This is a review of the best badminton socks.
I am TSE Bun, an ex-professional badminton player with a world ranking of 30, at the same time, I am also a badminton instructor with over 30 years of teaching experience. Over 90% of my socks are badminton socks, today, I will share with you my recommendations of the best badminton socks, together with how to pick them.
I believe the Under Armour unisex-adult Unrivaled Novelty Crew Socks is the best overall option, it is good looking, comfortable and very functional.
There are plenty of other good socks out there as well. I will analyze them one by one and cover useful tips for picking the best badminton socks too.
Keep reading to learn more!
Table of Contents
Quick Summary
In case you are in a hurry, we’ve summed up a few of our picks regarding the best badminton socks for you:
- HeySun Funny 20-30 mmHg Compression Socks come with great functions and good looking. They come in premium quality and are very comfortable.
- Originally made for Obstacle Course Racers, the MudGear Premium Compression Socks are strong, functional, and made with the athlete in mind, they also come with a lifetime guarantee.
- The best budget choice within our recommendations would be the Under Armour unisex-adult Charged Cotton 2.0 Crew Socks, they come with extra-padding at the arch and strong anti-odor function.
- For our UK Readers, we’ve picked YONEX W-8422 Socks 3 Pack, they are comfortable, with great value and it’s Yonex!
Who Should Get This?
Everybody badminton player should try to get a pair of socks that fit them – from professional players to someone who wants to become a better player to one just wanna hang out with friends by the weekend and play badminton.
Choosing a great pair of badminton socks is just as important as picking up the right shoes. I have a thick and wide foot, therefore thin and cheap socks do not work too well for me. A pair of high-performance badminton socks? Always made a huge difference.
Best Badminton Socks: What to Consider?
What factors should be considered in evaluating great badminton socks? Take a look at the following shortlist.
Comfortability
As a badminton instructor, we always tell our students to pick a pair of sports socks with extra thick bottoms. Try to pick a pair of sports socks that’s thicker than your everyday wear, simply because you want the socks to fill in the gap between your feet and your shoes so they fit better.
Badminton is a sport involving a lot of stops and jumps, which means our foot and knee would be facking a lot of pressure. Once I forgot to bring my badminton socks, so I just went down to the shops and get a pair of random, normal socks. After 30 mins, the bottom of my foot was burning that I gotta called a stop.
A pair of thick socks with extra thick bottom would serve great help to avoid slippage, blisters, rubbing against the skin. Therefore, you will feel comfortable wearing them before, during, and after the game.
Functions
A pair of great badminton socks should offer your foot better protections and support too. For example, the doctor of my friends with fallen arches suggested him to put on compression socks and shoes with extra cushions when he plays badminton since they that tight fit provides his foot with better protection and support.
It would be a good idea for you to understand where the pressure points are on your foot and find a pair of socks to provide extra protection against those areas, for example, the arches.
The more cushions or support you can get from your socks and shoes, the less pressure would be applied on your knee, ankle, and foot.
The anti-odor function is also another very important function. We sweat so much during the game and this function, combined with the breathability would save you and your friend’s nose when you take off your shoes after the game.
Moisture-wicking Function
You may have come across the term “moisture-wicking” when you are looking into a pair of high-performance socks. In order to perform this function, the fabric should be able to perform these 2 functions:
- Transfer the sweat (moisture) from your skin to the outer surface of the fabric
- Dry quickly so the moisture will not stay in and saturate the fabric
To perform this function, we may need to pick a pair of socks with a higher percentage of synthetic materials (performs great at moving the sweat) and wool (opens a lot of small exits for the sweat). Cotton is just not the perfect material in such cases because it absorbs moisture and is just totally anti-wicking.
Do try to get a pair of socks with better moisture-wicking function and since your feet produce around 100 – 150 sweats per day, you do want to keep your foot dry for the game.
Breathability
Most players want to keep their foot as dry as possible during the game, wet and sweaty foot are just… disgusting and dangerous. Picking a pair with high breathability would improve the airflow and draws out your sweat, therefore keeping your foot dry.
Usually, socks made by synthetic materials or wool would come with higher wicking capabilities, and therefore easier to let the moisture escape out.
Tips: Sometimes, we may wrap our ankle with a brace to provide extra support, in such case, try to pick highly breathability materials for both your socks and braces.
Size and Shape
The most common type of badminton socks would be “crew cut”, i.e. socks go up to the middle of your shin, there are more and more players wearing long tube compression socks too. It’s more your personal choice to put on which type of socks.
However, we don’t really recommend our readers to get any of those low cut socks (also called no-shows sock) since it could be quite annoying when they fall off, trust me, once I was wearing a pair of no-shows sock and it just keeps falling off and I just got so annoyed that I gotta take them off in the middle of a game.
Therefore, do try to pick at least mid-cut socks (socks end just above the ankle), you want a pair of socks that wrap up every part of your foot inside the shoes.
Durability
Durability is an easy one, for sure you want a pair of socks that’s as durable as possible. You need one that can protect your foot against all those frictions, stress, and forces. Well, better to be something that can cope with a lot of spinning inside the washing machines and dryers, too.
So, yeah, try to get a pair of socks with strong enough fabric and springs so you don’t need to spend too often on this aspect.
Price
Price is always a very important component, badminton players are very lucky, you get to change your socks whenever you want because you place in an indoor area which the whole environment is just so constant. Lol, unlike Lorraine, it’s so difficult to change her socks when she is facing all these snows and ice.
It is always better to get the socks with the best functions if you have the budget, it’s also totally ok to go for the cheaper options with not that bad functions too.
The Best Badminton Socks: Our Picks
To help you make the best purchase decision, no matter if you are a pro or just a weekend player, we want you to achieve the best performance and result.
We have compared around 15 products, rating them with our criteria: comfortability, functions, breathability, size and shape, durability, and price. The maximum for each category is 5 points, making each product could earn 30 points in total, below is our detailed point list:
HeySun Funny 20-30 mmHg Compression Socks
- Comfortability: 4/5
- Functions: 5/5
- Breathability: 5/5
- Size and Shape: 5/5
- Durability: 4/5
- Price: 5/5
HeySun is one of my favorite brands when it comes to next-to-skin clothing. This pair of socks is one of the typical examples of a great product example. Amazing graphics, great functions, seamless fabric, strong support for your foot.
What is Also Nice?
- Good looking!
- Strong arch, heel and toe support and protection
- Great tech, seamless and they don’t shed at all
- Styling to fit left and right feet
- Incredible anti-odor and moisture-wicking function
What is Not that Great?
- Price is slightly more expensive than other options
- Some players may consider these socks are too tight for them
- May become too stiff after putting in the dryer
MudGear Premium Compression Socks – Mens & Womens Running Hiking Trail (1 Pair)
- Comfortability: 4/5
- Functions: 5/5
- Breathability: 5/5
- Size and Shape: 5/5
- Durability: 5/5
- Price: 3/5
MudGear is a pretty new brand that started in 2012 serving the Obstacle Course Racers (outdoor athletes), which means their socks are tough and aim with high performance and functions. The material used is with the highest quality and they are very comfortable to wear as a pair of compression socks.
What is Also Nice?
- Made in the USA and with a lifetime warranty
- Strong material and which means very durable
- Serves as compression socks and still comfortable to wear
- With extra padding at the toe box and arch
- Good looking and comes in many different color options
What is Not that Great?
- This is the most expensive pair of socks among all our recommendations
- Maybe a bit too tight for players who are not so getting used to wearing compression socks
- You can’t put them in the dryer (Lorraine accidentally put hers into the dryer once and it just became too stiff to put on!)
Under Armour unisex-adult Charged Cotton 2.0 Crew Socks, 6-pairs
- Comfortability: 4/5
- Functions: 5/5
- Breathability: 5/5
- Size and Shape: 5/5
- Durability: 3/5
- Price: 4/5
Under Armour is one of my favorite brands since they are affordable and with great tech, charged cotton 2.0 is a great fabric providing great support to the foot and I just love their anti-odor function.
What is Also Nice?
- Price is very affordable
- With great value tech and support at this price range
- Very strong anti-odor function, probably the best among the same price range
- Extra padding on the arch
What is Not that Great?
- Only one color available
YONEX W-8422 Socks 3 Pack, Size- M (For UK Readers)
- Comfortability: 5/5
- Functions: 5/5
- Breathability: 4/5
- Size and Shape: 5/5
- Durability: 3/5
- Price: 5/5
Yonex is a well-known badminton brand, many famous players are using their products, from rackets, shoes to different accessories such as strings and grips.
I love products from Yonex because most of them come with great quality and they are specially designed for badminton. This pair of Yonex socks serves well as badminton socks and they have excellent padding from sole to heel. They fit very well with badminton shoes!!!
What is Also Nice?
- At the end of the day, it’s a product by Yonex! One of the best badminton brand in the world!
- Price is good
- Design for the socks are made for badminton
What is Not that Great?
- They only come in white color
- Design is a bit boring
Useful Tips and Resources
Other than the scoring factors we’ve mentioned above, here are some tips you may find it useful to get the right pair of socks and to keep them well.
Material and allergies
It is very important to check the material before you purchase your socks.
Once we had a student purchased a set of performance socks and he had pretty bad allergies after wearing it for around an hour.
Most of the time, for high-performance fabrics, they would come with a mix of cotton, nylon, polyester, spandex, or wool. Simply because he is allergic to wool and that pair of socks, the composition of wool was too high for him.
Ask before you buy
Check with the buyer for the best size for your foot. Different models would come with different fits and it’s best to check with the seller what size fits your foot the best.
Avoid Dryer for Performance socks
This may be against the instructions given by the manufacturer, however, according to our experience, I do recommend you try to avoid putting your performance socks, i.e. compression socks, socks with high breathability, even if they may say it’s suitable for dryers in the manual.
Final Words
As a badminton player, your legs are facing so much stress and it is just vital to pick the right socks that could protect your foot.
Randomly picking up a pair of socks in your house for playing badminton may lead to sweaty food, blisters, or just simply make you feel uncomfortable.
We’ve tried to cover the most popular and best-rated badminton socks on the current market so to make it easier for you to pick the best choice.