Taco socks

Tacos are the single most represented food in novelty sockwear, and it isn't close. Part of that is Taco Tuesday being a real cultural fixture with a built-in gifting occasion, and part of it is that a taco is just an extremely good shape to knit — a folded shell reads clearly even at sock resolution, and the fillings give a designer an excuse to use five bright colours at once.

The category splits into flat prints (tacos scattered across a crew sock) and constructed designs where the sock itself is the taco, with a beige shell and a lettuce-green frill. There's also a persistent sub-genre of taco socks involving animals eating tacos, which nobody has ever explained.

These are the safest possible weird-sock gift. Nearly everyone has a positive opinion about tacos, and the design language is cheerful rather than edgy, so they work for coworkers and relatives where a sweary pair wouldn't.