The athletic sock is the one part of an athlete’s uniform that too often gets overlooked, is underappreciated and is often considered simply as just a commodity. Well, in 2025 that is far from the truth — the athletic sock has evolved with the times and it’s now an absolute necessity that plays a vital role in athletic performance.  

Clearly, the sock is not just a sock anymore — in terms of performance, styles, colors and, dare we say, personal expression. Gone are the days of plain white. Today’s colors include such trend-right options as aqua, maroon, fuchsia, sky blue and teal.

Food for thought: In order to play the vast majority of the top 10 most popular high school sports for either gender, each participant needs a pair of socks. That adds up to demand for A LOT of team socks and that’s great news for team dealers who sell them.

Talking the Sock Market

The team sock may have a reputation as a commodity, but in reality it’s an important component of team dealer sales, especially for sports such as football, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball.

At Al’s Sporting Goods in Wilmington, DE, which has been in business for 90 years (see story on page 30), owner Bob Hart has a diverse inventory of athletic socks and that business can best be described as vibrant.

Hart points out that the business of selling socks has significantly evolved. At Al’s, the basic team athletic socks come from Pearsox and Pro Feet and the team dealer/retailer stocks 10 colors of socks for local baseball, softball, and soccer teams. At retail, socks from Wigwam, Thor-Lo, Nike and Pro Feet are on the shelves.

“The Wigwam socks tend to appeal to older customers,” says Hart, while the Thor-Lo socks have special padding for extra comfort and socks from Nike and Pro Feet are sold in six packs.

In south Florida, Joel Dunn, a salesman for Jacksonville-based Baker Sporting Goods, has noticed a transition in athletic sock sales in recent years.

“Not too many years ago, there was a big interest in customized athletic socks for baseball and softball,” he says, and many schools were ordering stirrup socks with stripes. “But, those custom socks cost more money, take more time to make and there’s always a minimum number of socks for each order, which is usually more socks than a team needs.”

Now, he adds, “many baseball and softball teams don’t want to the most expensive athletic socks nor do they want the least expensive athletic socks. Instead, they just want a standard, affordable, durable, comfortable athletic sock.”

According to Dunn, the one sport where teams do tend to spend extra money on socks is for soccer. Here, each team must have a pair for home games – usually one of the darker school colors for home games – and for away games, each player must wear a lighter colored pair, usually white.

“In soccer, the socks are worn high so they can hold the shin guards in place,” Dunn explains. “And since the soccer is played with the feet, there’s more attention on the lower legs of the athletes than in any other sport.”

Meanwhile, at D.H. Sports in Bastrop, LA, the main sock brand is from Twin City Knitting, where at least 13 colors of socks are always in stock for baseball, softball, football and cheerleading.

At Kratz Sporting Goods in Clarksville, IN, baseball and softball teams are buying socks from Twin City Knitting, soccer and basketball teams prefer Adidas and individual purchases of socks inside the retail store come from Wigwam. According to sales associate Paula Kratz, some teams often buy socks in spirit packs from the dealer.

At Coaches Corner in Terre Haute, IN, Twin City Knitting, Pro Feet, Champro, Nike, and Adidas are the main brands and, according to manager Doc Claussen, socks are sold in many different ways.

“We sell custom socks to teams in football, soccer, baseball and softball,” he says. “Without a doubt, most of our sock sales are for baseball. In addition to high school and travel teams, we sell lots of socks to youth baseball leagues and to junior high teams.”

The Age Difference

An interesting trend in sock sales relates to the age of the head coach.

“Older coaches, specifically those who are in the mid-40s, tend to buy socks for their teams through our store,” said Claussen. “Younger coaches will buy socks from the Internet or tell their players to go online to purchase their socks.”

The online purchasing does present a revenue issue for Coaches Corner. “Due to the Internet, customers can order socks just as quickly as we can get them,” laments Claussen.

In basketball, black and white are still the most popular sock colors and Claussen says that players in Indiana tend to buy more black than white. The sock brands of choice are Nike and Adidas. Small fashion factoid: “Basketball players are wearing crew socks,” adds Claussen.

Looking back, Claussen feels that the arrival of Michael Jordan into the NBA in the mid-to-late 1980s seemed to coincide with the emergence of the popularity of black socks for basketball players.

In Cedar Falls, IA, Iowa Sports Supply has a strong sock business selling to high school baseball, softball, soccer and basketball teams. Their key brands are Champro and Twin City Knitting.

According to sales associate Everett Eggleston, high school soccer teams are buying two different colored pairs of socks – white and also a darker, school color – and basketball teams are, for the most part, buying white socks.

Out in Las Vegas, NV, a variety of athletic socks are sold nearly every day by Turf Sporting Goods. “We have every color of athletic socks under the sun,” says sales associate Mark Tervelt, pointing to Champro and Twin City Knitting as their key brands.

For the most part, Turf Sporting Goods attracts a huge percentage of athletic sock sales in the greater Las Vegas area. “We sell socks to every school, travel team, and youth league here in Las Vegas,” said Tervelt, whose biggest sock clients are baseball and softball teams.

WHAT ATHLETES WANT

Team Insight conducted an informal poll of a group of young athletes around the U.S. and found that Nike is the preferred brand of choice in athletic socks, though not the only brand of choice.

Eloise Tackett (photo above), 16, a sophomore at Second Baptist High School in Memorial, TX, has at least 20 pairs of athletic socks in her sock drawer. Tackett is a three-sport athlete who plays volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter and soccer in the spring.

Tackett’s favorite athletic sock colors are white and green. Her favorite brand is the Nike Elite and she wears two pairs while playing hoops.

“I like the comfort level of the Nike Elite socks,” says Tackett, who plays travel basketball for a team called Just Play. “They provide a bunch of cushioning, which I need when playing basketball.”

When she works out with long-distance runs, Tackett wears socks from Thor-Lo.  

While Nike is her favorite brand, she is open to change as she just recently bought a pair of WNBA athletic socks to try and test.

Mackenzie Teuton (photo at start of story), 15, a sophomore at William B. Travis High School in Richmond, TX, is a point guard on her high school basketball team and her travel basketball team. Typically, Teuton has quite a few pairs of athletic socks at home.

“I have 20 to 25 pairs of athletic socks,” Teuton says. “I have many colors of socks such as white, black, red, pink, navy blue and turquoise from Nike and Under Armour.”

Teuton has specific needs in her athletic socks. “I’m looking for a sock that feels good, is comfortable, is durable and is not too thick,” she says, adding that she wears her socks so much that the lifespan can be as few as three or four months.

Mateo Aristizabal, 17, a junior at Berean Christian School in West Palm Beach, FL, has more than 20 pairs of athletic socks at home in his bedroom. Aristizabal is the quarterback of the football team and a goal-scoring center forward on the soccer team.  

His school’s soccer team wears a team sock – either white or navy blue – from Adidas. In football, he wears socks from Nike that have a specific grip on the bottom. On an everyday basis, he prefers to wear socks that are size-specific.

“At school, I like to wear a white sock from Nike that covers the ankle, but doesn’t cover the shins,” Aristizabal says.

At Westminster Christian School in Miami, FL, senior Kelsie Kenney plays both varsity basketball and softball. She, too, considers her socks as a big part of her game, pointing out that her sock drawer is filled with at least 14 pairs.    

“That gives me one pair of socks for each day of the week for each sport,” she explains. Her basketball socks tend to last longer because they are not exposed to dirt and sliding like the softball socks are.

Kenney’s color and brand preferences tend to vary, based on the sport she is playing.

“I prefer wearing white socks for basketball and for softball I wear whatever socks that match with the uniform,” she says. “I use Nike socks for basketball and Under Armour socks for softball. My two biggest needs from my socks are comfort and durability.