Again with the boot socks

[amaristella]

Where do people who have to wear the brown boot socks, these, tend to buy them from? Specifically the mesh ones? DH is trying to figure out where to get the best price and he tells me that we will not be able to find them at the MCX. He also was given a tip on brown Under Armor shirts. Both of these items seem a tad expensive to buy very many when he's going to wear them for a year and maybe possibly for a month or two when he gets back.

[amaristella]

Also the climate looks like it's either 100 degree, 70% humidity or both at any given point in time.

[killercupcake]

No idea about the socks since H wore black socks. lol

Is the UA shirt authorized? H wasn't allowed to wear them because they were considered too dangerous for deployments. Something about the material not being flame retardant.

[amaristella]

Feb 8, 2015 23:43:08 GMT -5 Stan said:

I wear green socks and tan undershirts, so I'm no help on sourcing BUT I will say that high quality uniform items are totally worth it, even for a short time. The difference between my $6 boot socks and my $25 boot socks is huge when it comes to my feet. $6 boot socks mean blisters and blood and yuck. Does he have access to at least weekly laundry? I'd buy a week's worth of the expensive stuff. I know you're looking at bleeding money with your off books move and such, so I'd understand wanting to keep it down money wise. I hope someone has a good source for you!

Laundry service and self-serve laundry are both available daily but what I'm reading says "delicates" don't last long and that DCU's (what are those?) take a beating. But I heard this and someone else told him too that he will need tons of undershirts. I was thinking of supplementing him with a bunch of cotton ones once I discover where to buy them. The regs for the uniform he's going to get are brown shirts and either black, brown or green
socks. Now on the socks we mutually agreed that he can buy any color
since once he is back in NWU type 1 nobody is going to see or inspect his socks. He has nice Darn Tough cushion socks from living in New England but he seems to think these mesh ones are special. It's mainly the undershirt that needs to be the right color and to be honest with you these regs say cotton so I don't know how he thinks polyester is going to fly.

[amaristella]

Feb 9, 2015 0:38:04 GMT -5 killercupcake said:

No idea about the socks since H wore black socks. lol

Is the UA shirt authorized? H wasn't allowed to wear them because they were considered too dangerous for deployments. Something about the material not being flame retardant.

Clarification I found was he can wear black, brown or green socks. I think he's attached to these mesh socks he showed me. And I question the polyester shirt as well (melts to your skin!). What I'm reading specifically says cotton. And the cotton UA shirts do not come in brown.

[killercupcake]

Feb 9, 2015 0:48:22 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Feb 9, 2015 0:38:04 GMT -5 killercupcake said:

No idea about the socks since H wore black socks. lol

Is the UA shirt authorized? H wasn't allowed to wear them because they were considered too dangerous for deployments. Something about the material not being flame retardant.

Clarification I found he was he can wear black, brown or green socks. And I question the polyester shirt as well (melts to your skin!). What I'm reading specifically says cotton. And the cotton UA shirts do not come in brown.

H loved the Gold Toe socks. Still wears them all the time. 

Yes. The polyester is bad. 

I'd just get the brown soffe shirts. They're inexpensive and will do the job for the short time. Splurge on things like better boots, eyewear, etc. 

[amaristella]

It's the uniform on the right. We've been squinting at the pictures to see if the shirt looks brown or tan. The regs definitely say brown but the pictures look tan.

[audette]

I'm no help on sources, but DH swears by wool socks. Even in heat and humidity. They wick and breathe, even when it's hot and sweaty. Cotton wicks, but doesn't breathe once it's wet. Polyester just sucks (barring some of the specialty fabrics designed for wicking capabilities).

I knit DH's socks, and the yarn I use is roughly equivalent to what's used in smartwool socks - so the socks you can buy that would behave similarly to DH's handknit socks are $$$$...

[VillainV]

For socks, I agree with Stan that better quality ones are totally worth it, especially in hot climates!!!

For t-shirts, I also have to wear cotton for my job, and I find that fit is more important than material. The thinner cotton (like undershirts) is MUCH more comfy than the thick cotton (like a "beefy-tee" t-shirt). Thick cotton bunches up, holds in sweat....yuck. I generally like Soffe shirts. Deployment laundry is REALLY hard on UnderArmour....so I generally get t-shirts that I plan on throwing away after.

[nsl]

I don't even want to think about how many undershirts H tossed after 6-8 weeks of wear while he was deployed. We were constantly buying new ones for him that year because there came a point when the smell stopped washing out. Boots too. Ugh.

Based on his experiences (so feel free to completely ignore this advice in favor of that from those who have served themselves), I would avoid Under Armor and stick to whatever brand of thin cotton undershirt he prefers once he gets over there. It might not hurt to buy a few packs of different brands so he can figure out which ones work best for him.

[amaristella]

Update: He found and bought 4 pairs of the socks he wanted at MCX. He says they are supposed to issue him a few pairs and that he can wear one pair two days in a row (I said, with laundry service available every day, hellz no!). I will share all the opinions on undershirts and see what he says. Thank you all (heart). Now back to the crazy train. So few days left and so much left up in the air. We found a company to store the car and do maintenance. It's still a bit more expensive than I'd like but oh well. It's actually Pasha, one of the shipping companies over at the piers. I never expected they would want to do that with their space. I really thought their space was more valuable than that. Oh well.

We're supposed to have 5,000 lbs. packed out in less than a week (all in one day!) and the company hasn't even called me yet to discuss a survey. I did call them already so they know I exist. Their Yelp reviews are so awful. I feel like I'm already on defense. I cannot wait for the next couple of weeks to simply be over and done with. Then I can relax and just focus on finding and setting up a new house. And sending DH off. I mean, he's still on my nerves but at this point it's almost like I don't have time to be mad anymore I'm too busy.