I saw these socks in a sports store:

www.wrightsock.com

They are more expensive than normal socks or even simpler socks with Dupont's Coolmax stuff. Do you have any experience with them and are they worth it?

Frankie

My lady swears by these, and usually wears them everywhere that casual wear is appropriate. She has finally convinced me to try them, so I have a package on order (the style I wanted was not in stock). I will let you know.

Thanks KI6IW

If you are prone to sweaty *cough* smelly *cough* feet, avoid Coolmax like the plague, for socks that is.

I find that Coolmax works great for T-shirts and shorts in the gym, but it is worthless for socks. They can't wick moisture as well in your sneakers or boots because the heat is trapped inside the shoe.

I find my Coolmax socks remain humid throughout the day (at the office and in the outdoors as well) with uninteresting results (...), so I would stick with a blend of cotton, acrylic, polyester, nylon and merino wool.

Check this stuff out. It is far superior to anything else available.
It has be extensively tested by marathon runners.

http://www.sammedical.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/SamSite.woa/wa/Products/BlistOBan

The best treatment I’ve found for blisters is prevention. After getting a blister I’ve never had any of the blister treatments work worth a damn. In my case me feet tend to sweet so nothing stays in place for long. I’m now very careful about boot selection and find that Merrell boot fit my feet best. I always have them fitted while wearing SmartWool Hiking socks and Wigwam Sock Liners. Using sock liners was the key to curing getting blisters in the first place. I found that wearing well fitting breathable leather/Gortex or nylon/leather boots with the proper socks has freed me of blister on the longest hikes. Forget the foot powder, all it does is gum up you boots and socks. Instead, every hour or two I’ll rotate on a dry pair of socks with liners and give my feet a quick rubdown with alcohol from a small spray bottle. I put the damp socks in a mesh ditty bag outside my pack to dry for the next changing. While this may take a few extra minutes in the course of the day not having to deal with blisters is a huge payoff.

I had never heard of this stuff before, the Blist-O-Ban bandages you referred to. I noticed that they come from the people that brought us the vernerable SAM Splint, so I was interested, but, never saw them in stores. Today, I picked up a small hiking FAK for my boy's backpack, and they include a Blist-O-Ban bandage, as well as traditional moleskin.

Haven't used it yet, but, the technology looks promising. I read some of the info on the SAM Medical Products web site you had in your note.

Heck, if it's good enough for Adventure Medical Kits to put in their products, it's worth checking out. I agree with the other folks that said it's much better to work at avoiding the blisters in the first place. We spend a lot of time talking to our young skulls full of mush before every hiking trip, but, invariably, one of them didn't wear liners, or decent socks, or had poor fitting boots... so we need to break out the moleskin. Maybe now we'll have another thing for the bag of tricks.

I use bubble wrap over areas where I am prone to blisters and friends have used it over a sterile cover when they have gotten blister and we have had to keep moving.

>bubble wrap

That's a good point, these new bandages are like sanitary, self adhesive versions of bubble wrap. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
[color:"blue"] American Inventor could never compete with the ETS crowd. [/color]

Blistoban can be used to prevent, stop and heal blisters.
What did you buy;an AMK light and fast Trail or Adventurer?