MIT Startup Offers Highly Engineered Dress Socks

From Crave: gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. - CNET:

An Atlas prototype in action. (Credit: Ministry of Supply) It sounds like the start of a joke: "A group of MIT people walk into a sock factory..." But the punch line is a pair of socks that have been so thoroughly engineered, they make tube socks look like something a triceratops would have worn back in the Cretaceous Period. MIT startup Ministry of Supply has turned its plentiful resource of engineering and high-tech minds to the problem of dress socks. The result is the Atlas performance dress socks Kickstarter project, which has already more than doubled its $30,000 funding goal. There is good reason for this outpouring of sock support. "Dress socks to date have been one of the most overlooked items of man's wardrobe in terms of innovation, but a source of incredible discomfort. We sought to rethink how we design and make dress socks, starting with an understanding of how the human body works," Ministry of Supply's Derek Switaj told CNET. The young company has taken an approach to socks that feels more like that of an auto company creating a new car. The fibers are infused with carbonized coffee to prevent odor. Strain analysis was used to map out stress points. Pressure mapping and thermal imaging guided the placement of cushioning and ventilation....  

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