How we knit a sock that outlives the last one

Three things make Woolly Mammoth socks last longer than the $4 supermarket pair: double-knit reinforcement at the heel and toe, a ribbed cuff that holds shape without relying on elastic, and 17.5-micron Australian merino instead of coarse synthetics. Each fix targets one of the three ways socks give up first.

The average sock lasts eleven months. The average pair costs $4.20 at Kmart. You spend $4.58 a year on socks, and 300 hours a year with cold, damp feet. We built these to change one side of that equation.

Wool comes in grades. The number is how thick each fibre is, measured in microns — a millionth of a metre. Anything above 24 microns is jumper wool; you feel it against your skin. Below 20, you don't. 17.5-micron merino is the same grade Kiwi outfits put in their base layers. Some flocks are grown for it specifically. We buy from three.

They live in south-west Victoria, an hour and a half from where our knitting machines run. That's the entire supply chain. Wool goes in one door, finished pairs come out the other. Every sock ships from the same warehouse it was knitted in.

Reinforced heel and toe means we double-knit the fibres in the two places socks wear through first. Ribbed cuff means the elastic isn't the only thing keeping them up — the fabric structure itself is the elastic. You can put them through the wash a hundred times and they don't get the sad, floppy neckline your last pair did.

Manny the mammoth has been wearing wool for ten thousand winters. He is unimpressed by thin synthetic socks. He is unimpressed by most things. He approves of these ones.