Men's Boxer Briefs (Underwear)

A boxer brief is a fitted knit short with an inseam of 5 to 7 inches, landing partway down the thigh and staying there. The leg defines it: fabric grips your thigh so it stays between your legs as you walk. This is the whole reason this shape took over the market.

Knit cloth carrying 5 to 12 percent elastane does that gripping, lengthening as the leg swings and pulling back after each step. Three details decide whether it works. The hem has to hold without cutting, and a bound edge, a raw laser cut edge or a printed silicone strip inside the hem each manage it with a different amount of pressure. A contoured pouch sits in front so the fabric is not dragged across the middle of the leg. Seams down the inner thigh need to be flatlocked. That means stitched so the join lies level with the cloth, since that seam sits exactly where a ridge would grind for eight hours.

Trunks cut the same design back to a 3 to 4 inch leg, which suits shorter legs and stops short of the rubbing zone on most people. Long Boxer Briefs push out to 8 to 10 inches for full thigh coverage in heat. Briefs delete the leg entirely. Choosing among the three is a measurement rather than a taste, so find where your thighs stop touching and buy the length that passes it.

Most bodies and most days land here, and thighs that touch land here first. Jeans, chinos and any trouser you walk a lot in pair well with the coverage. Real heat argues against a heavy cotton pair, where a synthetic or fine modal keeps the same leg without the wet weight. Tall men should read the inseam number rather than the style name, because 5 inches on a 34 inch leg lands where a trunk would.

Test the ride on a staircase, since the leg hem tells you everything within one flight and the failure never shows up standing at a mirror. Find the inner thigh seam and run a thumbnail along it. Silicone grippers hold hardest and can mark skin on a hot day, so choose a bound hem if you are out for hours in heat. Wash warm and dry flat, because the elastane in the leg is the first part to die and heat is what kills it.