How do you know when you have slipped from detail-oriented, past anal-retentive, all the way to obsessive-compulsive?
You might be an extreme case if you can't wait to get your hands on Plus+ socks from Blacksocks, a Swiss company that attaches a radio ID tag to its socks so you always put the correct pair together. Apparently this is something of a problem for people who wear nothing but identical black socks.
“The thing is, when you buy them, first they are exactly the same,†said Samy Liechti, founder of Blacksocks, in a call from Zurich. “But what people do is they take out the socks in the drawer at the front.†As some socks get washed more than others, they start to fade, and thus cu stomers no longer have perfectly matching socks.
Blacksocks spent two years developing a solution, Mr. Liechti said. The result is a kit containing 10 pairs of socks and an RFID reader for $190. The reader connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to an iPhone, where an app can tell you exactly which socks mate. It also helps track how many times each sock has been washed, and it has a “blackometer,†which uses the phone's camera to read how black your socks really are.
As with any high-tech project, there were challenges in development. First was how to get an RFID signal to the iPhone. The answer was the Bluetooth-ready reader. The blackometer was a bigger problem. Differences in room lighting caused the readings to fluctuate. The solution was to use the phone's camera to take a light reading first, which is then used to calibrate the blackometer before it takes its measurement.
The socks are 81 percent Peruvian pima cotton, 18 percent polymer and 1 percent L ycra. They feel like a standard cotton dress sock with a little extra stretch and a wide ribbed pattern. The RFID button just looks like a sporty detail on the outside of each ankle.
Replacement Plus+ socks are available only in $120 10-packs from Blacksocks.
Mr. Liechti said there was a side benefit to the technology: the company has fielded calls from women who say their husbands finally sort their own socks. “This is not something humanity has been waiting for,†Mr. Liechti acknowledged, “but men are little boys; they like to play.â€
