Stinky feet while traveling? Slip on socks made with coffee sludge

Travelers, how many of you would invest in socks that promise to make your feet more comfortable and less sweaty -- made with coffee sludge?

Get in line.

A Kickstarter campaign to manufacture Atlas socks made of coffee-infused fabric has created a lot of buzz and raised more than four times the amount of seed money needed to make the socks a reality.

Founders were hoping to raise $30,000 with the crowd-sourced campaign; as of Friday, they had raised more than $147,000 and will continue until July 24.

“This is a great way to actually be smarter about your buying and finding out what customers want,” Kit Hickey says. She’s one of the four co-founders, MIT grads all, of Massachusetts-based Ministry of Supply, which created the socks.

Here’s how they work, according to Atlas: The socks are made of a blend of fiber made from cotton, recycled polyester and carbonized coffee. It’s the coffee that attracts and absorbs odor molecules (and no, the socks don’t smell like coffee). The material also wicks away moisture along the ankle and calf, and a ventilated pad on the bottom allows moisture to escape so your feet won’t feel clammy.

The mid-calf Atlas is designed to be worn as a dress sock (but you can wear it with whatever you like) and comes in three solid and three striped colors. The slight padding on the bottom contours to your foot but remains breathable to remove odors, Hickey says. Makers describe the socks as being “like a Brita Filter for your feet.”

The only way to buy them is to pre-order on the Kickstarter page with a contribution of at least $28 (that gets you two pairs of socks). You can read up on the engineering too, but you won’t receive the goods until November.

And in case you’re wondering, the caffeine-infused socks won’t help you walk faster or longer -- unless you knock back a few lattes when you wear them.

Info: Kickstarter campaign Atlas: Performance Professional Comes to Socks

Mary.Forgione@latimes.com
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