top 3 Attributes of Healthy Socks
Straight Toes
Look for wide, foot-shaped toe boxes in your socks such as Plus12 that do not press your toes together. Toe socks go a step further to encourage alignment.
Dry Feet
Choose socks that don’t cause your feet to sweat, and that also wick away moisture. Natural fibers such as wool, bamboo and silk have wicking and natural thermal-regulation properties. Synthetic weaves can also be lightweight and moisture-wicking.
Breathable
Look for weaves of mesh or air channels that provide breathability. Alternatively, choose loose-weave materials for airflow. Some socks tout odor absorption and anti-microbial properties, but keep in mind that this is treating a symptom, not the root cause. Not having breathable socks can lead to athletes foot and contact dermatitis.
What are the best wide socks?
One of our favorite sock brands, Plus12, makes socks for adults and children alike, with a “straight” design for your big toe. Their diagram below illustrates how traditional socks are angled at the big toe vs. Plus12 socks that are the same shape as feet.
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Plus12 Adult Merino Wool Socks
Starting at $15.00 -
Plus12 Kids Merino Wool Socks
Starting at $10.00
What are the best toe socks for wide feet?
For many foot health advocates, the ultimate socks are toe socks, a variation gaining popularity as they have dual functionality. Not only do they allow proper toe alignment, but they also have the extra role of acting like toe spreaders. The sock material between the toes causes a similar (but milder) effect of holding toes apart from each other akin to wearing toe spreaders like Correct Toes to restore natural foot shape.
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Correct Toes - Toe Spacers
$65.00
Both Ininji® and Xoskin™ toe socks are an integral part of many Softstar Elf wardrobes and highly requested by our customers. Ininji® makes competitively priced toe socks in a beautiful array of colors. Competitive athletes favor XOSkin™ toe socks due to their excellent durability. As a plus, they are made in the USA!
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Performance Run No-Show Toe Socks - Injinji
Starting at $14.00 -
Liner Crew Toe Socks - Injinji
Starting at $12.00 -
XOTOES™ Anklet Toe Socks
Starting at $24.00 -
XOTOES™ Quarter Crew Wool Toe Socks
Starting at $34.50
Other Considerations
- Non-slip bottoms can be critically important depending on your use case, age, and balance.
- Avoid socks that rub or cause hot spots due to ill-positioned seams or bulky excess of materials in the wrong places. Besides being annoying, they can cause blisters.
- Do your socks make you happy? Socks have a hidden superpower when it comes to fashion and mental health. Even the most serious, sober outfit perks up when a pair of fun socks can peek out from below. Spread your toes and some joy with socks that make you smile!
Trish has been an entrepreneur, marketer and maker ever since she crushed her first lemonade stand at age five. Growing up in rural Wisconsin, she spent many summers running barefoot with her sisters. These early memories later inspired her to build a brand which embraced the joy and freedom of childhood with the health and science of minimal footwear.
Trish relishes evolving the company to grow stronger and more competitive with each passing year. She is a frequent expert panelist for both e-commerce and entrepreneurship conferences. Trish enjoys spending time with her family, dogs and ducks on their property in Oregon and loves the proximity to both surf and snow. She has a background in Engineering Physics and an MBA from the University of Chicago.