Woven vs. Printed Custom Socks: Which Style is Right for Your Brand?

Custom socks are an easy and super comfortable way to promote your business. They’re some of the most practical promotional items since everyone can get some use out of socks, especially when we have all lost at least one pair more times than we care to mention. But to make sure that your logo stands out as much as possible, we’re telling you how woven and printed socks compare to one another before you make a purchase.

Woven Socks

With woven custom socks, your logo is created by threading it directly into the fabric. A knitting machine can create different base color socks and add more colors throughout to apply your company logo without worry.

Less Distortion

Because woven socks have the design threaded through the sock, it means the design stretches with the socks as they are worn. But the trick is that the design will not become extended or stretched out after the socks are worn! Printed socks place the design on top and separate from the socks, so they are susceptible to distortion with continued use.

Longer Lasting Designs

Socks are worn for a much longer time and go through more use than most promotional products. Woven socks are absolutely great for socks used in the long term since they’re sewn directly into the fabric. Woven socks don’t fade after continued use, while printed socks inevitably will bear the wear and tear.

Printed Socks

Unlike woven socks, printed socks start with a single base color pair of socks, then have the design printed directly over them. Also known as dye-sublimation, the design is transferred via heat to the base socks.

More Detail

Because your logo is printed on top of the sock, that means there aren’t nearly the same limits to detail that you’d face with a woven sock. We can see a lot more details for heavier designs on printed socks, and can also make gradient colors much easier on your custom socks. Woven socks don’t allow for as much detail since your design has to be threaded into the socks instead of being printed separately. If you don’t want to have a design that demands an amount of pixelation to work, then we would push you to choose a printed sock. Take a look at some of the full-color printed sock options on our promotional site.

Better Material

Because of the way that printing on socks is done, you have a narrower choice of sock material that you can use. That’s because the socks have to already be produced before they have your logo printed onto them. But what that also means is that we can make sure the socks are less likely to break in threading and have an overall sleeker appearance.

When to Buy Which Custom Socks

Not all custom socks are made equal; they’re not designed for the same type of use. Not everyone wears knee-length socks with flats (though we would never diss someone’s fashion choice!). And no one wants to wear nice fuzzy indoor socks outside if there’s rain. To give a quick recap on which socks to purchase:

We’d recommend a knitted sock if:

• You have a simple design
• You are wanting a more classic sock style like dress socks
• You’re working with a smaller budget

We’d recommend a printed sock if:

• Your design has a lot of detail
• You’re using full-color images
• You want a sleeker sock fit

Where to Buy Custom Socks

Once you have an idea of which type of custom socks you want to produce, take a look at our socks available on our promotional site. We would love to help you decide on how to make your logo really pop on some amazing custom socks.