A little something about Men's Underwear

Ladies, we have news for you:

That underwear you’ve been buying your husbands and sons all these years, figuring they didn’t care enough about drawers to replace the worn ones … well, men do care. Really. Some are downright passionate about Men’s Boxers & Briefs.

Yet unlike women, who will drone on for days about the merits of a good bra, men don’t like to talk about such things. So they graciously accept whatever you purchase and suffer in silence if they don’t like it.

That could be changing.

According to underwear manufacturers, men are (gasp!) buying their own underwear in greater numbers, and wielding more influence over those who buy it for them.

They’re even venturing into new silhouettes and colors.

Underwear retailer C-IN2 offers low-cut styles to accommodate low-rise jeans, for instance. Even stalwarts such as Calvin Klein and Polo Ralph Lauren are cautiously flirting with undies that go beyond the requisite solids and plaids.

Macy’s says its biggest growth in men’s underwear has been in the newer silhouettes, including what it calls “midways,” the male equivalent of boy shorts for women. They’re halfway between briefs and trunks, and come in wovens and knits.

The department store’s hottest-selling color is black.

Jockey International reports that sales of black underwear over the holidays were up 18 percent from the same period in 2005. Sales of white underwear were largely flat. And the company’s new “3D Innovations” line (which Jockey says allows for more freedom of movement because it has fewer seams) comes in white, black, “denim heather” and “charcoal heather,” with red accents.

“We don’t know if it’s a brave new man or if it’s been there all along, but we’re trying to respond to what our customers want,” says Tim Pitt, Jockey’s vice president of global marketing and advertising.

They ought to. Men’s undies accounted for $3.6 billion in sales during the fiscal year ended in October, up from $3.3 billion the year before, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm.

Steve Buehry is general merchandise lines manager at a grocery-department store in Indiana. It wasn’t news to him that guys are showing more interest in their drawers.

“You can always tell when guys are shopping for underwear because they rip open the packages to check the size,” he said. “Women leave them intact.”

Wayne Johnson, 18, is among new-generation men who prefer not to delegate underwear-buying. He likes boxers, and doesn’t shy away from loud colors or patterns.

Johnson is a big fan of cartoon character prints, such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Scooby-Doo. But although the Indianapolis teen likes the baggy jeans look, he draws the line at underwear waistbands that peek out from beneath his pants. “That’s nasty,” he says.

Jack Norris, 65, buys his own underwear, too. He’s a briefs man, through and through, and he’ll have none of those funky new colors, thank you very much.

“When you’re in the shower after you’ve played golf or done something at the gym, and a guy puts on those bikini pants in pink, the conversation stops. That’s all I can tell you,” he says.

Still, Norris doesn’t begrudge those with passionate opinions about underwear. “If you get the wrong underwear, it’s really uncomfortable and irritating all day long,” he says. Steve Williams, 42, welcomes the new styles and colors, and wishes there were more to choose from, in cotton boxer lines, for special occasions. “The only alternative we have to daily duty is novelty - silky drawers with large lips, cartoon characters or paisley prints,” he said. “To be honest, putting on silky drawers, regardless of the rationale, doesn’t exactly make me feel manly. What’s he wearing under there? Briefs, also known as tighty-whiteys, are the venerable standby that boys and men have worn for decades. They’re most often white, made of cotton and tight-fitting above the thigh. • Boxers are loose-fitting shorts that come in a variety of fabrics and colors. The fly usually consists of overlapping fabric and sometimes has buttons. • Trunks are boxers cut very short. • Boxer briefs combine the close fit of briefs with the longer shorts of boxers. They’re usually cotton. • Bikinis are close-fitting briefs with a low waist and no fly. Colors and fabrics vary wildly. • Thongs cover the essentials and not one square inch more. No color, print or fabric is off-limits.