Slinx Neoprene Water Sock

Great inexpensive sock that works well for insulating in canyon hikes.

I've always used water shoes and wool socks for canyoneering, but at the recommendation of a trusted friend, we tried wearing "normal" hiking shoes and neoprene socks for some canyon adventures.

We were in a rush, so decided to hit up Amazon and just get whatever could get to us quickly. We decided upon the Slinx Neoprene Water Sock. These sell from a variety of vendors for $12 - $15 bucks.

We tried these in some canyons in Utah's San Rafael Swell and they worked out well. I wear a men's and decided to go with a Large as I didn't want it to be tight and stretch out any of that 3mm of neoprene. My wife is a women's 6 and went with a small. These sizes turned out perfect. Tight enough without any loose bunching.

I measured the neoprene—which is a bit tough as the only exposed area is wrapped in nylon. But, I'd say it is a solid 3mm, maybe even a little more.

Seams are all flush on the interior and after 40 plus miles so far, I don't see any signs of wear.

The bottom and sides have hard "beads" that are designed to prove some grip if used without shoes. This actually worked pretty well in our shoes, I could feel the grip when clinging to walls.

These were inexpensive and I had low expectations, but they have been really solid. We spent 5-ish hours in them hiking 6 miles in the San Rafael Swell. Then another 12 hours hiking 20+ miles with them on the Escalante River. And most recently and their crowning achievement, October in Zion's Narrows. We did the 18-mile top down approach and wore these the entire time, roughly 11 hours. Temps at 7AM were in the low 30's and the high was in the low 50's. Our feet were wet, but not frozen.

The combo of the Slinx water sock and Salomon Ultra X trail shoes worked great. The Salomons are not waterproof so water drained from them well. The socks, also not waterproof, allowed water to get in, then drain out. But the key is this combo kept our feet, I won't say warm, but more than 50 degrees!

The only issue we experienced was having to stop every 5 or so miles to empty out sand that had worked into the shoe between the sock and insole. After each hike we had to rinse them pretty vigorously in a bucket of water to get all the sand out. But so far, no stink from some not very good smelling water in the swell and little if any wear is detectable.  

Background

This is our first pair of neoprene socks. Previously we relied on wool and lycra which works, but the socks are really never the same after.