The easiest compression socks to put on

At 8-15 mmHg this goes on close to the way an ordinary thick sock does, which is why it gets worn every day instead of most days.

SensiFoot sits at 8-15 mmHg, the mildest band sold as medical compression. That number is the whole reason it is first on this page. The force needed to stretch a sock over a heel rises steeply with the compression class, and at 8-15 mmHg most people with usable hands can still manage it seated, without an aid and without help.

It was designed for people with reduced sensation in the feet, so the knit is flat through the toe and sole to avoid the seam ridges that go unnoticed and turn into a sore. That makes it a sensible everyday sock for someone with diabetes or neuropathy, not only for swelling.

It comes in knee, crew and mini-crew lengths and in white, black, navy and brown, so it can be worn without announcing itself. Buy two or three pairs - compression fabric needs washing after every wear, and a single pair guarantees a day without it.

The honest caveat is in the number. If a doctor has specified 20-30 mmHg for a venous ulcer or significant swelling, 8-15 is not a substitute, and wearing it instead is not a compromise but a different treatment. Take the number you were given to whoever fits the garment.

The workhorse medical stocking in the one detail that matters for weak hands - an open toe, which is what every slip-on donning aid needs to work.

Relief is JOBST's long-running basic line and it is sold in 15-20, 20-30 and 30-40 mmHg. Those are the classes doctors actually name, and at every one of them the stocking is genuinely hard to pull on by hand. That is physics rather than a design fault.

Choose the open-toe version anyway. An open toe does two things: it lets you use a slip aid such as the Arion Easy-Slide below, which is the single most effective trick in this whole category, and it gives a grip point at the foot that a closed toe does not. Most people assume the open toe is about comfort. It is mainly about getting the thing on.

Knee high is the length to start with unless you have been told otherwise. Thigh-high versions with a silicone band are sold alongside, and they add a second difficult task - getting the band to sit right - to a job that is already hard.

Plan on replacing them. Compression fabric loses elasticity with washing, and a stocking that has gone soft is no longer delivering the pressure on its label even though it still looks fine. Ask whoever fits you how long they expect a pair to last at your wear rate.

Wrap the sock around the leg and close a zipper instead of stretching it over a heel - the only design that removes the stretching step entirely.

This is a category rather than a brand, and nobody in it has the standing of JOBST or Sigvaris. We include it because the mechanism is right: the sock opens flat down the side, goes around the leg, and the zipper does the tightening. A hand that cannot grip and pull can often still pinch and slide a zipper, especially one with a loop or ring on the pull.

Two details separate the usable ones from the rest. First, there has to be a fabric flap behind the zipper. Without it the teeth sit against the shin and leave a red line, which is the complaint owners report most. Second, the zipper should be a known make - YKK is the one named most often - because a zipper that splits or seizes after a few washes turns the whole sock into trash.

Expect the delivered compression to be less exact than a fitted medical stocking. A zipper creates a vertical seam up the calf, and pressure around that seam is not the smooth gradient the label implies. For general swelling and tired legs that is a fair trade. For a prescribed class treating a venous ulcer it is not - ask the clinician who prescribed it before substituting.

Buy open toe if you can. It gives the foot somewhere to go while the zipper is being closed, and it makes the sock far easier to get off at the end of the day.

A metal frame that holds the stocking stretched open so the foot goes straight in - the aid that makes 20-30 mmHg possible without help.

The donner is a hoop on two long handles. The stocking is loaded onto the frame, which holds it stretched wide; the foot goes in through the middle; then the handles are pulled up and the frame slides out from under the fabric. The hands never stretch anything. They only pull upward on two foam grips.

This is the aid that changes what a person can wear. The step that defeats most people is forcing a heel through a 20-30 mmHg cuff, and a frame removes it. It works with closed-toe stockings as well as open-toe ones, which none of the slip-style aids do.

It takes a calf up to roughly 40 cm around, so measure before ordering if legs are swollen. And it needs reach: you have to lean forward far enough to put a foot into a hoop resting on the floor. For someone who cannot bend at all this is the wrong aid, and the medi Butler below is the right one.

It is the most expensive item on this page by a wide margin, in the range of a decent kitchen appliance rather than a pack of socks. US suppliers often list it as HSA and FSA eligible with a letter of medical necessity, which is worth asking about before paying cash.

The same frame idea with long handles, so the stocking can be loaded and raised without bending to the floor.

The Butler exists for the person whose hands are fine but whose back, hip or knee means reaching their own foot is simply not happening. The stocking is loaded onto the frame while it rests on the floor, the foot goes in, and long handles let the stocking be raised while sitting upright.

Several versions are sold - a shorter one for people who can bend somewhat, and a long-handled one for those who cannot. Buy for the problem you have. The long version is unnecessarily unwieldy if you can lean forward, and the short version is useless if you cannot.

Like the JOBST donner this is a frame, so it needs floor space in front of a stable chair and it is not something you pack for a weekend away. It also still needs two usable hands to steer the handles.

Availability through US retailers is patchier than JOBST's and listings go in and out of stock. If a supplier has it, check the return window before ordering, because frame aids are strongly size- and body-dependent and not everyone gets on with them.

A very slippery fabric sleeve over the foot that the stocking glides across - no frame, no assembly, folds into a pocket.

The Easy-Slide is a cone of very low-friction fabric. It goes over the foot first, the stocking slides up over it with far less resistance than it would meet against skin, and then the sleeve is pulled out through the open toe. Friction, not strength, is what stops a stocking halfway up a heel - and this removes the friction.

Its advantages over a frame are simple: it costs a fraction as much, it weighs nothing, it packs flat, and there is nothing to assemble or store. For anyone who travels, or who has a small bathroom and no spare floor, it is the practical choice.

The catch is absolute. It only works with open-toe stockings, because the sleeve has to come out through the toe. If a closed-toe garment has been prescribed, this aid is not an option and a frame is. A separate version is made for arms.

It is sold in several sizes from extra small to extra large, matched to the leg rather than to the stocking. US distribution runs through medical suppliers rather than general retail, so expect to order it rather than find it on a shelf.

Rubberized gloves that let fingers grip the fabric instead of sliding off it - try these before buying anything expensive.

Fitters hand these out for a reason. A large share of failed attempts are not a strength problem at all: fingertips slide across slick compression fabric, the force never reaches the sock, and the person concludes their hands are weaker than they are.

A textured glove fixes that for a few dollars. It also stops fingernails catching and laddering the fabric, which is the other way an expensive stocking dies early. Anyone who wears compression should own a pair whether or not they own any other aid.

They do not create leverage. If the sock genuinely will not move once you have a proper grip on it, the problem is strength or reach and you need a frame or a slip sleeve. Gloves make a borderline task possible; they do not make a 30-40 mmHg stocking easy.

Buy a size that fits snugly. A loose glove slides around on the hand and you are back to the original problem one layer removed.