As well as changing your socks regularly, wear socks made of cotton, wool or bamboo. These allow your feet to breathe and help keep them at the right temperature. Specialist socks are also available for different sporting activities.

Make sure your socks fit properly, paying particular attention to the width for your foot and ankle. If you have swollen feet, look for socks designed to accommodate your swelling. Elastic-free socks are available to help prevent them cutting into your leg.

If you have difficulty feeling your feet properly (neuropathy), make sure there are no knobbly seams inside your socks that may rub and damage your skin. Turning your socks inside out can help prevent rubbing.

Your feet have sweat glands galore — 250,000 in each foot! Perspiration creates the perfect environment for bacteria to set up shop. Wearing socks that keep feet dry will help your feet stay healthy. “Socks made of synthetic fibres tend to wick away moisture faster than cotton or wool socks,” says Kurtz. Also avoid wearing excessively tight pantyhose, which trap moisture.

Socks absorb and wick away moisture, provide cushioning, and reduce wear and tear on your feet. Your heels take most of the impact and as we age the fatty pad on our heels gets thinner. The cushioning from socks becomes more important because it helps to absorb more of the impact from walking and standing. For daily use it is recommended to wear socks made of natural fibres like cotton or wool. For athletic purposes, synthetic materials are recommended to wick away sweat and moisture.

If you’re wearing pants that have some form of checker pattern, don’t wear socks that have an alternate type of pattern. But seeing as most men’s pants are generally not patterned, a crazier pair of socks is usually suitable.

If your outfit is more muted, you may want to opt for a crazier pair of socks. For example, contrasting the muted tone of a charcoal grey suit with a brighter orange pair of socks can provide an exciting flash of colour in your outfit (as a side note, make sure to consider what shirt and tie combinations work best with a charcoal suit).

For some complementary accessories, try matching your socks to your out outfit by coordinating them with your tie or pocket square. You can try and match the colour, or the pattern of the pair. You can also try and wear seasonal colours layered into your outfit (for example, wearing more maroon tones in the fall). Matching your socks and tie can be an effortless way to pull your entire outfit together in a concise manner.

White socks are a go-to for many men. However, we suggest trying your best to wear a more colourful pair of socks with most of your outfits. While a plain white pair of socks may be ideal for the gym, try to restrict wearing it to just that scenario. Much like other types of clothing, your socks are a convenient way to show some flair and personality. Use them as a way to communicate exactly that.

If you want your clothes to flow into one another visually, keep a consistent colour scheme between them. As long as your socks and pants fall in a similar hue, the effect will be a seamless transition between the two articles of clothing. Try to wear this for more formal settings.

It’s important to match your pair of shoes to your socks in a choice full manner. Casual shoes can be worn with perhaps a more outrageous pair of socks (it may be quite absurd to combine a black suit with a bright pair of pink socks in most circumstances). Also keep in mind what type of colours match well with your shoes.