Brief encounters only every 5 years for men!
IT’S a sordid truth, but British men buy new underwear for themselves only once every five years.
Clothing company Tom Clinch has found that some hang on to their briefs for more than 20 years.
And in another knicker twist, even when they do finally opt for a new pair they pass the buck to partners or parents to buy them.
Most men receive a pants present at least once a year, on their birthdays or at Christmas, say researchers.
In the film Notting Hill, the “old pants” cliche was perfectly illustrated by Rhys Ifans, who played Hugh Grant’s pal, Spike, and famously answered the door to a media throng dressed only in his grubby grey Y-fronts.
Even glossy ads fronted by the likes of David Beckham and fashion model David Gandy don’t seem to do the trick. Nick Clinch, founder of the new Tom Clinch brand, said: “It was deeply depressing to discover that men invest in something as important as underwear so infrequently.
“They don’t hesitate to throw money at expensive suits but cut corners with underwear. It’s like buying a Ferrari and filling it up with cooking oil. It breaks my heart to see women in shops dutifully buying packs of pants for their husbands in their 40s and 50s.
“Some of it is laziness, some of it simply bad habits. We want men to prioritise looking and feeling great in one of the first items of clothing they put on each and every day.
“Our boxers are made to eliminate that, look much more flattering than tight pants and keep the crown jewels safe, sound and supported.”
Boxer shorts were patented more than a century ago and the Tom Clinch design is the first real design change.
The inbuilt pouch is designed to combine a boxer-style with a traditional trunk to give men more support.