I'm reminded of the day I realised that expensive socks can be a good investment.
I'd only been walking for leisure for a few months and still thought that walkers were supposed to wear boots. I was about 5 miles into a walk on a very wet day when my Salomon GTX boots began to leak, and after a few more miles my feet were soaked.
I'd bought the boots at Cotswold Outdoor in Canterbury and, since the shop wasn't that far away, I paid them a visit to ask if the boots were faulty. The assistant took one look at the small bubbles oozing from the uppers near the fronts and offered me an immediate identical replacement.
The bit I've always struggled to get my head around was that I didn't just get a brand new pair of boots, but also more than £20 credit. Apparently, since I'd recently become a member of the LDWA, I was entitled to a 15% discount, which he applied to the replacement boots!
Anyway, I needed a pair of socks for the walk home in my new, dry boots. The assistant told me that the very best socks I could buy were Smartwool socks. Until that point, I'd been buying my walking socks from Mountain Warehouse and they were okay I suppose. Well, they were cheap compared to the Smartwool ones, which cost about £22 as I recall. I've never spent anything like that on socks before and thought the price was silly.
But... this pair wasn't going to cost me anything - I'd just be swapping my soggy, leaking boots for new boots and expensive socks. So I 'bought' the Smartwool socks.
They were a revelation and I never bought cheap socks again. It's true that most of my walking socks are Bridgedales, but that's because they offer such a wide variety, whereas Smartwool's range was much more limited. They remain though (IMHO) the very best socks £20+ can buy!