Ninety percent of the customers for these Original “red heel” sock more commonly known as monkey socks are members of one of three groups:
- Caucasian men born before 1955 who remember them from childhood and are now trying to wrap things up, and actually plan on wearing them.
- Women of the same age, probably but not as most certainly Caucasian, who buy them to make the little monkey dolls for a grandchild who’d rather play with infant electronics;
- Young hipsters, both genders, all races, creeds, ethnicities, etc.
I had a few pair as a child, and got into them heavy in the mid-‘70s. How heavy? Thanks for asking. For all of my bike riding and for everything other than snowy winter fun or bike races that required short whites, I wore nothing else for a decade.
Those were all cotton, thin, weak, an non-stretchy, and after several washings the heel would rip out when you pulled them up. They were the cheapest sox around, so I tolerated it, and I’ve always liked the look, anyway. They seemed and still seem like sock socks. The real thing, the oldest ancestor or all modern socks.
They were originally called Rockford Work socks, because poor workers could afford them and they were made in Rockford, Illinois.
Companies go under or get sold, and these are now made by Fox River, another Midwest company and a good sock maker. They’re only mostly (87 percent) cotton, but they stretchy-poly they’ve added makes them fit better and last five times as long. Also makes them a lot easier to put on. Now they have different colors (in the old days just brown, then in the early ‘80s they added blue, now they have everything). We sell the originals. It’s not our role to be one one-stop shopping for your monkey sock fetish—there’s probably a store in Brooklyn for that—but we absolutely like offering these, and wearing these. On hot summer days it’s hard to beat them.
Fox Sock style # 6851
Sizing info:
Medium Unisex
US Shoe Sizes: Mens 6-8.5; Womens 7-9.5
Large Unisex
US Shoe Sizes: Mens 9-11.5; Womens 10-12.5
Extra Large Unisex
US Shoe Sizes: Mens 12-14.5
