How to Style Socks for Tennis

We get it, sometimes you can’t always look your best and have to settle for throwing on whatever combo of socks, shoes, shirt and shorts you’ve got ready or clean. But what about when you have time and the desire to actually truly look your best? How can you make sure that your sock choice complements and doesn’t unravel your tennis look? Socks are often overlooked during the visual presentation aspect of tennis, so let’s dive into what to look out for, color pairing choices, and how to make sure you’re styling from head to toe.

If you’re unsure about what kind of socks you may or may not need for tennis, be sure to check out our gear guide for tennis socks! Likewise, if you are unsure about your current court shoe setup, be sure to take a gander at our guide for the best tennis shoes depending on what you’re looking for!

There are a few schools of thought when it comes to selecting a sock to match your look. A basic rule is to make sure that your socks go well with your shirt. So, for example, if you have a red shirt, that typically will pair well with red socks. Where this gets tricky is the color of shoe coming into play. If you have white shoes, then a red pair of socks may clash a little too much with your shoes. So, in this case, it might make sense to start with a combination of shoes and socks that look presentable, vibrant, or stylish (whatever your desired outcome may be). From picking out your shoe-sock combo, you can then build out the rest of the outfit to match accordingly. Let’s take a look at some choices based on sock color and what may or may not work for you depending on your shoe selection or option.

Black socks typically pair well with darker tennis shoes. This is a good way to create a neutral base for your look, regardless if you want to add additional color elsewhere or go for a more minimal style overall. Below are images of black socks paired with dark and light tennis shoes, giving you an idea of how to utilize the clashing or matching color combinations you are working with.

In the image above, you can see how the dark socks/dark shoes combo leads easily into a subtle, minimalist, or otherwise very neutral look for the rest of the outfit. These kinds of styles are great for casual hitting, training sessions, or toning down your visual look. It can be a good idea to color block the top, where a black, navy or grey top would fit in quite well with the existing darker bottoms. A fun twist too is to have a lighter top and shorts combination to offset the dark base, giving the look a little bit of pizazz if minimal isn’t what you’re going for.

On the other hand, you can also see how the dark socks and light shoes combination is a little bit of a visual clash. You can make this work for your purposes, but it may prove to be a little more challenging. If you go this route, matching the shirt to the sock color will go quite a long way, or you can opt to match with the shorts to provide a nice transitional visual layer for the outfit.

Despite getting dirty more easily (looking at you, clay courts…), white socks are about as classic of a tennis look as one can imagine. They pair most naturally with white tennis shoes of course, which give you an almost always viable base for any color of top and shorts you may want to seek out. They also work great for a neutral base, making them a truly versatile pairing visually speaking.

If you go white socks with dark shoes, consider having some accent colors to match either the shorts or the shirt. Dark shorts with dark shoes in this case will prove to be a natural pairing, but a dark top would offset the clash quite nicely as well. In this case, a head accessory could go a long way to balance out your outfit.

Colorful socks are typically flashier, and it usually helps to consider the brighter or darker nature of what specific color you end up choosing when pairing tops and shorts. Blue, green, orange, yellow, etc. all pair nicely with a correctly matched top. Another option is to add a complementary color to your sock combination, such as mixing purple with yellow or pairing orange with blue.

Pairing your colorful socks with a corresponding shoe color could be a viable option as well. Orange socks with blue shoes, purple socks with yellow shoes, or a monochromatic approach could all be extremely appealing from a visual perspective.

Patterned socks are by nature a little harder to make workable, as they tend to stand out on their own without any supplementation. It depends on what kind of style you are ultimately going for, and if you want your socks to make a statement or to go along with some other color choice you’ve made for your outfit. It could be nice to match the pattern’s colors with a corresponding top, or, to go complementary with the accenting.

Let's recap some of the big takeaways from this style guide.

• Color matching: Sock color and shirt color should go well together. Either same or complementary colors.
• Shoe color: White socks with white shoes, dark socks with dark shoes.
• Colorful socks: Make sure your statement piece(s) matches your shoes/shirt, or complements it well.