I’ve had the great joy of riding in these socks for several months, over short rides and long, on the trainer and on the road. I’m stuck thinking of too many ways to introduce and explain these magical foot tubes to you, so instead I will let Velobici do the introduction.
If you are skeptical reading that, welcome to the club. BUT, if there was a chance it could be true, then I just had to try them.
The packaging was so much more than I expected, and it was a special surprise. It’s flattering to know that they spared nothing less than the best for my small purchase.
The sock is of medium thickness and the Small fit my size 6 feet pretty well, with less than 1/2 inch extra room. I opted to leave that gap at the toe box instead of pulling up the heel, hoping this would keep the “offset technology” in the place it was meant to be. I would normally try to dry the sock in an electric dryer to shrink it but it’s not recommended in the instructions (only hand wash).
I spent quite a bit of time studying the sock before test riding in it, just trying to guess how these tacky dots 1) could possibly help alleviate numbness and 2) could be configured in such a way to do so. So let me stop here and let Velobici explain how the offset technology (or tacky dots) works:
I can only tell you how it felt. It has 4 phases: tingle, current, activation and salvation. Putting on the sock is less like sliding on a foot tube and more like placing your foot inside of a pod. You really feel the inside dots connect with the bottom of your feet right away. Then you can fine tune the fit. But it’s not just slide and go.
You’re aware of the extra addition in your cycling shoe, but it doesn’t change the fit of the shoe nor does it conflict with any lifts or soles. The sock doesn’t slip around, and neither will your foot. I might even say the sock offers so much purpose to this step of getting dressed to ride.
Now we go through the phases of the Premgripp (as told by WomensKit):
A couple of pedal strokes in, I forget about the shoes and focused instead on traffic and chit-chat, but after a few miles I feel the Tingle. My imagination went to the Alka-Seltzer commercials (plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is) and it’s like the sock-tablet just dropped in water and is beginning to dissolve. Quite a metaphor, I know, but stay with me.
As if the tingle was waiting in the wings, around 20-25 miles in I started to recognize a feeling I call the Current. Bear with me on this one. Just when I think I feel a numbness, simultaneously the sock’s tacky dots must feel it too because they begin to animate. So there is this energy moving from my foot to the sock and back again that creates a current of power and dynamism. IT’S ALIVE!
During the Activation phase, which lasts as long as my ride, this current of energy keeps going, ramping up when I would normally be feeling numb toes, and ramping down when the sock has accomplished it’s goal.
By the end of my ride, I’m not sitting at the cafe with my shoes unfastened wiggling the life back to my toes. Instead I am praising Velobici for these Socks of Salvation.
WomensKit 