To me underwear has been just that, underwear. I do not see myself spending more than a couple of bucks for a pair of briefs. plain white fruit of the loom briefs. I have purchased some colored ones. I have recently found these briefs at target by the name brand of Merona. They are no fly briefs. I pay $4 dollars for the 2 pack. The are very comfortable. I also saw these briefs made by a company called Evolve. These are about $ 9.99 for the 2 pack, I only have a few of these. Who ever sees your underwear anyway? Wife and girlfriend ?? neither one cares what I wear. I have seen two stories on the news lately. One stating that mens underwear sales are down 12 percent and the town down here that is requiring its citizens to wear underwear. I sure would like to be in charge of inforcing that law (at least on the women). Ok that was two cent for now. bye
Well if you're strange make room for me too. I've never been one to follow fashion fads or worry about brand names. When I was a kid underwear was strictly a utilitarian item. All kids wore white cotton briefs and you couldn't tell one brand from another except for the tiny little brand label on the waistband and it didn't matter what that name was because there was no difference between one brand and another.
I'm not sure when underwear became a "fashion item" and brandnames became important but I think a lot of money is wasted on brandname stuff and that people would be better off buying what they like and find comfortable than worrying about what they think will impress other people.
I think the brand thing started with Mark Wahlberg (then known as "Marky Mark") started doing the Calvin Klein ads. That seemed to be the beginning of the obsession with brand-name briefs. Not long after that, Joe Boxer appeared on the scene and the boxer obsession seemed to take off.
I may have my history wrong, but I'm like Nat. When I was a kid, boxers were always worn only by old men. I suppose being "old" then was as much a perception as it is now, but you definitely never saw anybody under 25 or 30 in boxers. Of course, in the 60's, I think we thought everybody was near death at the ripe old age of 30, and definitely nobody over 30 was to be trusted.
First of all, contrary to most of the people who post here think, apparently, I believe you wear underwear to keep down your laundry. It is less trouble to wash a pair of underpants (of any kind) than it does to wash a pair of jeans. I generally manage three days all day wearing the same pair of pants but I change my underwear daily. Oh, I still don't always wear underwear, such as under knit shorts and so on, otherwise I suppose I'd have no business on this forum.
When I was small, I only took one bath a week. That's the way the rules were at my house. There was no shower. Only much later did an every day shower become normal for me. Maybe I'm becoming effeminate or something. But on to the topic at hand.
As I recall, underwear that deviated from the normal white brief or boxer shorts (which also came in colors) appeared in the late 1960s around the time of hip hugger pants. They were being worn in Europe before they were being worn here. That I'm sure of because I lived in Germany from around 66-68. I suspect that one reason for the introduction of bikini briefs was because of low-cut trousers but that could be coincidental. There was quite a variety available from the start, even from Jockey.
Later, sometime in the late 70's, even briefer styles became available in some stores, ironically at around the same time that I suspect freeballing became somewhat more common, though that may have been earlier. These things are especially difficult to pin down with any degree of assurance, especially from a period of 30 to 35 years ago. And although it is one thing to comment on what I personally wore and recall as being available in stores, it is quite another to comment on what people were NOT wearing at the time, especially underwear. Even so, my memory fails. Thong underwear for men is available now and can be found even at K-Mart as well as Macy's but I have absolutely no recollection of when it became available.
My father wore only boxers, the kind with the panel in front with snap fasteners and the elastic only in back. I don't think anyone makes those anymore. I don't remember when I started wearing briefs. I do recall that when I joined the army in 1965 they issued boxers. My son has been in the habit of wearing boxers (notice the generation switching thing?) and when he joined the army, they issued briefs!
I don't agree that they're all the same but the prices of some brands can get stratospheric for underwear. Briefs have been around for a long, long time, too, by the way and some styles had curious features. For some reason one or two brands had double seats in their briefs. I have no idea what the logic behind that way but they were "heavy duty."
All of that notwithstanding, I think the most comfortable thing is a pair of thin knit gym shorts, about a two inch inseam, worn over bare skin. And nothing else--if even that much.