It’s my signature
Way before I even knew what crossfit was I’ve had people inquire “what box do you train at?” I literally just used to stand in front of them with my *wtf are you talking about look* until they continued “you do crossfit – right?”
After I stuck my nose in the air and exclaimed “No, I do not crossfit – I do bodybuilding/ludus/multisport” (or whatever it was I was currently dabbling in) they would usually point and sheepishly say “oh it’s the socks and shorts”.
I’ve been wearing long socks and shorts on and off since before I had the kidlets, heck way back when I was with the first husband I remember wearing long socks however it wasn’t until 2010 when long socks and shorts became somewhat my “signature look” so much so that whenever I turned up to train in anything other than my “uniform” people would look disappointed and comment on my lack of cute socks.
I never wore long socks because of the sport I did, I wore long socks because Erin Stern made them look cool. I love Erin Stern and not because she was Miss Olympia. I love Erin Stern because she is an actual athlete, she only just missed qualifying for the Olympic high jump by 3cm! She runs, she jumps and she even flips tyres, not only does she train aesthetically she trains functionally. I have somewhat of a girl crush on Miss Stern.
Obviously I don’t look like Miss Stern, for one thing my legs are somewhat shorter and stockier but if people only wore swimsuits if they looked like sport illustrated models the beach would be a pretty desolate place!
So over the years regardless of what my current sport of choice was or if it was summer or winter, 99.5% of the time I would be in my signature look of shorts and long socks. At first I wasn’t particularly picky about what type of shorts I wore but in 2012 my signature look “upgraded” to lululemon turbo run shorts and long socks. Thankfully I bought quite a few pairs of turbo run shorts because Lululemon don’t make them anymore and the ones they replaced them with (groovy run shorts) cling to my quads. #firstworldproblems
This year I actually became a crossfitter and the first thing I noticed was that most girls wear tights, very few wear shorts and they are the ones with hot legs (as in looking – although as the session goes on they get hot in temperature too) and during my induction course I soon realised that crossfitters wear long socks for an actual reason, they protect your shins!
I wore long socks consistently at Ludus after gaining a few scars during box jump mishaps so I don’t know why I was so surprised that there is an “actual” reason that the people who train in shorts at crossfit also wear long socks. (I say people because when we do Olympic Lifting or rope climbing a lot of the guys wear long socks too). I know for a fact that this reason is not common knowledge among the general population as I’ve had to defend the “crossfitters uniform” to a few people who have asked in the last few months.
So this brings me to the main reason behind today’s blog post. You see at least once a day I get asked “how many pairs of socks do you have?” or “where do you get your socks from?”.
These are the socks that were in my sock drawer today. I guess there are at least a few more pairs in the process of being washed so a close guesstimate would 40 odd. I have other long socks, but they don’t stay up when you run so I’ve deemed them to be house socks and they aren’t included.
Some of my favorite socks come from Little Miss Matched they come in sets of three and none of the socks match exactly. I purchased mine the last time we went to the US but they do have an online store (you would need to use a forwarder though, they don’t ship internationally).
The majority of my socks I’ve purchase online from Sock Dreams they have a huge selection of socks in the one place I do however tend to stick to the brands; Sock It To Me, Foot Traffic and Gumball Poodle because they are a nice fit, last forever and don’t move when you run or jump.
The rest of my collection I’ve picked up at places like K Mart, Postie Plus and even the sock stores you find in the middle of the mall, the mall ones aren’t suitable to run long distances in though, so I always wear a pair of slim fit ankle thorlos underneath for comfort.
So there you have it. Long socks not only brighten the world for the people who look at you, but they also protect the skin on your shins AND hide all the bruises and whip marks you get along the way.
Best go grab your credit card 😉
Till next time
