Dear LPG, 

I read what CJ had to say on the subject of matching socks (►►►) and totally agree with his arguments.  I am yet another male pensioner who receives a lot of socks as presents and my cousin, the main provider of my sock collection, also goes to much too much trouble when it comes to choosing pairs of colourful and adventurous designs leaving me with exactly the same problems.

In my experience every man who fends for himself needs many more pairs of socks than the married ones because I can think of no more arduous task than that of putting the matching pairs together or even just finding them once the pile has left the dryer.  

These days washing them is just a matter of throwing them all into the washing machine but I have had the odd problem with brightly coloured ones that have come out not quite so bright having shared their colourfulness with other items of clothing.  But I have to say that lessons were learned as a result of that experience.  

Reading the other article helped me to explain a thing or two to my cousin on the subject, and having CJ’s written back-up really helped me to avoid hurt feelings during that conversation.   It also got me thinking about a few other disadvantages of daring sock buying designs that perhaps need to be considered.  Let’s look at the bigger picture…

Uniquely and highly colourful matched pairs of socks can be less environmentally friendly.  Many people don't realize that more sock making machines must be involved; more dying machines and the process of manufacturing more uniquely matched socks must require more resources and energy than producing them in one colour.  Thoughts of the time it takes for me to marry up my socks have also got me thinking about how much more time is spent on the machines that have to do that in a factory where millions of the things are produced. 

Though there must be many young men who colour coordinate their socks with the rest of their outfits, I suspect that at my age I am one of many retired men who are well past worrying about making sure that my socks match everything else I am waring on the day, but those men who still colour coordinate have to be limited to the colour and design options that a more diverse collection offers.   If all your socks are predominantly the same colour you have the opportunity to mix and match and create your own unique look especially when you are in a hurry to get out and about. 

As far as I can see, socks can arguably be the clothing item which is likely to cause us men the most anguish when preparing for the day’s activities beyond the front door.  It is generally accepted that the women of the world spend ages on choosing what to wear every day (and I think that they secretly enjoy the anguish that getting it right appears to cause them), but when it comes to covering the feet, I suspect that they choose to have an easier job than us men because, from what I have seen in the shops, while colourful socks can be an issue for them as well, tights and pop socks seem to come mainly in, so much easier to match, skin colour or shades of black.

CP, Eltham