Influence of Surface Color on Wearing Comfort of Casual Socks

Abstract

This is a paper concerned with investigating how the surface color of socks influences the wearing comfort of casual socks. The wearing comfort of socks, whose colors were changed, and material, yarn count and weave of socks were the same, was evaluated by the visual sensation, the tactual sensation, or the visual and tactual sensations of consumers. The adjectives used for the sensory evaluation of wearing comfort were examined by factor analysis. From the result of factor analysis, the wearing comfort of socks by the visual sensation was evaluated by three common factors “easy to wear”, “heavy and thick” and “showy”, and that by the visual and tactual sensations was evaluated by three common factors “dry”, “easy to wear”, and “good fit”. And the relationship between the sensory values and the measured L^*, a^*, b^* and chroma values was discussed by correlation analysis. As the results, L^* value has a positive correlation with adjectives “light”, “thin” and “dry”, b^* value has a negative correlation with “good fit”, chroma value has a positive correlation with “showy”.