Hoplite Compression Socks

When putting a product through a gear test, why not throw it straight into the fire at a 24-hour endurance event? That’s exactly what I did with my new Hoplite Compression Socks. Hoplite does have an “Ultra Endurance” version offered, however these were the standard option at the same price point.

These socks come with a “Left” and “Right” guide, so I followed that instruction as I have with other “shorty” running socks. My first impression was they did feel good and I could tell the shin design had deadlifting in mind with the thicker material there as well as some additional thickness on the Achilles heel.

I did not do a training run with these socks and instead went straight into the opening lap of my first World’s Toughest Mudder wearing the Hoplite version. About three miles in, I detected some slippage on my right foot and a little hot spot formation on my right heel. I tightened up my Salomon’s, multi-race use already in the bag for those shoes, thinking maybe the difference in thickness of these socks compared to previous ones might be at the root. My mile 3 I had a fully formed blister on the Achillies tendon that needed moleskin when I pitted after lap one.

While applying moleskin, I inspected the shoes and inside of the sock for a source, small piece of dirt, sticker, or any other debris that would explain the blister. Finding nothing, I put the socks back on and headed back out. None of the water obstacles had opened yet, so we were literally still in a “dry run”.

While on the second lap I felt another hot spot forming on the same foot, this time at the middle ball of my right foot. This was going be a problem for a 24-hour endurance event, so on my return to the pit area, I had to make a change, a switched out of the Hoplite socks and Salomon shoes into my back-ups and finished WTM 2023 in those.

At this point, I still have not identified the cause of the blisters, so I cannot lay blame on the Hoplite socks for this event. I have a couple of more tests to run, the deadlift test as they are advertised to reduce scrapping from bar travel during heavy sessions. as well as another general run test. If after a general run test, I have don’t have a blistering issue again, I will try the Hoplite socks at a Spartan Sprint with both of my OCR shoe options and see how they perform.

If you have had similar blistering issues with Hoplite socks, please leave a comment.

** UPDATE! Check out my update from the Central Florida Spartan Trifecta weekend and how Hoplite performed here: Hoplite Take Two