Long Term Report

Injinji Tetratsok Outdoor Quarter & Performance Crew Socks
Long Term Report
December 21, 2006

Biographical Information

Product Information

Field Information

Field Test

Summary

Injinji Tetratsok

Performance crew (left) Outdoor quarter (right)

Biographical Information
Name	Jennifer Pope
Age	25
Gender	Female
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)
Shoe size	Women's 8 US
Weight	140 lb (64 kg)
Email Address	Jennifer dot Pope at gmail dot com
Location	Los Angeles, CA
Backpacking Background Intermediate. I've been a car-camper as long as I can remember and started backpacking in Northern California when I was 16. I've been backpacking for a little over a year after a hiatus during college. I backpack in the Sierras as well as National Forests and Parks in the Los Angeles vicinity. I also spend time in the California deserts and the mountains and coast of Northern California. I'm a tent camper leaning towards lightweight; but I'm also a fan of gadgets and I like being comfortable. I also frequently day hike close to home and while car camping.

Product Information (back to top)
Manufacturer	Injinji
Manufacturer URL	http://www.Injinji.com/
Year of Manufacture	2006
Size Tested	small (unisex) Available in S, M, L, XL
Claimed Weight	none listed
Outdoor Quarter - Actual Weight	1.7 (48 g)
Performance Crew - Actual Weight	2.1 oz (60 g)
Color Tested	slate (almost black) with a green label- Outdoor series black with a red label - Performance series
MSRP	Outdoor quarter - $16.00 US Performance crew - $14.00 US
Outdoor Series Material	70% NuWool, 25% nylon, 5% Spande-Flex
Performance Series Material	70% CoolMax, 25% Nylon, 5% Lycra
Washing Instructions	Machine wash warm. No bleach. Line dry.
Purpose	These are seamless socks with five toes. The toes are intended to provide a thin layer of wicking fabric between all the toes to eliminate toe friction and prevent blisters.

For a more detailed product description and my initial impressions and the first two months of testing please refer to my Initial Report and my Field Report.

Field Conditions (back to top)

In the final two months of testing I've worn these socks in a few different capacities. I wore them on several day hikes of less than five miles (eight kilometers). These were in temperatures ranging from 50-75 F (10-25 C) some days it was cloudy, but never raining. These hikes were near sea level. I've also worn these socks for a day hike of approximately five miles (eight kilometers) starting at 8,500 ft (2,600 m). Temperatures were cool and in the 50s F (10s C) but the weather was clear.

Since these socks are black and very dark gray I've been able to wear them to work with slacks. In fact, I find they look pretty similar to regular trouser socks I might wear on a daily basis. It ranged between 70-80 F (20-25 C) when I wore these socks and I experienced both sunny and overcast skies but not precipitation.

Field Test (back to top)

My experiences reported in my Field Report are still pretty accurate today. The socks really don't provide enough padding to be worn with any shoe that rubs the back of my ankle. Use with my low-top trail runners is perfectly acceptable because there is no contact between my ankle and the shoe. With other, sturdier, shoes my results have not been as favorable. This isn't entirely unexpected as I've had similar problems with other socks of this weight. The tetratsocks seem to serve better as a liner so there's more padding between my ankle and shoe. I've only had limited experience using the sock as a liner since it's really only been cold here for the past week or so. My experience so far is positive.

I still enjoy the benefits that the "toes" provide. I feel like the socks do a good job of keeping sweat accumulation out of my toes and I really like the results I've gotten. Sweaty toes are a problem for me on the trail and these socks really minimize that more than other socks I've worn (and I've worn a lot).

I'm a bit concerned with the wear I've seen on the socks. There seems to be pretty significant fuzz on the toes of the socks. Four months is a fairly long period and I've worn them pretty heavily. The socks definitely aren't falling apart and they don't appear to be wearing thin anywhere- there's just some fuzz.

Injinji Tetratsok

A decent photo of the "fuzz" on the socks.

The socks take some time to put on. After four months of use I can tell that this is never going to change. My smaller toes just 'want' to be together and I have to manually make them go in their place. This isn't a problem for me it just means I can't throw on a pair of socks in less than 10 seconds like I usually can.

Summary (back to top)

Even considering the negatives I mentioned these are both good socks. They are genuinely comfortable and based on their sweat performance alone I think they're valuable. They seem to be a great year-round sock. In the warmer months they work well as a stand-alone sock and in cooler temperatures they work well as a liner.

I want to thank BackpackGearTest.org and Injinji for giving me the opportunity to test this item.

Read more reviews of Injinji gear
Read more gear reviews by Jennifer Pope

Reviews > Clothing > Socks > Injinji Tetrasock > Jennifer Pope > Long Term Report

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