~ Sock Dreams ~

I said last week that if a bootsock happens to be one of your favourite socks of all time, you might be interested in this week’s post.  Of course, if you diligently watch our What’s New page, you might already know where I’m going with this. EG Smith has brought back their Original Bootsocks, and though they’re not 100% the same as the true Originals, they’re closer than we could have imagined or hoped! The second half of this post compares the new Originals with the old Originals, but if you’d like a walk down memory lane, stick with us for this first bit.

If you know about the EG Smith Original Bootsocks, then I don’t have to describe them to you. Crazy high cotton content, slouch-tastic, made in the USA, they were the ultimate bootsock. Back in the day they even had “Love, Eric” printed on the arch of the foot—and we still know folks who call them “Love Eric” socks because of that!

From the Sock Journal, September 2005.

Sock Dreams carried EG Smith Original Bootsocks since the beginning, in 2000, back when our name was Fetishize Me. We took a screencap of how the bootsock page used to look in Feburary, 2004, using the Wayback Machine to travel back in time—it was long enough ago that we couldn’t find all the pictures that were missing when we recreated the page.

They were much loved socks, and if you are familiar with the fashion stylings of the 1990s, you may be familiar with the soft, scrunched bootsock as a wardrobe staple (I was very tempted to find a good still from 90210 as an example, but that would have sidetracked me for a while!). So it was like a bolt out of the blue in late 2008 when we learned that EG Smith wouldn’t be making them anymore.

EG Smith’s Original Bootsocks were made on machines that had been making socks for over a century and after that long, the poor machines just couldn’t keep working any more. Here’s a screencap from January, 2009:

Gone, all gone! And all that we had was to wait and hope while the folks at EG Smith tried to recreate their Original. By the fall of 2009, EG Smith had introduced a new bootsock to act as a replacement, the EG Smith Ribbed Bootsock.

From the Sock Journal, September 2009.

But it wasn’t quite the same! Only 94% cotton, and a lot more “scrunch” than “slouch”. These socks stayed where you put them instead of softly falling down. Some of us liked that, but it meant that they weren’t the perfect replacement for the EG Smith Original Bootsock.

So we were back to waiting.

Ack! But what happened next? And how do these new Originals compare with the old Originals? Check it out after the jump!

This summer we started to hear word from EG Smith that the Original Bootsocks were back! We excitedly got samples and compared them with our original-Original pairs. How they stack up is listed below.  Now, if you were a big fan of the old Originals, then we suggest just getting one pair of the new Original Bootsocks first. Our USPS First Class shipping in the United States is free so it doesn’t cost extra to get a single pair to see if you like them before stocking back up!  We know some of you have some Original Bootsocks that are more darns than socks by now!

Fiber: The old version were 99% cotton, 1% lycra spandex. The new version that EG Smith is making are 98% cotton, 2% nylon. We don’t notice the difference ourselves, they’re practically as slouchy and soft as we remember!

Texture: In fact, they’re softer and slouchier than before! If you remember the EG Smith Space Dyed Bootsocks we used to carry, the new Original Bootsocks feel more like those. Super soft and you can see how much more floppy they are.

Knit pattern: The new Original Bootsocks have a slight difference in their ribbing pattern from the old version.

Love, Eric: That much-loved phrase is not currently printed on the bottom of the new Original Bootsocks. We have been told that new batches will have “Love, Eric” back where it belongs, but sock batches are pretty huge, so we’ll have to wait.

Bootsocks! For some folks there is nothing better for their feet and we’re so glad to be able to offer EG Smith Original Bootsocks again! We may not have all the colours yet, but we will, so just keep an eye out as we bring some of our favourite socks back home.

Posted on Friday, November 16th, 2012 at 11:00 am and filed under: E.G. Smith, Sock Journal.
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