Man I always wondered about the maths behind this. I’m delighted to see your experiment and workings.

I have been aware that I’m a victim of these economies for some time, only dabbled in solutions. Never bothered to knuckle down and do the science!

However my ‘sock game’ is complex, our weather is crazy and I need a versatile range of sock options. For months I’ve been mostly wearing thin breathable liner socks and a wool-hybrid over sock.

I’ve been wondering how the oversock changes the wear and tear on the undersock (or not) but dammit I’m too damn lazy to do the science once again.

I suggest you do your experiment in small-scale before you go out and spend all that money on the same sock.

I buy a lot of my wool socks from a variety of brands based on the blend, weave style and whether they are on sale. So maybe the most cost efficient way isn’t to buy them all from one place?

Complicated business and worthy of further study.