An In-Person Review of Proper Socks

Justin Schachner of Proper Socks reached out to me a little bit before Thanksgiving to share their Kickstarter campaign. After a few e-mails back and forth, he was kind enough to send me a pair of socks for an in-person review. After giving them a try, I'm ready to report:

The Brand:

First, some background from the brand: 

"Proper Socks is the brainchild of Midwest-native Justin Schachner. As a management consultant in Washington, DC, Justin practically lives in his dress shoes and his socks are his way of interjecting person style into his business dress. Unfortunately, spending 12+ hours in unsupportive footwear took a toll on his feet. One night after a 10 hour work day, Justin traded his thin dress socks for a pair of his high-performance running socks to sooth his feet. Instantly feeling the difference, Justin began his search for dress socks with the same technology. After weeks of searching department stores and the Internet, Justin came up empty handed. With that, Proper Socks was born."

It's become the classic genesis story of menswear start-ups today: unable to find the perfect product, resourceful entrepreneurs set out to make it themselves. And so far, Proper Socks seems to be doing quite well at it, with their early-bird $20 three-pack offering selling out in just hours. Lucky for you folks, other offerings are still available through their Kickstarter, starting at $29 for three. 

The Socks:

After a solid day wearing these bad boys, I'm pretty impressed. First off, the fabric itself is definitely an improvement from my pairs from stores like J.Crew, The Tie Bar or Gap. Where my other pairs are thin and often not very stretchy, these are soft, plush, and slightly but noticeably thicker than your standard dress sock.

However, these aren't a hefty winter sock, by any means. In fact, their ventilated toe box is designed to keep your feet fresh and un-swampy through the day. I can't say I noticed the ventilation itself, but my feet have definitely not been roasting all day, as tends to happen when I wear my thick wool or ragg cotton pairs.

Proper Socks kicks up the comfort level another notch by adding right-vs-left-specific arch support and targeted padding that provides extra cushioning specifically where your feet tend to take the most abuse. Again, I didn't necessarily feel the padding, but the arch support is definitely welcome, and after a full work day (and a lunch-break running around Chicago completing errands), I think I can safely say my feet feel somewhat less of the standard strain.

As far as style goes, Proper Socks currently offers three different 'lines': the Washington in dots; the Brooklyn in stripes, and the Chi-Town in solid/color-blocked. 

One of each 'line'.

The options are solid...stylish but subtle. Nothing crazy out-of-the-box, but there's definitely been much more attention paid to the aesthetics than your average performance socks. My pair is the pink/blue Brooklyn design, and I'm a big fan (I love stripes, I love blue, these will fit my wardrobe excellently).

My only complaint is that the sock seems a tad big on first wear, and there is only one size offered.

Honestly, the only reason I even noticed was the contrasting heel sits high, as you can see in the picture above. It's barely an issue at all, however, and I'm pretty sure a run through the dryer will fix it right up.

All in all, it's a bit hard to judge socks after just a wear or two (definitely can't say anything at this point regarding durability, which can be a big factor). That said, these socks definitely have the potential to be big winners in my book. On top of that, $29 for three pairs is a pretty darn reasonable price, even for socks that do a helluva lot less for your feet. 

The final Wide Eyes, Tight Wallets judgment: I say go for it! Good price, comfortable socks, and a couple of every-day folks trying to make a positive impact on men's feet everywhere. What's not to like?

Contribute to the Proper Socks Kickstarter campaign and score some socks for yourself here!

Do you have a product you'd like to see highlighted and reviewed here on Wide Eyes, Tight Wallets? Check out the submission guidelines here and shoot me an e-mail!

This was a sponsored review, and the products reviewed were provided to me free of charge. The article, however, remains objective and unbiased and is published without prior editing or review by Proper Socks. While I love to be given products to review, don't worry, I will never endorse a product I wouldn't wear myself.

Hucklebury Shirts - In-Person Review

About two weeks ago we featured a brand spotlight on Hucklebury, an up-and-coming men's shirting company with a current campaign on Kickstarter. Parag followed up with me and sent me a shirt to see and test for an in-person review, and the results are in! Check out the brand background over here, and get the lowdown on the shirts below:

Quality of Construction:

The main thing to stress here is the fantastic quality. First of all, the 100% Egyptian Cotton fabric is comfortable as hell and drapes wonderfully when wearing. The collar is a workhorse, and will definitely never flop, with a tie or undone for some drinks after work. Personally, I prefer a bit softer of a collar, but I know menswear aficionados all over the net clamor for stiffer, heartier collars, and they won't be disappointed here.




Other small details continue to point to the high quality of construction. The pattern matching down the sides of the shirt is pretty damn perfect, the mother-of-pearl buttons are a classy touch (and more durable than cheap plastic alternatives), and the single-needle stitching, especially on the placket, offers a sleeker, more streamlined look than standard double-needle work.

Contrast stitching on bottom 

There are just a few areas I found slightly lacking. At this price point, I would hope for a split yoke along the shoulders, but it's definitely not a deal-breaker (for the record, a split yoke allows for greater freedom of movement in a shirt, but is much harder to construct as it not only adds an extra seam, but also an entire new dimension of pattern-matching). Additionally, the stitching on the contrasting bottom button-hole seemed a little rough, and it would have been nice to have gussets at the side seams for extra durability, but the 365 day guarantee (which is such an awesome promise, and worth mentioning again) pretty solidly negates the need.

Fit:

As fantastic as the construction of the shirt is, I have to admit I'm not entirely blown away by the fit. From my understanding, the shirts are still in pre-production, so Parag didn't have a ton of sizes sitting around to send me. Therefore, I had to settle for a trial shirt a bit off of my sizing, and went with a 15' neck, rather than my usual 14.5'. Knowing this, I reasonably expected the whole shirt to run a bit big and definitely took this into consideration during the review. Take a look at the pictures:

Honestly, everything is so close. I do love that the shirt comes already darted...a lot of shirt-makers refrain from doing this as it adds yet another seam that, if not made entirely straight, throws off the pattern on the back of the shirt.

Can you pick out the darting seems at the sides of the pictures? Subtly well done.

Hucklebury does a great job here, and the darts definitely add a taper to the shirt that most off the rack shirts do not have. For a size too big, this shirt fits way better along the waist than I would have expected...

Fit at the waist (front).

Fit at the waist (side).

...and that's gotta be due to those darts. Nice touch, Hucklebury!

Also, take a look at the armholes, and the mobility around the shoulders.

Once again, for a shirt admittedly a size large, the armholes are very reasonably high and fitted, and there's no unseemly bunching or movement of the rest of the shirt when I raise my arms.

Really, my hesitation when it comes to fit results largely from the fact that, while those areas mentioned above are close enough that a size down would more than likely alleviate any concerns, I'm not sure I'd be able to make that switch. The collar and the shoulder seams on this size are a pretty exact fit for my body, and I'd worry that sizing down would make those areas too small. At the same time, a few other areas, such as the sleeves and looseness at the upper chest make this size too large for me to wear. I'll have to give the 14.5' neck a try to see if I can make it work, because damn, I want to make these work!

Another shot of the fit (keeping in mind this is a size too large):
Close to perfect in the waist.
Great fit at neck and shoulders.
A bit too roomy in the sleeves and chest.

The Bottom Line:

Undoubtedly, Hucklebury offers an incredible deal when it comes to quality for the price. The construction and fabric alone are enough to make these shirts worth buying at $78. As for the fit, the darting and resulting taper in the body are there, as are the higher armholes. If you're a super-skinny guy like me, you may still need some tailoring or alterations to get the perfect fit, but someone with a bit more meat on their bones will more than likely be very pleased with the dimensions. If the fit works for you, this is a helluva buy. If you want to get in on the introductory pricing and support their kickstarter, head over here to for more information regarding contribution options.

Brand Spotlight - Hucklebury

First off, sorry for the radio silence coming from the blog for the past week or so, I was off gallivanting around Colorado with my girlfriend (and, more importantly, celebrating her brother's wedding). But now I'm back! While I was out of town, I was introduced to the co-founder of Hucklebury, Parag, through a mutual friend. Hucklebury has a Kickstarter campaign running and they reached out to me for help spreading the word. I've heard of Hucklebury before, and they have a solid reputation in the menswear industry. We e-mailed back and forth over the weekend and chatted on the phone yesterday, and while I haven't gotten to try one of their shirts out yet, I'm loving what I'm hearing and am happy to help him get the word out.

Parag is going to be sending me a sample shirt in the next few weeks so that I can do an in-person review, but these Kickstarter campaigns don't wait around, so I'm throwing a introduction your way now. Before even having a shirt in hand, there's a lot to love about Hucklebury:

1. All of their products are 100% Made-In-America. For me, this is a huge deal. Not only does this almost always mean higher quality standards, but in today's day and age the availability of 'ethical' businesses and brands, there isn't really an excuse for failing to be an 'ethical' shopper.
   
   Buying goods made in the U.S. ensures that proper labor conditions are met and pumps money back into our own economy (which is good for all of us). This isn't always easy for companies to do, and usually comes with a higher overhead attached, so it's always impressive to see companies taking the made-in-America route instead of opting for an easier, cheaper alternative.


2. Similar to brands like Frank and Oak, Everlane, Gustin and Warby Parker, Hucklebury has adopted a top-to-bottom business model that cuts out all of the middlemen traditionally associated with apparel retail. If you ask me, this business model is the future of the fashion world. With the Internet at your fingertips the need for brick-and-mortar stores has become largely irrelevant, and by avoiding all of those in-between steps, Hucklebury is able to offer their high quality (made-in-America) goods at a helluva good price. They explain it best themselves via the following infographic:



3. And that's the real kicker. Hucklebury is all about cutting the cost to the consumer without cutting the quality of their goods. Their shirts are made from the finest Egyptian cotton, which usually is only available at price points that make the every-day man cringe. Not here. Only $78 gets you a shirt that promises to be as soft and comfortable as the sheets at the Ritz. It's practices like this that make the recent revival of men's style possible by making these high-quality, stylish clothes available to guys who aren't driving around in a Benz (yep, name-dropping like Hov).


4. Lastly, some Kickstarter campaigns seem like a thrown-together-at-the-last-minute whim of their creators, but Parag (co-founder of Hucklebury) has grown up in the biz, and I think it's safe to say this isn't just a passing interest or a brand that's going to fall off your radar anytime soon.


5. Icing on the cake: The shirts are darn stylish, with a wide variety of ginghams (my favorite) and stripes in your choice of spread or button-down collars.

   

   Great fall colors! 

   Each shirt is only $78 (as mentioned), is accompanied by a 365 day guaranty. This is pretty unheard of in the apparel industry, and not only shows their dedication to customer satisfaction, but also their confidence in the quality of their products. On top of all that, each shirt purchased through the Kickstarter campaign comes with a $20 subscription to our friends, The Tie Society (check out our review of their awesome services here).
   

Now, of course, without a shirt in hand, I can't personally say anything about the fit or feel of the shirts, but the word on the net is extremely positive. Sabir Peele of Men's Style Pro gives a rave review on his blog, and my friends in the industry have been just as enthusiastic. I personally can't wait to get my hands on one myself, at which point I'll give you the full low-down. So go ahead, get in on the ground floor, support a responsible company and get your hands on a great shirt! Check out their Kickstarter for all the info I didn't give, as well as options to contribute.