10 Best Work Socks

If you work in high-performance environments such as factory facilities, warehouses, construction sites, or other intense standing jobs, you’re going to want to buy the best work socks you can in order to maximize the comfort of your feet when you’re standing or walking around all day in heavy boots. The best work socks available are heavily cushioned socks that offer a high level of breathability, and ventilation in order to keep your feet cool and dry even at the end of a long, hot day.

Work socks all look very similar, with a limited range of clearly visible design differences; most of the significant differences are more subtle and not easily spotted from just looking at the work socks themselves.  As such, it can be challenging to work out what the best work socks in 2021 are. That’s why we’ve put in the research effort to evaluate a wide range of different work socks in order to make your life easier, narrowing the wide field down to our top 10 work socks 2021.

Below, you’ll find our best work socks reviews and buyers guide, breaking down the most essential features of each pair of the best work socks 2021 and explaining what the significant elements you need to look out for when you’re looking to buy work socks are. With our guide, you can easily find the right pair of best work socks for your personal needs, no matter what your job may be or what type of feet you may have.

Related: Socks for Athletic Performance.

View the Best Work Socks, Below.

• Dickies Dri-tech Moisture Control Crew Socks
• Gold Toe Men’s Cotton Crew Sock
• Hanes Women’s Comfort Blend Crew Sock
• Wigwam Men’s At Work Crew Socks
• SmartWool Hiking Light Crew Socks
• Darn Tough Micro Crew Cushion Socks
• Fruit of the Loom Heavy Duty Reinforced Socks
• Carhartt Force Performance Work Crew Socks
• Wrangler Men’s Western Boot Socks
• DANISH ENDURANCE Wool Outdoor Socks

1. Dickies Dri-tech Moisture Control Crew Socks

Designed with your comfort in mind, the Dickies Dri Tech Moisture Control Crew Socks offer a wide range of valuable comfort features that promise to keep your feet feeling cool and well looked after. The moisture control fibers from which these best work socks are made wick sweat and other moisture away from your feet, helping to keep your feet feeling fresh and dry throughout a long and intense work day.

The mesh channels built into the socks boost the flow of air around your feet to keep them cool, while the high level of padding built into the heel and toe of these best work socks ensures that you remain comfortable at all times with no issues. The arch compression of the lower part of these best work socks offer a higher level of support and stability to ensure that your feet stay well supported and protected, and increasing the accuracy of the fit of the Dickies Dri Tech Moisture Control Crew Socks.

The Dickies Dri Tech Moisture Control Crew Socks are designed with a strong focus on moisture control, powerfully wicking sweat away from your feet to keep them cool, dry and fresh feeling throughout the workday.

2. Gold Toe Men’s Cotton Crew Sock

The Gold Toe Men’s Cotton Crew Sock is a premium work crew sock with a wide range of design features that combine to make it one of the best work sock options available on the market in 2021. The full cushioning of the sole of the Cold Toe Men’s Cotton Crew Sock provides a high level of extra comfort and foot protection, two traits which are enhanced by the design of the toes of this work sock, combining reinforcement for durability and long life with a smooth comfort toe seam for a more unobtrusive pair of work socks that have a very low risk of becoming uncomfortable during extended periods of usage. In addition to this, the Aquafx moisture control technology wicks sweat away from your feet, helping you to stay cool and dry even in hot environments.

Combining padding, durability and moisture control for a premium work sock design, the Gold Toe Men’s Cotton Crew Sock is a strong and comfortable work sock model that promises to keep your feet in the best condition possible.

3. Hanes Women’s Comfort Blend Crew Sock

Designed for comfort and padding, the Hanes Women’s Comfort Blend Crew Sock offers a premium fit and support to keep your feet as comfortable as possible. These best work socks for women are made from a soft high cotton blend to ensure a smooth and comfortable surface, as well as spandex elements for stretch and fit.

These socks feature high comfort sole padding to ensure stability and comfort at all times, as well as a comfort smooth toe seam design that serves to make these work socks more unobtrusive and comfortable. In addition to this, the materials used are breathable and lightweight, ensuring that the flow of air around your feet remains high, allowing your feet to breathe and stay cool and comfortable at all times.

The Hanes Women’s Comfort Blend Crew Sock is a well padded and durable work sock for women, bringing the features expected from heavy duty men’s work crew socks to the smaller and often more limited market of women’s work socks for premium comfort in all situations.

4. Wigwam Men’s At Work Crew Socks

Combining targeted breathable areas with an innovative odor guard treatment, the Wigwam Men’s At Work Crew Socks promise to maximize the freshness and cleanliness of your feet in all situations. The lightweight, breathable instep ensures that the sweatiest areas of your feet can breathe at all times, keeping you cool and reducing sweating, while the odor guard treatment keeps your feet as fresh and clean as possible.

The sole of these work socks is reinforced with synthetic fibers to boost durability, increasing the lifespan of the Wigwam Men’s At Work Crew Socks significantly, even when they’re used regularly and intensely.

The Wigwam Men’s At Work Crew Socks are distinctive thanks to their odor guard treatment that keeps your feet feeling fresh and smelling clean even during high intensity activities in hot environments.

5. SmartWool Hiking Light Crew Socks

The SmartWool Hiking Light Crew Socks are designed with a focus on hiking utility, but all of their major distinguishing features are advantageous for any other situation in which you may wish to wear work socks, from construction work to trail running. The lightweight construction and unobtrusive flat knit toe seam of these best hiking socks for work ensure that the SmartWool Hiking Light Crew Socks remain unobtrusive at all times, offering minimal added weight and no uncomfortable raised seams that distract from your work or pleasure.

The elasticized arch brace built into the body of these work socks provides added support to your arches, as well as holding the sock in place and preventing it from slipping during extended periods of intense activity.

Thanks to the high percentage of merino wool in the blend used to build the SmartWool Hiking Light Crew Socks, these work socks offer exceptional comfort for hiking, working, or other activities requiring a high level of foot comfort and protection.

6. Darn Tough Micro Crew Cushion Socks

The Darn Tough Micro Crew Cushion Socks are high-quality premium work socks ideal for a wide range of intense activities, from working on a construction site to extreme mountain climbing activities. The performance fit of these comfortable work socks ensures that they do not slip, holding them firmly in place throughout even the longest of work days to prevent blisters and other injuries.

These work socks offer a high level of performance, comfort, and style for hiking or working, with a highly cushioned sole to provide excellent support to your feet and help with high performance. These best work socks 2021 are durable and long-lasting and come with an unconditional lifetime guarantee.

The high level of merino wool used in the blended material of the Darn Tough Micro Crew Cushion Socks ensures that these work socks provide a premium experience with a high level of natural resistance to bacteria and microbes, keeping your feet cleaner and healthier at all times.

7. Fruit of the Loom Heavy Duty Reinforced Socks

The Fruit of the Loom Heavy Duty Reinforced Socks are exceptionally durable work socks with a focus on padding and security, while still ensuring that they do not compromise on more advanced comfort and breathability design elements. The foot part of these thick work socks is designed with additional cushioning for all-day comfort, and the sole area is reinforced to ensure a high level of support, reducing foot fatigue as far as possible in order to help your feet stay comfortable, allowing you to remain on your feet for as long as possible without discomfort.

The body of the Fruit of the Loom Heavy Duty Reinforced Socks features ventilation channels to allow free movement of air around your feet, as well as moisture wicking and antimicrobial fibers to keep your feet cool, dry, comfortable and as odor free as possible even during extended periods of intense activity.

More durable than most models of work sock, the Fruit of the Loom Heavy Duty Reinforced Socks are strong and long-lasting work socks that offer high performance throughout their long lifespan to keep you comfortable and secure at all times.

8. Carhartt Force Performance Work Crew Socks

The Carhartt Force Performance Work Crew Socks are premium work socks that offer a wide range of advanced comfort features to give the best experience possible when working in rough environments. The breathable design of these best work socks focuses on mesh cooling channels built into the body of the work socks, boosting the flow of air around your feet and allowing them to breathe.

In addition to this, the fast drying technology of these work socks wicks sweat away from your feet, keeping them dry in all situations for a fresher, cleaner experience boosted further by the Carhartt proprietary odor neutralizing technology incorporated into the materials of the Carhartt Force Performance Work Crew Socks. These are comfortable and well-padded crew work socks that offer a high level of comfort in all situations to reduce strain and irritation at work.

The odor neutralizing technology incorporated into the design of the Carhartt Force Performance Work Crew Socks helps them to stand out from the crowd, keeping your feet as fresh as possible even through a long day of intense work in hot conditions.

9. Wrangler Men’s Western Boot Socks

Designed for comfort and support and offering high performance in a wide range of different possible work environments or extreme outdoor activities such as mountain climbing or trail running. The toes of these socks are designed with a seamless construction to maximize comfort, reducing the risk of irritation around the toe for an unobtrusive and comfortable experience.

The sole of these best work socks is designed to offer a high level of arch support, reducing foot fatigue when wearing them for extended periods of time with no break, while the ribbed top gives strong grip and prevents the socks from slipping down over the course of the work days.

The Wrangler Men’s Western Boot Socks are designed for high performance in all environments, with a high level of reinforcement and support built into all of the most important areas of these best work socks to keep your feet comfortable at all times.

10. DANISH ENDURANCE Wool Outdoor Socks

The Danish Endurance Wool Outdoor Socks have been designed with the guidance and assistance of Danish mountaineer and trail runner Rasmus Kragh, an expert on high-performance equipment and the requirements of extreme environments. The high quality merino wool construction of these work socks promises to keep your feet cool and fresh in hot environments and warm in colder climates, featuring targeted ventilation mesh lanes and regions to optimize the flow of air around your feet, as well as wicking sweat away from your feet to keep them dry in hot weather, maintaining a high level of comfort no matter how you choose to use these best work socks.

Combining warmth, durability, and breathability for a premium work sock design, the Danish Endurance Wool Outdoor Socks offer exceptionally high performance in any intensive work situation.

Work Socks Buyer’s Guide

Material

One of the most important things to consider when you’re looking to buy a new pair of work socks is the material from which these socks are made. Work socks are available in natural fibers, synthetic fibers, or a blend of the two, and each option has its own distinctive advantages and disadvantages.

In general, natural fibers such as wool offer the best protection against extreme cold, making socks made from natural fibers the best choice for working in cold environments such as snow and ice. On the other hand, though, in hotter environments you’re going to want a more breathable fabric; wool can cause overheating and discomfort in humid environments, and the breathability of cotton can be a better choice in this situation.

The advanced moisture and sweat-wicking properties of polyester are also worth considering if you intend to work in hotter environments on a regular basis, as this can make a great deal of difference to the comfort of your feet.

Natural fibers such as wool are generally a better choice for softness and comfort on sensitive feet, as well as helping to avoid conditions such as athlete’s foot, thanks to the natural antimicrobial properties of wool. Cotton is a particularly soft choice, making socks with a high cotton percentage a more comfortable choice for any user who spends a great deal of time standing around without a break to sit down and relieve the pressure on your feet.

Related: Athletic Socks.

However, natural fibers often have a shorter lifespan than synthetic options, meaning that you may well have to buy replacement socks more often if you purchase natural fiber socks, especially if you launder them frequently.

Work socks made from synthetic fibers such as polyester can feature advanced moisture wicking properties, keeping your feet cool and dry in extreme heat, and reducing the discomfort of sweaty feet. This means that blending synthetic fibers with natural ones to allow some of the moisture wicking properties of the synthetic elements to combine with the comfort of the natural ones.

Fit

Different socks have different sizing, thickness, and shape, meaning that the fit is important; work socks are not one size fits all. If your socks are too big, especially around the toe area, this can cause chafing and blistering around the outside of your feet. Too tight around the toes, however, and your toes will be forced together, increasing the chance of blisters and other problems between your toes.

Similarly, a poor fit around the heel can post problems. If the heel area of the sock rises above the heel of your foot, it can prevent your ankles from receiving the high level of support necessary when wearing work boots in active environments. If the heel is further down your foot, however, then the risk of blistering around your heel is significantly increased.

Work socks that fit correctly can dramatically reduce the risk of blistering and other injuries, increasing your comfort and safety significantly; it is important to ensure that your work socks fit comfortably at all times to avoid problems as far as possible.

Alternative: Ski Socks Review.

Support

Appropriate support is an important part of maintaining foot health and reducing the risk of serious damage when standing, walking, or running for long periods of time. Some work socks feature reinforced mesh to offer a high level of arch support; this is an important element to consider if you have any history of foot pain or flat feet, as improper arch support can cause significant problems if you spend a lot of time on your feet.

Ankle bracing is less critical than arch support but is still worth considering in most situations. Work socks with ankle bracing help to support natural movement in your ankles, increasing the protection offered by your boots and further reducing the risk of injury to these commonly weak joints.

The third important area of support for your feet that you should consider when looking at buying work socks is compression, especially if you have poor circulation in your feet. Standing up on your feet for long periods of time can exacerbate circulation issues, and high-quality compression socks can provide a great deal of support and help with your circulation, ensuring that your feet stay comfortable and minimizing the risk of pain and other symptoms without requiring periods of footrest at inconvenient times during your workday.

Expert Tip

If you work in particularly intense or dangerous environments, it may be worth considering buying a pair of Kevlar reinforced work socks for their added protection against injury.

Did you know?

Work socks are more than just extra thick socks. You might think that wearing two pairs of regular socks would do the same job, but the targeted padding and moisture wicking qualities of a good pair of work socks can make a massive difference to your comfort and safety.