MP Magic Socks Premium (3 pairs)

The MP Magic Premium Antibacterial Socks are a good choice for casual wearing and non-strenuous cycling, and they can fit into a sombre work outfit. Being a cotton-rich sock they're not likely your best choice for very hot, cold or strenuous days, mind.

Adam was rather taken with the MP Magic Crew Sports Socks, praising their comfort, padding and anti-smell tech. These shorter socks scream 'SPORTS', as do pretty much every cycling sock, but the MP Premium on review here would easily pass unnoticed paired with a suit in a workplace or job interview.

> Buy these online here

Being cotton-based with CoolMax and Lycra fibre tech, what they aren't is a cold-weather sock – MP Magic does a merino-based range for that. Of course this depends how hot or cold your feet run, the shoe, and where you're cycling as well, so you may well find the Premiums do you for a work commute in colder weather.

My go-to socks for pretty much year-round performance are the amazing merino DeFeet Woolie Boolies, but then I'm a colder-footed person and like a thicker sock in general. That said, taking the MP Premiums out for short rides on warmer winter days under a decent winter boot (Northwave Celcius, if you ask), I found them not too bad.

> Buyer’s Guide: 12 of the best cycling overshoes

Comfort-wise, they're fine – reasonably snug-fitting, as MP Magic notes: "The compression gives your feet enough support during exercises and long workdays." The cuff is slightly thicker, and with the snug fit had no problems staying up.

The hero claim of the MP Magic sock range is its anti-bacterial treatment involving a silver, copper and zinc-infusion, which attempts to render smelly feet a thing of the past. Listing a bunch of ISO and other standardised tests for deodorisation, anti-bacterial and microbiological functions, MP Magic claims: "After repeated microbiological tests, the results show an antibacterial rate of over 97% after 50 cycles of washing."

Now, being a fan of nice merino and alpaca socks for daily as well as sports use, I've taken to not washing my about-the-house pairs every single day – I find I can get a good three days wear out of a pair, with each day split by a day's downtime to recuperate. So yes, a sock rotational system.

Having lived this podiatry dream for a decade with absolutely no ill effects apart from having to wash expensive socks only half as often, I'm OK with the idea of not changing socks every day. No doubt someone from the UK Podiatrist And Sock Merchant's Guild will be along in the comments section to inform me that my feet should be decaying stumps by now, but it works for me. I also take the same view of merino baselayers, but do draw the line at pants. Ahem.

So, following close analysis of the MP Magic Premium sock's performance compared with the DeFeet Woolie Boolie, another reasonably-premium merino-rich cycling sock, and a pair of alpaca hiking socks I got for crimbo, I can say with 100% road.cc scientific rigour that I really couldn't tell the difference. After three days, the MP Magic Premiums smelt as good as the others, which is to say I could tell they'd been worn, but in no way were they unpleasant. Like if you'd worn a T-shirt for a few hours – doesn't need a wash, but it's not spanking clean.

Now, if it's hot and you're sweating buckets, no sock – no matter what it's made of – is going to last long without pong. Reviewing over the middle of winter, it was not possible for me to get into a midsummer state of feet-drenchedness. That said, the MP Magic Premium is certainly thin enough to be dry-ish the following day, if you washed it after finishing a hard day's summer riding.

Value

The Premium socks only come in a pack of three for US$59, which equals about £45 with free shipping to the UK. That's £15 a pair – which is about on a par for a premium cycling sock, and less than a top merino-rich or waterproof model. Comparison for sartorial purposes (ie being able to wear into a meeting) would be with the £17 Defeet Levitator, the bonus being you get the smell-reduction that 100% artificial fibres are certainly not known for. Even Assos and Rapha struggle to charge more than £18 for a cotton-acrylic blend sock, but neither have the anti-smell properties of the MP Magic Premium.

> Read more road.cc reviews of cycling socks here

If you're looking for a sock you can commute in, or use for travel that might involve some cycling, the MP Magic Premium is a pretty good bet to keep the smells down and the comfort up.

Verdict

A good choice for warmer riding and walking, where you want to arrive with fresh feet, day after day