Collection: Solmate Socks

Solmate Socks: What the Range Covers

Mismatched is the whole idea, and every sock in the range is knit in the USA from recycled yarn and mismatched with care, so the decision comes down to colorway and size. Gemstone and Mercury are the two adult recycled cotton colorways to start from, both sized by shoe size and differing only in palette. For much smaller feet, Lovebug is a baby set — five socks, two pairs and a spare — sized by age in months instead.

Two limits are worth knowing. Adult sizing stops at Large, which is a women's 10–12 or a men's 9–11 foot, with nothing above it. And the cotton is recycled, not organic: the Oeko-Tex certification on this yarn covers freedom from harmful toxins, which is a separate claim from organic farming. Past that the framing is gift — the adult colorways are tagged for gifting and stocking stuffers, the baby set is pitched as a keepsake for expecting parents.

Yarn recovered from t-shirt scraps

The cotton starts as waste. Scraps left over from cotton t-shirt production are gathered, ground up and spun back into yarn, which keeps that cotton out of landfill and skips a whole round of growing new fiber, with the water, land, pesticides and herbicides that go with it. The recovered scraps already carry their color, so the harsh chemicals used to dye virgin cotton yarn are not needed. Oeko-Tex certifies the finished yarn free of harmful toxins.

Made in the USA: Sock design, knitting and the finishing touches are all completed at small family-owned businesses in Vermont, North Carolina and Oregon. That line appears on every listing here, adult, kids and baby alike.

Certified B Corporation: Solmate uses recycled fibers in every product it makes and runs a zero-waste policy across production and its offices.

Reading the colorway names

The names describe palettes, and the palettes are specific. Gemstone is the rainbow — red, emerald green, gold, purple and blue, tied together by a black pattern, a prism of a sock that is easy on the eyes and cozy on the feet. Mercury took its cue from a volcanic rock and stays dark: black, storm, aluminum, cherry. Lovebug is pink on pink for the tiniest toes — pink, white, light purple and light pink. The rest of the range is named the same way. Midnight is the monochrome one, in black, white, dark grey and light grey. Wisteria stays soft with lavender, light grey, purple and black, Raspberry goes brighter in turquoise, purple, black, lilac and royal blue, and Bluebell answers with lime green, turquoise, purple, royal blue and fuchsia. Olive was drawn from a Mediterranean olive grove at sunset, Larkspur is the floral one, Savanna carries animal prints, Firefly and June Bug are the two kids' colorways, and Walnut is the single Merino wool-blend, knit in the same thickness as the cotton socks so it adds warmth without bulk.

Sizes, sets and washing

Adult sizes follow shoe size: Small is a women's 6–8 or men's 5–7, Medium a women's 8–10 or men's 7–9, Large a women's 10–12 or men's 9–11. They fit true to size, and since they shrink a little while also stretching, take the smaller size if you like a snug sock and the larger one if you do not. Lovebug goes by age instead, Small covering 6 to 12 months and Medium 12 to 24, and it arrives five socks to a set, so the one that goes missing in the wash is planned for.

Care splits by fiber. The cotton styles are machine washable and dryable, and their yarns are pre-shrunk and colorfast, so those colors will not run or fade. The Walnut wool-blend is listed as machine washable only, with no dryer or colorfast claim, so give that one gentler treatment.