In 2016, Time magazine labelled sneaker brand Allbird’s Wool Runners as “the world’s most comfortable shoes.”
With uppers constructed from an original sustainable material as fine as a Tom Ford suit, it's perhaps unsurprising the billion dollar start-up has discovered that 50 per cent of their customers choose to break with convention and wear their sneakers without socks.
However, for those that don’t love the idea of their toes going commando, there’s good news; for the brand has just launched a range of sustainable and wonderfully comfortable socks.
Constructed from a new fabric called Trino, the socks use a yarn that combines their pre-existing Tree material (which they use to make some of their sneakers) with Merino wool.
The material is partly constructed from recycled plastic bottles, and all the socks are 100 per cent carbon neutral and come in recycled cardboard packaging.
The result is a cooling, breathable and absorbent fabric that wicks sweat while remaining dry to the touch. They also include a supportive archband that "lightly hugs your foot."
The socks, which cost £12 for the no-show trainer sock option, £16 for the classic style and £14 for an in-between option, will be available in six colours.
There are 20 billion pairs of shoes made each year and the footwear industry as a whole annually emits 700 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.
Allbirds set out to breathe life into the outdated footwear category by making shoes from innovative and sustainable materials like eucalyptus trees, Merino wool and sugarcane.
The Silicon Valley start-up took just three years from launch to achieve a valuation of $1 billion, with the launch of a wearable material like Trino, it seems unlikely the brand will stop at socks.
The socks will be available online and in store from August 15.
