Socks aren’t just socks. They are lovingly described here the way an oenophile might talk about a nice bottle of wine: “Our warmest sock is named Canada. It is a heavyweight, wool, fully cushioned boot sock with a durable sole and superior moisture-wicking ability.” And it likely has a powerful finish. Give me two!

The opening page of the site presents Wigwam’s socks as the ones to wear in seemingly every active context: The cover image flips smoothly from a woman performing yoga on a rock above the ocean to a man hiking with his stuffed pack on his back to a skier in mid-flight, zipping over the top of a hill, and so on.

Each of those five big, gorgeous, natural-light-saturated images represents a different line of Wigwam socks: Snowsport, Outdoor, Health, Sport, and Work. Each of these images is also accompanied by three words that appear one by one and sink into the consumer’s subconscious, sending a message of strength and durability. For example, Wigwam Health’s yoga image finds the words “protect,” “rejuvenate,” and “restore” appearing on the screen while the hiker of Wigwam Outdoor is joined by the words “explore,” “discover,” and “conquer.”

Clearly, Wigwam has chosen these words to be the themes for their socks in any situation. After all, as the understated flipping logo says on top of every page, “Life is Movement.” Each of those images will take you to an area devoted to socks designed for that sport or activity.

There aren’t too many sock companies in America that are known by their names. Wigwam has definitely done a good job in building its brand and the site allows the company to continue to push its name to new consumers.

Another important issue for manufacturers to address with American consumers, particularly younger ones, is environmentalism and Wigwam deals directly with this issue on its home page. On the bottom left of the page, readers can’t miss that “Wigwam Gets Green.” The company has apparently moved to using a lot of solar power, eliminating the release of 15.5 tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually. One can be sure the people of Wisconsin thank them.

Wigwam also has a number of adventurous travelers that occasionally post blog items about where they are in the world with their Wigwams, such as one woman who had her spine fused several years ago and is now headed to China to run a marathon. Along with that are some testimonials from such folks as US Marines in Iraq and an Army sergeant in Afghanistan.

The site is amazingly interactive, with an Ask Our Experts section that wants readers to post queries and has an archive of such questions as which Wigwams are recommended for those who get a lot of blisters and what exactly is the durability of a Wigwam. There are also plenty of places for web visitors to post comments as well.

But the other very cool interactive search mechanism is one in which the reader can indicate what his or her needs are (a sock for running, biking, climbing, skiing?) and whatever attributes are most important to the user (cushiony, non-binding, seamless toe closure, odor control, etc.) as well as other things. The site then picks the Wigwam socks that fit your needs best.

The site also houses an odd Events area that focuses aon events that Wigwam had some involvement in such as a triathlon in Florida or the fact that when Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott of Oxygen’s Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood had a party, they put some Wigwam socks in the goody bag for adults. What else could a celebrity want?

And for those who are all about the sock, each type of sock has an in-depth description: “An eye-catching dot pattern, suitable for any occasion, is combined with the natural softness and comfort of Merino wool.” Web visitors can zoom in on each sock to see it up close and personal before purchasing. Plus, there is technical information about each sock and how it is constructed for one reason or the other. Wigwam is leaving nothing to chance. That’s the kind of business sense you get after 105 years in business.

The use of earth tones and strong primary colors throughout give the site a high comfort level, which one imagines is a sense the designers are trying to project about the Wigwam socks themselves. It’s hard to imagine how something as simple as a sock could be stretched to fill the number of pages involved on this site, but it proves to be a worthy subject of so much material.