Toe Story
Toesocks are now a popular choice among yogis. Here, Sinan Yilmaz explains how a single, novelty pair from Japan motivated him to form toesock specialists TOETOE
In 1997, my partner and I received a curious gift from a friend in Japan. Inside the parcel we discovered something that seemed to be a combination of a sock and a glove. It was, in fact, socks with separate knitted compartments for the toes. We had been given some toesocks. Gloves for feet. We were intrigued.
I put a pair on my feet immediately. It was a fun, sensory experience. First of all, my toes were a little bemused as to how to find their way into their individual ‘houses’ and so I had to use my hands to guide them. This meant my feet got a little massage. Felt good. Incidentally, my toes learnt very quickly after that how to make their way to the right place in the sock. Moreover, after a couple of weeks my feet and toes became mobile enough to wriggle into the toesocks very easily!
The next experience was when I looked down at my feet and it was as if I was looking down at my hands on the end of my legs. I could feel my brain realising that my hands and my feet have similar structures and similar potential. Spontaneously, my toes wanted to move and wriggle. Wearing toesocks sparked a movement impulse in my feet.