Darn Tough & HJ Hall Trekking Socks

Preface

We've been wanting to do this review for a long time, but weren't quite sure how to approach it.  Initially, we were pitting the brands against oneanother expecting a winner.  Over time it became clear there would be no winner, as what determined which sock out-performed the other was not the sock itself, but rather how it paired with a particular shoe or boot. So, instead we're going to depart from our normal format and simply recommend two brands that compliment each other surprisingly well.

As always we're looking at these brands' offerings from the point of view of long distance trekking over tough terrain.

Test subject: Size 9 (Medium Width), EU43
Test items: various, size = Medium
Kit Tests: Winter, Summer, Spring, Autumn
Disclaimer: None required (items not provided by manufacturers)

Datasheet

PA = Polyamide / Nylon, PP = Polypropylene, WL = Wool, MW = Merino Wool, EL = Elastane (aka Lycra/Spandex).

Scramble Review

Contents

• Introduction: Complimentary Brands
• Darn Tough
• HJ Hall
• A Very British Disease?
• Conclusion & Product Images

 

Introduction: Complimentary Brands

The fit of footwear (and by extension socks) is so individual that recommending Darn Tough's Hiker Micro Crew over its direct HJ Hall competition, the ProTrek Adventure is somewhat pointless; the Hiker might fit just right for me, the ProTrek perfectly for you. Scramble are acutely agnostic when it comes to choosing between these two brands, what sets these two socks apart is not the socks themselves, but rather how they pair with a particular shoe or boot.

I think it's safe to say, that wherever there is a direct HJ Hall analogue to a Darn Tough sock, the HJ will likely be a little less voluminous and the weave a little less dense. This is probably due, in part, to the fact that HJ Hall generally use less wool and substitute the wool they don't use for polypropylene (which is warmer, lighter and more hydrophobic than wool). As such, the two brands compliment each other very well.

I've never said to myself: "damn, I wish the Darn Tough sock fitted this boot, I guess I'll have to go with the HJ Hall socks". Scramble rate both brands very highly and whichever sock or sock combination works, that's what we'll go with.

In the table below, I've set out this editor's current stable of Scramble Kit Test footwear and the socks that make an ideal fit. One thing to note here is that one of the socks in the table above is missing, namely HJ Hall's Mountain Climb.  I have them in my collection (but have not found a use for them yet); another Scramble member uses and really likes them. They're shorter, much lighter (at 100g) and more compressible than the Darn Tough equivalent.

I actually got mine to use with the Bestard Nova boots. Ultimately, neither the Darn Tough nor HJ Hall's sub zero socks worked satisfactorily (for me) and instead a combination of two other HJ Hall socks (ProTrek Adventures inside ProTrek Ramblers, see #4 below) achieved the best fit. Combined, they provide sufficient warmth and moisture management for sub zero conditions. 

Sock-Boot Pairings (the image is quite large, so for a closer look: right click and "view image")

In this review, we're not going to go into great depth delving into the individual properties of each sock. Our purpose here is simply to say, that when we've been on the lookout for a particular sock, the first stops are with HJ Hall and Darn Tough and between them we've not had to look any further. All socks from both brands have performed superbly.
 

Darn Tough

Darn Tough are based in Northfield, Vermont in the US and make all their socks locally in a single mill. What makes their socks so unique? Darn Tough answer this better than we can:

All of our socks are knit on small needle, fine gauge knitting machines. This approach produces durable, high density stitching without bulk. Less bulk means a better fit. The better the sock fits, the longer it will last. We only use fine gauge, high micron 100% merino wool in the knitting of our wool socks—we do not cheapen the wool by adding nylon or polyester to the blend of the wool. We reinforce the outside and inside of the sock with nylon and lycra for added comfort, durability and fit.

The benefits of Merino wool are well known and I'll summarise them briefly:
breathable, moisture wicking and temperature regulating, resilient and elastic (maintains shape over time), quick drying, insulating (and warm when wet), comfortable, odour-resistant and anti-bacterial.

So we have fine gauge Merino wool with a high density stitch, reinforced with nylon, in a seamless construction.

The weights of Darn Tough socks are defined by the thickness and positioning of the cushioning and are as follows (in descending thickness): Full Cushion, Cushion (base only), Light Cushion (base only).

The Darn Tough Mountaineering socks for example are "Full Cushion" and the standard 3-season Hiker Micro Crew are "Cushion" (so decent cushioning, but at the base of the sock only).

Back when we reviewed their Mountaineering sock Darn Tough also had an Extra Cushion category, but these seem to have been subsumed into their Full Cushion segmentation, likely to prevent unnecessary complexity (a sensible move). The material mix of the Mountaineering socks has changed over the years, but inconsequentially. They've dropped 1% Merino Wool and added 1% to the nylon content. I doubt anyone would notice such a minor change. 

The Hiker Micro Crew (pictured below, #1) are defined as "mid-weight hiking socks" and we've found them ideal for all 3-season use (from hot weather down to just above freezing), so a very versatile sock. As with all Darn Tough socks, they're expensive, but in our view, if the fit is good for your chosen footwear, they're well worth the money for a hard-wearing sock (with an excellent guarantee) that is likely to get a lot of use.

Darn Tough socks that pair well with Scramble editor's footwear.

HJ Hall

HJ Hall have been making socks since 1882.  In 2001 HJ Hall acquired the luxury sock brand Pantherella from Burberry.  HJ Hall and Pantherella now operate under one umbrella via the Pantherella International Group run by 5th generation sock maker Justin Hall.

We're hoping HJ Hall aren't going to do anything foolish with their ProTrek range, at present the stock and website picture looks a little strange (like an end of line clearance).  We'll talk a little about this later and some research will hopefully provide clarity (if we can get through to anyone in senior management that is).

At present, HJ Hall's ProTrek socks are quite widely available across a broad range of stockists.

The ProTrek Adventure is a classic 3-season trekking sock and similar to Darn Tough's Hiker Micro Crew.  The ProTrek Rambler is more of a classic old-style trekking sock with a 60% wool content (the remainder being polyamide / nylon). The Rambler is the heaviest sock of the three ProTrek socks and would be fine down to just below freezing. When paired with the Adventure, you get a serious sub-zero combo and one which is likely to be warmer than the Mountain Climb alone.

HJ Hall's socks that pair well with Scramble editor's footwear.

We appreciate HJ Hall's use of polypropylene in their material mix; it suggests a brand with a comprehensive understanding of material design. Clearly, almost 150 years of hosiery experience has not gone to waste.

Finally, our experience with HJ Hall's ProTrek socks is, if the Darn Tough equivalents make for a tight fit inside ones footwear, HJ Hall's are likely to be bang on. 

Perhaps the biggest difference between these two brands from opposite sides of the Atlantic (the UK's HJ Hall and the USA's Darn Tough) is that one of these brands certainly knows how to market their products; we're not sure the other one does. Let's take a brief excursion, before we tie everything together ...
 

A Very British Disease?

Afterall, HJ Hall wouldn't be the first British company to: 

1. make an excellent product,
2. forget to extol its genuine virtues (no marketing spin required, just honest consumer education),
3. sit back, twiddle thumbs and assume "if we make it, they will come",
4. wonder why the product isn't selling as expected and assume the product (or product line) must be the problem, rather than the company's inability to communicate its virtues,
5. despite knowing the overseas competition's products are inferior, blame them for low sales and "squeezing us out of the market".

Now, the inferior goods part isn't always the case, but we can certainly attest that the symptoms of the "disease" outlined above were perfectly exhibited by another British brand in the outdoor sector, namely Multimat. 

The cliché that China makes cheap crap is long dead.  These days China makes most things, from cheap to high-end (they are the factory of the world). They're absolutely the best when it comes to CNC machining, consumer electronics, solar panels and much more. Most high-end audio and camera equipment (may be designed elsewhere, but it's made in China). However, in our recent experience, one thing the Chinese have yet to master (at least for their indigenous brands) is how to make an inflatable sleeping mat (self-inflating or otherwise) that doesn't completely deflate over night (they have yet to master the valve and they may instead be masters of the slow leak).

Yet recently I listened to a pretty senior person at Beacons Products Ltd (Multimat's parent company) whining about how their exit from the outdoor inflatable mat scene was due to the influx of cheap Chinese sleeping mats. There is not, to our knowledge, a single Chinese product that even comes close to Multimat's Summit Expedition mats. 

The crime, having made an outstanding product, is Multimat's inability to convey what made the product special (we never saw anything in Multimat's literature comparing their product to other products on the market for example). We reviewed and praised their Summit Expedition, but why wasn't their marketing team doing something similar on and after its release? Afterall, it was made for a reason, so why not explain that and state (or evangelise about) what makes it better than anything else available?

Not a very British thing to do?

It's what Scramble do all the time, when we write reviews. We only review items we recommend. We might criticise elements but ultimately all we're doing is explaining why X is the best thing we've come across.

Perhaps "the British" aren't comfortable "boasting" about why something they've made is so fantastic.  If so, perhaps this is indeed a very British disease. Unfortunately, it's also a terminal one, because until brands that make something that is genuinely excellent (unrequiring of spin and/or false claims) learn to express why their product is worthy of your hard-earned money, they will continue to fail and that failure will continue to be entirely their own fault, no matter who they choose to scapegoat.

Are HJ Hall Exhibiting Symptoms? 

HJ Hall's ProTrek socks are excellent.  They are made of a mixture of Polyamide, Polypropylene, Wool and Elastane.  There is not an atom of cotton in the mix.  This is the product page on their website:

And then they wonder why they're not selling!

Any experienced walker, who knows anything about what trekking socks should be made of, will immediately look elsewhere. No serious trekker wants cotton walking socks.

This is the kind of hapless idiocy we're talking about. The reason we get so annoyed about this is that it's all completely unnecessary and it results in good products and good brands exiting the market and we get to choose from often inferior products made by people who are more than happy to explain why their crap is the best thing ever.

We wish the best for HJ Hall and we really want their ProTrek line to succeed, it should. HJ Hall may be on a par with Darn Tough when it comes to making socks, but they're a million miles behind when it comes to selling them.

 

Conclusion

We're not going to rate the socks individually. The purpose of this review is simply to draw attention to the two brands which have met all of Scramble's needs for at least the last 8 years.

HJ Hall and Darn Tough are Scramble's top brand picks for trekking socks across all four seasons, from the searing heat to the extreme cold.

 

Product Images

 

 

Last Updated: 12/08/26