Not buildable in Clothix. Seamless circular knitting is outside the pattern engine, and honestly further away than wovens — see the roadmap.
What you actually specify
Which is why a sock manufacturer asks you different questions than a garment factory does.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Gauge / needle count | How fine the knit is. 96 needles is a chunky sport sock; 200 is a fine dress sock. This is the single most defining value. |
| Yarn count and composition | Cotton, wool, poly blend, plus the nylon and elastane that make it survive. |
| Cuff | Rib structure, height, and the elastane content that stops it falling down. |
| Leg | Structure and length — no-show, quarter, crew, mid-calf, over-the-calf. |
| Heel | Y-heel or reciprocated heel. It's the shaping that makes a sock follow a foot. |
| Foot and cushioning | Terry loops on the sole, and where they start and stop. |
| Toe closure | Linked (flat, invisible, more expensive) or seamed (a ridge you can feel). This is the quality tell. |
| Size mapping | Sock sizes to shoe sizes, per region. Not interchangeable. |
The toe is where you can tell what you paid
A linked toe is closed loop by loop, so the join is flat and you can't feel it. A seamed toe is sewn across, which leaves a small ridge against the toes. Linking is slower and needs a different machine, so it costs more, and it's the first thing a factory will offer to remove from a quote.
If you're building a sock product on comfort, the toe closure is the spec line that carries the claim.
Nylon and elastane are not optional
A pure cotton or pure wool sock stretches out and wears through at the heel within weeks. Production socks carry a few per cent of nylon for abrasion resistance and elastane for recovery, and the percentages differ between the cuff, the leg and the foot.
Specifying "80 % cotton" without saying what the other 20 % does is how you get a sock that fits once.
Branding a sock
Logos are usually knitted in — jacquard or intarsia — rather than printed, because a print on a stretch fabric that gets walked on doesn't survive. Knitting a logo in means a stitch-level design: the resolution is the needle count, so a fine logo needs a fine gauge, and a detailed mark simply cannot be knitted at 96 needles.
Which makes the logo a knitting constraint rather than an artwork one — the opposite of how it works on a printed knit top.
Finding a factory
Sock knitting is its own industry with its own regional clusters, and a garment factory won't take the job. Minimums are usually quoted per colour and per size, and they can be higher than for cut-and-sew garments because the machine has to be set up for a specification it won't reuse. The five questions still apply.
Beanies, same machinery · finding the right kind of factory · all categories · what we cover and when