Sock-it-to-me time

Our lifestyle guardian Mik Scarlet has really put his foot in it this time, but it’s all in the good cause of consumer testing

When the postman knocked at my door and handed me a great big cardboard box, I got very excited.

My excitement waned somewhat when I looked inside. There were four large pieces of baby-blue plastic, with no instructions on what to do with them.

Then I remembered I’d agreed to review a new device called Sock Aid, that’s meant to help you put your socks on.

How hard can it be to put on your socks?

Well, quite hard actually. My left leg is a normal length but I lost mobility in it when I was 15, so managing to wiggle my left foot into a sock is always a struggle.

As for my right leg, it has never worked, and thanks to many breaks and years of abuse, it’s even harder to move about.

After putting four bits of plastic together, I ended up with a large blue thing and a smaller blue thing with a handle. My wife and I then spent an hour trying to make the two myster­ious contraptions work, to no avail. Finally I searched the web and found a video demonstration of the Sock Aid on YouTube.

With sock in hand, I tried to follow the video, and found that one of the two tools is for putting socks on, and the other (the one with the handle) is for taking them off.

What I was hoping was that the video would show me how to put my left sock on without bending down.

It didn’t, at first. The main problem is that unless you can point your foot and keep it still, you end up just waving it around. It took a bit of effort before I could get it into the Sock Aid.

Then came my right sock. I knew this would be harder, and after several tries I found the only way to use the Sock Aid was to pick it up and slip it over my foot, which defeated the object entirely.

Taking the socks off with the other handled tool was, however, much easier, for both feet.

I’m probably not the kind of person that the Sock Aid device is aimed at. If you have a problem bending down, but can move your legs and feet, it might well work well.

But if you have problems with movement in your legs, the Sock Aid would probably end up in that cupboard we all have. You know the one: the one that’s filled with unused aids.

INFORMATION
To see the video demonstration of the Sock Aid, visit youtube.com/watch?v=9GFOqlAmJUc or visit sock-aid.com for prices and offers