The Best Cycling Socks
Much debate goes on around cycling socks, most often its cuff height but we believe there's more to socks than just cuff height...
Socks Socks Socks?
Ever wondered what makes a cycling sock great? It's something that's kept us awake for many nights and something we've worked on perfecting. We all want the pro look. But deep down inside we knew there was more to the "look" than most people made out. After all, a road bike is just a road bike, isn't it? NO! In the same way a cycling sock isn't just a sock. As cyclists we're all stipplers for detail and marginal gains, why? Because they matter, and in our opinion they make a difference to how you feel and perform. That's why we made and designed a sock of unrivalled quality.
What makes our socks artisan?
We get asked this a lot. Rather than using another manufacture to put our designs on we have 4 dedicated machines in Italy making our socks, they're completely bespoke to us. We focus on quality not mass production. Not only this but they incorporate a very fine needle count and level of precision not seen by many. The mesh is a mesh, you can see your foot through the top of it. An Italian family who work the machines and pack everything by hand too. Its a real labour of love, slow, but knitting in this way creates great socks. Our ambition is to become a house hold name like FMB who make exquisite tubular tires in France.
FIT, TECHNICALITY and QUALITY (FTQ).
Like anything in life, there's usually more to something than meets the eye. We call it the FTQ effect.
Starting with fit, and here we can address the height of the cuff. There is certainly a sweet spot, and its been nicely summarised by the Winnipeg Cycle Chick, she's on the money. In short though, anything slightly too high which starts to tickle the base of your calf is more at home on a school girl, anything below the ankle should be worn on the tennis court, and no socks at all well. No comment.
Whilst we wouldn't recommend wearing your latest pair of Paul Smith socks you need to think about what makes a cycling sock what it is. For us, our biggest bug bare was that socks weren't technical and by this we mean the yarns used for keeping your feet cool, the mesh on the upper of the foot and the compression band. We've addressed these points.
Knitting machines
As a boutique outfit our 4 knitting machines work 5 days a week producing our socks. Each sock takes 5-7 minutes to make, for more complicated patterns this can be even longer, which is very slow. In some cases this is twice the time it takes for a conventional sock. As a company we focus on quality above all things, not quantity.
The PONGO London recipe
Detail. It's all about detail. We're passionate about what we do and love nothing more than producing beautiful premium quality cycling socks. We truly believe that is what makes us stand out. It's out recipe.
Passion ON the GO