Sushi socks

Sushi is the most visually efficient food a sock designer can use: a white rice base, a strip of colour on top, a band of black nori around the middle. It reads instantly even when knitted small, which is why sushi appears on far more socks than, say, soup.

The best pairs in this category treat the sock's shape as part of the design — a nigiri where the foot is the rice and the coloured band sits across the top, so the sock only makes sense once it's being worn. Look for those rather than the scattered-print versions, which are pleasant but not particularly strange.

There's usually a small sub-category of sushi socks sold as pairs of mismatched pieces, so each foot is a different roll. If you're buying as a gift for someone who orders the same thing every single time, that's the pair to find.