Icebreaker Ski Lite Over The Calf Sock

Icebreaker Ski Lite Over The Calf Sock

Size: Large

Foot size: 12

Color: Oil/Silver/Black

Material: 77% merino wool, 19% nylon, 4% elastane

Days used: 24

Since the beginning of the season, I have been wearing and reviewing a number of Icebreaker products, including the Sprint Crewe Shirt & Legless Pant, and the Icebreaker Ski Lite Over The Calf ski sock.

Like all of the products from the New Zealand-based Icebreaker, this sock is constructed using mostly merino wool, which they believe is the best fabric for regulating temperature, pulling moisture away from the skin, drying quickly, and, last but not least (especially in the sock world), repelling odor.

Just as with most of the other products from Icebreaker, ski socks are available in different thicknesses and (sock specifically) levels of padding. The padding levels differ between the Ski and Ski+ lines, with the “+” containing more padding. Thicknesses range from Ultralite to mid-weight, with the Lite falling right in the middle.

Tech

Icebreaker uses a blend of merino wool, nylon, and elastane in the construction of the Ski Lite. While this mixture is common with most popular ski socks, the Icebreaker is unique as it contains more merino than most of its merino competition.

Table of Top Merino Ski Socks

The sock is nicely reinforced in the typical wear zones, across the balls of the foot, and through the heel pocket/Achilles area.

The Ski Lite provides a touch of added support across the top of the forefoot and in the Achilles area, keeping the sock hugging the curves of the foot, eliminating the possibility of wrinkling.

The sock uses a “flat toe seam” running over the tops of the toes. It is very well named, as it is flat, and I would add barely noticeable when feeling by hand, and unnoticeable to my foot.

The shin of the sock offers a very light padding to help protect against the constant bashing of a ski boot. This is quite minimal when compared to both of my favorite socks from EMS and SmartWool. But, as I mentioned, Icebreaker does offer the Ski+ Lite, which features additional shin cushioning in the same weight/thickness of sock.

Since it is imperative that a ski sock doesn’t slide down and create wrinkles over the shin, the Ski Lite also features a ¾” elastic cuff to hold everything in place.