If you asked us IRL about the best socks for wearing with loafers, we’d understand all the reasons why: they wick sweat, add an extra detail to your fit, and can really class up your calves. But we’d also do that annoying thing where we answer a question with a question: Just how are you planning to wear these socks with those loafers? Because there are some very different scenarios.
Scenario 1 goes like this: you want a high-rising dressier sock because you’re wearing your best loafers—maybe some showy horsebits, or some elegant Venetians—with a suit or beautiful pants.
In scenario 2, you’re going more casual. Maybe you’re teaming up a pair of boat shoes or some Bass Weejuns with jeans or an airy pair of summery pants. Maybe you’re wearing loafers with shorts (yes!), and want a sock to liven things up.
And then there’s scenario 3: you want a sock, but by no means should it show. It should absorb some sweat, prevent blisters, keep a mid-summer’s swelter at bay—and stay out of sight. No-show socks for loafers can be tricky. But we know the right ones.
To that end, we’ve gathered the best socks to pair with your favorite loafers—because you’ll probably want more than a few pairs. You’ll step livelier knowing that you’re helping your feet, your fit, and your shoes—because leather doesn’t want your dogs’ sweat any more than you do.
The Best Socks for Loafers, According to GQ
In This Guide:
Best Dress Socks for Loafers
Teaming up a dressier sock with a loafer is part art, part science. You want a thinner, fairly breathable material, since the sock’s going to go most of the way up your calf. As for the art: we’re not rulemakers, but personally, we’d resist the urge to be the “fun socks guy.” Yes to a pattern or a bold color—just not anything that’s a punchline.
Best Quarter & Crew Socks for Loafers
Lately, guys have been wearing loafers as casually as possible—and frankly, we’re big fans. If you’re looking to take your loafers for a walk with shorts, jeans, a swimsuit, or just dial things down a notch, these are the socks you want.
Best No-Show Socks for Loafers
The first rule of no-show socks is right there in the name. But their job gets even harder with loafers, where the cut of the shoe is low and the leather tends to tug a weak sock off the heel. What you don’t want is to wear a no-show built for a sneaker with your loafers; what you do want is a no-show with grips to make sure they stay exactly where they should. And that’s exactly what we’ve got for you.
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.
We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.
Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.
Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there’s bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ’s testing process here.)