Not sure if I trust a lot of companies that make more expensive underwear to actually make something that lasts longer. I could put the research in to find something. But the markup between the cheapest things and the "quality" underwear always seems a bit much for me
this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
73 points (94.0% liked)
Buy it for Life
5897 readers
26 users here now
A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!
Guidelines:
Things that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last a lifetime) are A-Okay!
Unlike that other BIFL place, Home-made and DIY items are encouraged here, as long as some form of instruction is included in the body of the post.
Videos links are not allowed as post titles, but you may use them in a text post.
A limited amount of self-promotion is accepted, IF the item you are selling aligns with this criteria:
- The item must be made with sustainable or recycled materials.
- If electronic in some way, the item must be open-source.
- The item must be user-serviceable (if applicable).
- You cannot be a large corporation.
- The post must be clearly marked with a [Self Promotion] tag in your title.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I found Schiesser lasts pretty well
Schiesser
Cheers mate!
I buy nowhere near one piece of clothing per week
I like Mac Weldon boxer briefs due to their comfort, which makes them worth the extra bread to me. They do seem to last a long time, but as with any garment containing elastic, they probably won't last for life.
Can't comment on the Mac Weldon boxers. I've never tried them.
Broadly speaking, consumers should educate themselves about apparel, and then choose to buy apparel that's better made and will last longer. It's not just underwear. Jeans are a favorite example of mine. Most jeans right now are in the 9-10oz range, and have 1-4% spandex woven in so they stretch. 50 years ago, most jeans would have been in the 12-14oz range, no spandex. The would shrink in the wash, so you had to be careful, but would also slowly break in and mold to fit you. Jeans with spandex are more comfortable right off the bat, and can be made comfortable even if they're fairly tight, but as they wear, they're going to start sagging. And since they're a lighter weight material, they aren't going to last as long. The changes are, in large part, driven by the need to ensure that your jeans fit a wider range of body shapes; your fit doesn't need to be as specific when you use elastic. (That starts wading into the deep end of fitting apparel, but the short version is: patterns can be pretty easily graded to fit people that aren't overweight, but once you get past a certain amount of body fat, distribution and shapes start varying widely enough that you simply can't make anything that's close to universal without making it fit like a poncho.)
There was even a brief period of time where Invista had a partnership with a mill that was making denim, and they were doing 60/40, or 50/50 cotton/nylon denims, and they had fantastic wear capabilities. I haven't been able to find anything about that particular material in about 15 years, sadly. (Cotton/Kevlar blends are possible to find; those are used for motorcycle jeans. They're also $60/yard for 30" wide fabric, which is insane.)
So true, I went jeans shopping a couple of months ago and literally every pair of jeans was stretchy with bad durability
Soo.. What underwear are actually worth buying then? It doesn't seem like there are too many recommendations.
Schiesser is outlasting every other brand I've tried so far
Personally, I've been a fan of saxx. Expensive, but I'll try and get a new pair if I see them for half off.
To be honest, for everyday wear, I've got cheap costco brand underwear that's lasted me probably 200 wears. I only use non-cotton underwear for athletic activities, though, so that cuts down on a lot of wear and tear.
I've heard good things about Duluth trading company, but never tried them.
I've gone with MeUndies after a sponsor spot in a YouTube video that was actually good. They do tons, like TONS of different designs. Pricey, but made extremely well. Plus, all of the packaging is recyclable.
They also have a subscription model that's literally just pairs for a discount monthly, and you can select a random design.
Been using me undies myself for just over 6 years. Theyre started to break down over the last year. One complaint i have is the purple lining they use for the elastic seems to leave a mark around my waist. I've been waring them inside out to accomidate.
I'll be trying some lttstore undies soon. Hopefully theyre similar quality but slightly longer lasting.
In a similar thread years ago there was a recommendation for Exofficio brand which I bought a few of to try out and have since replaced all of my underwear with. Their boxer briefs are fantastic.
Patagonia boxers are made using recycled plastics and they also accept worn out boxers for recycling. Patagonia is the only boxers I have found that are very loose fitting (baggy in fact), silky feeling, yet stretchy, yet moisture-wicking all at once. Nothing like this seems to exist in Europe.
So here’s a debate: synthetic vs cotton
Synthetic boxers can be recycled and can be made from recycled plastics. But every time synthetic clothes get washed they shed microplastics which most sewage treatment centers cannot filter out. You would have to buy a special filter to attach to your washing machine. Researchers in Ghent discovered that the bacteria that loves perspiration also loves synthetic clothes but not cotton. This is why synthetic clothes get stinky fast and thus need more frequent washing than natural fibers.
Cotton production consumes absurd amounts of water (2700 liters of water to produce 1 t-shirt). And when you wash it, hang drying takes /days/ (whereas microfibers hang dry in a couple hours). So people use energy wasting tumble dryers when cleaning cotton. But cotton has the advantage of being biodegradable. You can simply compost/landfill finished cotton as long as it doesn’t have harmful dyes that leech out. There is also a cotton t-shirt that is claimed to wearable 7 times before each wash. IIRC it’s blended with silver for anti-microbial effects.
The environmental debate can go either way depending on which problem you want to focus on, but cotton is clearly lousy performing underwear considering how it retains water and gets soggy. The only natural fiber that performs well for underwear is wool (ideally Marino from what I’ve read). But the prices on that are extortionate. €60+ for one pair of wool boxers, and they’re tight fitting.
Anyway, the OP’s thesis is lost. There is no BifL boxers AFAIK.
There are BifL socks though, called “Darn Tough” which have a lifetime warranty. They have 1 competitor but I forgot the brand. Both use marino wool.
update
Patagonia plans to open a store in Amsterdam.
There are BifL socks though, called “Darn Tough” which have a lifetime warranty. They have 1 competitor but I forgot the brand. Both use marino wool.
I don't really think socks can be a BIFL item. Darn tough is definitely one of my favorites, but I've worn through pairs. Merino is a weak fiber (which is what makes it soft), so it wears out. I've got some pairs where the nylon structure of the sock is intact, but the wool itself has been abraded away. Yes, I could swap them for new ones, but I don't want to exploit a company who is trying to do things right.
There's a few companies making good, made in America wool socks. Farm to Feet, Camel City mill, grip6, a decent part of smartwool's portfolio, and probably a few others.
I guess the whole point isn't actually things that last forever, it's things that reach the optimum of longevity, eco friendliness, and performance.
I guess the whole point isn’t actually things that last forever, it’s things that reach the optimum of longevity, eco friendliness, and performance.
BIFL in for this community can mean that literally, as in it will last your entire life, but also includes what you described. Fully agree!
The answer is nearly always Natural Fibres for two reasons:
- environmental - synthetic products do not degrade. Why wear something that literally microplastics everywhere you go and then gets thrown in a landfill at end of its use.
- comfort - breathability is the key criteria for clothing. Polyester and synthetic fabrics are nearly all terrible at this compared to natural fibres.
Merino wool is one of the best products, especially for warmth. You don't have to pay Ice Breaker money, although it is becoming harder to find at affordable prices.
Linen is also a great fabric for warmer climates. Couldn't imagine a polyester t-shirt, let alone underwear, if I lived somewhere hot.
breathability is the key criteria for clothing. Polyester and synthetic fabrics are nearly all terrible at this compared to natural fibres.
Natural fibers cannot be grouped together in this way because there is a huge variation.
This is where cotton fails and synthetic microfibers come out ahead. Cotton retains water, swells when wet, and suffocates as water tension spans the threads that are thickened by the swelling. Synthetic microfibers wick moisture away, and do not swell when wet, which gives excellent breathability. Cotton is fine as long as you don’t sweat. Or exceptionally, if it’s extremely hot in some windy situations the water retention can be a plus. I used to don cotton and hose myself down before getting on a motorcycle on a hot dry day. The evaporative cooling effect worked wonders with the high relative wind. But outside of that niche, such as sports, microfibers are king which is why sporting goods shops fetch high prices for high tech synthetics. As someone who sweats profusely more than normal, cotton is a non-starter in warm climates. Evaporation from soggy cotton simply cannot keep up with the rate that I add sweat. So a cotton t-shirt gets soaked in sweat and remains wet the whole workout session, and for days thereafter.
I used to wear tighty whities which made my gear sweat. Switched to Pategonia boxers and wow what a difference in breathability.
Wool and synthetics are similar w.r.t. comfort hence the term “smart wool”. But indeed natural wool is pricey and non-vegan.
They have 1 competitor but I forgot the brand.
Is it bombas ?
Bombas are just regular cotton/synthetic socks (though nice ones as far as I can tell).
Doesn’t sound familiar, but maybe there is more than two.
(edit) just had a brief look at bombas. They seem like a great product but I didn’t see notice of a lifetime warranty.
And when you wash [cotton], hang drying takes /days/
Like, Venus days? Time lapse days?
Given hang-drying in my humid coastal community takes 4 hours on a bad day, make sure you share what you're smoking.
Who throws clothes in the trash? I almost never do that.
If it's OK and just doesn't fit I donate it. Some of them get cut up to be dust cloths. And when my underwear is literally falling apart I might throw it away. Maybe.
Even some underwear or old tshirts can be cut up and used to clean stuff like bike chains, dry car rims if you are washing the wheels, and clean gun barrels after shooting and oiling them. Cotton tends to work better.
HUGE amounts of clothes are being trashed, many of them new; never worn. I wish I kept the link around. There were several articles in the past few years showing massive piles of clothes along the coastline of some poverty-stricken countries, with all the dyes leeching into the ocean. Fast fashion is the culprit.
Probably what disgusts me the most are political campaign t-shirts. Surely it’s the worst instance of obsolescence by design in clothing. Andrew Yang claimed to be an environmentalist yet his campaign t-shirts were made of non-sustainable cotton. Attempts to spotlight that were censored by Reddit.
If it’s OK and just doesn’t fit I donate it.
All the charities collecting clothes in my area are fussy. They want no flaws, and they want clothes to be cleaned. Apparently there is no infrastructure for repairing them or even simply washing them. Neighbors don’t bother.. they just stuff a trash bag with clothes and put it out with other trash. Sometimes someone notices that and tears open the bag and rifles through it for stuff. I’ve moved into places where the previous tenant just left clothes and blankets behind. I dumped them in the clothing donation bins anyway, without washing. But it’s dicey.. I could just be adding to their burden and have no idea if the clothes and blankets get used.
Price is unfortunately not a reliable proxy for quality. That's kind of why communities like BuyItForLife exist.
Granted, the marketers are catching up to this and as such they are losing their usefulness, but yeah.
view more: next ›