Life Really Socks: Where That Other Sock Goes (And a Solution!)

I think most of us can agree that there is clearly a dimensional portal inside our washing machines that periodically takes socks from us to… somewhere. Right? You may even find that having bought a dozen pairs of the same sock, twenty-four socks, eventually you are somehow left with no matches. (Those five or so of you with highly disciplined laundry lives and those little sock organizing clips can just move along.) Life Really Socks is a series of graphic novels and line of socks–no matching required–that ventures into the tale of where those lost socks go.

The first graphic novel, Into the Sock-verse, chronicles the tale of Freddy, a sock separated from his twin Peter and stranded in Washingtown, the land of “lost soles,” another universe where socks that get sucked through that dimensional portal live, work, play, and really like ice cream and candy, from coated cotton puffs to sweet toe-fu. Freddy immediately embarks on a mission to find his way back “foot-side” to reunite with Peter. The story is bright, built on friendship, suited perfectly for your color- and chaos-loving elementary-aged reader. And if you love to create voices for characters during evening read-aloud time, you are in business with this wild cast. 

Its sequel, Quest for Iron Mountain, was just released September 30. Makers and historians will by delighted by the very first page, in which the dawn of creation is represented by a loom, and the first residents of the sock-verse come from the loom’s fabric of reality. But socks are knitted, you say? Knitting is, in fact, a far more recent development, and the earliest socks were woven. High five for historical accuracy in the fictional sock-verse!

After a brief jaunt through the beginning of time, we meet Freddy again, along with the friends he acquired in the first book. Baby socks soon arrive with all of their cuteness to send him on a quest for the Legendary Dial of Desires, a powerful lost artifact that can help its holder achieve their sole desire. The Sock-Verse expands from Washingtown through New Sock City, Sandal Woods, Pairadise Valley, and a host of other pun-filled lands.

You can also meet the sock-verse citizens in their YouTube videos (this one is for you WFH parents) and follow them on Instagram.

Now of course, life really would sock if you couldn’t buy and wear all those new friends. And you can… in blind bag format. There are things I love about this approach. First, who doesn’t love the mystery of a good blind bag reveal? And although each pack comes with two socks, you are not buying pairs of socks. You’re buying an assortment of socks, made to be mixed, not matched. There are 10 sock characters from the books, and true to blind bag style, some are rarer than others. (Grumpet, who looks a lot like Reptar ran into Weird Barbie, is the “super rare.”) Within the story, this makes perfectly good sense. We don’t know about everyone’s twin. It’s a story of single socks, and so you buy those single sock characters. The pairs you create are the friends you met along the way!

However, what I don’t love about not knowing which socks you’re getting is that there are three heights from ankle to crew. I like symmetry, and while I’m up for the chaos of mismatched socks in color, I need them to at least feel the same on my feet. But you’re not guaranteed to get two of the same height in your pack. The company sent us three packs for review, and among those, it did turn out to create three pairs of matching heights in the end: two Mittens (twin found!), Freddy and Donut, and Sunny and Hanks. In the case of the last, the tallest socks, Hank has a delightfully fuzzy top, and from the drawings, it looks like Capulet (the other sock in that height) may as well, but a fuzzy/non-fuzzy pairing may be challenging for texture-sensitive kids.

As for sizing, the website describes them as “fit all kids (and even some adults!).” For more precise fitting, the socks are 6 1/4″ from heel to toe (unstretched) and fit my women’s size 8 US foot snugly. A foot much larger than that might not be as comfortable.

Socks packs are $10, or you can buy them in a bundle of 2 pairs plus the first book as The Socker Bundle. The books are also available on Amazon (Into the Sock-verse and Quest for Iron Mountain).