The Breakdown
Pros
- I do think they help to reduce blisters
- Lightweight and comfortable
Cons
- Expensive for socks
- Need to keep your nails trimmed otherwise prone to holes
- Do feel a bit weird until you get used to them
- A bit of a pain to get on especially first thing in the morning when you are still half asleep
They’re weird looking things aren’t they toe socks? I think this has always put me off trying them previously but in my quest to find the perfect kit for running ultras and particularly the UTMB I decided to give them a try to see if they could help prevent blisters in long races.
In typical marketing fashion the Injinji website is full of the benefits of using toe socks over more conventional socks. These include total foot utilization, moisture management, and blister prevent.
The main reason I wanted to try this socks was to see if they could help prevent blisters so I purchased three different types of Injinji’s, the Lightweight No Show, Midweight Mini-Crew, and Trail Midweight Mini-Crew and set about testing them in training.
Injini Run Midweight Mini-Crew
Since using these socks for ultra marathons I haven’t had a blister so they must be working.
Injini Trail Midweight Mini-Crew
Injini Run Lightweight No Show
How did they fair on the UTMB
Verdict
The mini crew are my favourite of the three versions I tried. I found the trail socks slightly too thick so they caused my feet to sweat a lot in hot conditions and they give a slightly dull feeling in the shoe.
The no shows caused rubbing on the back of my ankle where they didn’t cover it from rubbing on the heel of my shoe. I wore them with Scott Kinabalu Supertracs and Enduros which do have a slightly higher heel than most shoes so with a road shoe they may work well.
Once you get used to the odd feeling of having your toes in individual pockets the Injinji toe socks feel really good. I used them on the UTMB and I definitely didn’t suffer from as many blisters as I usually do in 100 mile races so they will be my go to sock for long runs in the future.
I’m certainly a convert to toe socks and would really recommend them to help prevent blisters. Just make sure you keep your toe nails short otherwise you might put holes in the end of the toes.
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