My Shopping for Underwear before the Internet

If you are under 30, it’s a safe bet that you don’t remember life without the internet. The internet has made it easy to get information at our fingertips. The internet also made it effortless to find and try new underwear brands. All you have to do is scroll through IG or Twitter, and you can find guys wearing a plethora of brands you may never have heard of before.

I am going to turn this topic into a podcast at some point. I think getting a few guys together and sharing our experiences finding and buying underwear back in the day.

I’m going to take you back to the 1980s. The 80s was one of the best times in men’s underwear. Underwear for men had yet to embrace the boxer (yes, this was the decade we blame for the resurgence of the boxer) or invent the boxer brief. The boxer brief we can blame on the 90s and Marky Mark.

There were only two ways to buy underwear. The first was to go to a store and purchase it directly. The other way is to order through a catalog. Luckily there were several options for underwear back in the day across the spectrum.

When I was coming of age and discovering underwear, around 12-13, briefs and bikinis were kings. Every store had bikinis, including Kmart, Richway (before Target), and other assorted stores. The holy grail to me was Rich’s. Rich’s was a local department store in Atlanta, bought out in the ’80s by Macy’s. They had so many styles and colors. The store I went to most was in the suburbs and not in the city.

Macy’s had Calvin Klein and Jockey. I hear many of you going, Jockey? They are now a boring underwear company. However, they are getting some of their histories for bikinis and thongs back. Jockey had some of my favorites. First was the Jockey Elance bikinis. These came three to a tube. You heard me; they were in a round tube. They had two kinds of bikinis. The first is the solid cotton bikinis, and the second and more challenging to find were the nylon bikinis. I LOVED these bikinis. They had more stretch than the cotton, but they weren’t around long. I don’t recall them much beyond the ’90s

When I think back, one of my favorite pairs ever was a bikini from Jockey called Skants. It was a bikini cut higher but was 100% nylon. I think it was the first time I ever had a pouch in a pair of undies. I slid them on and was like, “OMG, Where has this been all my life.” I only got one pair of these and never found them again. The demise of this pair was that the pouch had a run in it, yes, like women’s nylons. The run was right down the center of the pouch, and it very much felt like a cheese grater on my goods.

Rich’s/Macy’s brought in 2(X)IST, which shaped my underwear throughout the years. There are so many other brands that I can’t recall that I bought in the ’80s and early 90s from Macy’s.

I didn’t have to go to the mall to find bikinis. Every day stores had them as well. It was like an entire wall bikini. I specifically remember three brands back in the day, Hang Ten, Spalding, and Brut. Hang Ten was a classic bikini in every sense of the word. Hang Ten was a simple and comfy bikini. Spalding was one of my favorites because it was skimpy, well, for the time, and I wore the hell out of these. My favorite pair was a white pair with a light and dark blue stripe. Lastly was the most creative and interesting, Brut.

Brut was a brand made of 100% polyester and came in so many prints. Some of these would have blown your mind if you love prints now. I remember a print with brown, blue, and other colors. It sounds hideous, but it was such a cool print. The downside was these had no stretch at all. If you bought the wrong size, they would bind you like no one’s business. They were also low-rise bikinis with thicker sides.

In the ’80s, bikinis were plentiful. Many guys wore them as well, and I’m not talking just gay guys. If you wanted a thong, jock, or something sexy, that wasn’t so easy to get. Your options were a “specialty store” or catalog. The more seedy way to buy undies was in an ad in the back of a magazine (they weren’t always in adult mags either, some were in fitness magazines).

Let’s tackle jocks first. In the ’80s, there were no fashion jocks. They were made for one purpose, well, two purposes. The first was sports. The Bike classic #10 was one I think most guys had growing up. I don’t recall many wearing them back then unless you were serious about sports. In most casual sports, you just wore briefs. The second purpose involved gay fetishes. Leatherback in the day always had jocks, and 80s porn pretty much included jocks. I think this was because they were so easy to get. Pretty much the only place to purchase them was at a sporting goods store. Very few regular stores carried them, and if they did, they weren’t with the underwear and in the sporting goods aisle.

Thongs were not big back in the 80s and early ’90s. I remember buying my first thong. It was at a store called “Blue Moon” in Atlanta. Blue Moon was in Akers Mill shopping center across from the Macy’s; I would get my underwear. This was a gift shop that carried all kinds of things. One day I was in and discovered they had men’s thongs. One was pink, one was camo, and one was red. I just stared at them, not even touching them cause I thought, “everyone will know I”m gay.” It wasn’t until my 2-3 visit that I started to go through the basket and see what they had. I don’t recall why I got the nerve to pick one up (and for those wondering, it was a Sauvage thong), and I bought it. Two older gay gentlemen ran the store. At the time, I had no clue, but looking back, they were always eager to help and ring up my purchases. They were nice guys. I would go back and purchase so many more from them.

I was a thong pioneer because I joined a gym (which was nowhere near my home) and would wear thongs to the gym under my spandex shorts. I was a total twink and didn’t care who looked and loved every minute of it. No one was ever in the locker room when I changed from my bikinis to thongs to work out. And when they did, no one paid attention. I would go back to Blue Moon to buy more and told the gentlemen about working out in them, and they told me they had many muscle guys buying them to work out in them. Sadly, they closed not long after that, and my source of thongs had to move to catalogs.

All this happened when I was in and around my Junior and senior in high school. My undies love expanded then because I could drive and go to the mall whenever I wanted. Also, my job in High School was by the mall, so sometimes I’d leave early and go, or if I worked weekends, I’d go after work. When I went to college in Atlanta, my underwear purchases shifted to catalogs. I’m not talking about the Sears or JC Penny catalogs. I mean the International Male catalog. I discovered it in a gay store that sold magazines (you know art magazines) and took it home. The first time I opened the catalog, it was like my fantasies had come to life. These guys are in unique undies: bikinis, Thongs, and many more styles. The underwear came in every color of the rainbow. I wanted it all. But, I had to wait till I got my first credit card in college.

To be honest, I never thought of mailing in the form to get my gear. It was stuck right in the middle of the catalog, but I called in and placed an order cause I wanted it NOW. My budget was limited, so I would only buy $30 worth of undies at a time. I got 3-4 pairs of undies at a time, unlike today when you can get just one pair for that price. I got a PO Box to get my packages without anyone snooping. After a few years of doing some small orders, I got an International Male credit card with a whopping limit of $200. I thought I hit the jackpot and sat down with the catalog and decided what I would get. I didn’t max out the card with the first purchase, trust me, I wanted to, but I had to keep in mind there would be a new catalog in a few weeks, and I needed to save some room on the card for the latest gear I would want. This card got maxed out so much as soon as I paid it down, I got even more undies and ran it back up. I”m sure those ladies who answered the phone came to know me back in the day. I called them so many times over the years.

International Male made it so easy to get “sexy” and fun underwear. If you were gay in the 80s, it was part of your welcome packet when you came out. International Male, I think, is why we have a lot of the undies we have now. The people there were true pioneers of the men’s underwear/gear industry and made fun and exciting things. International Male introduced so many guys to underwear and spandex in the day.

I have gone this long and not touched on Swim Briefs, aka Speedos! I wore them as often as I could. I saw a Speedo in person (yes, it was the official Speedo brand) in Rich’s in 1984; it was a 1984 Olympics speedo with Sam the eagle (the mascot that year). I wanted this stretch piece of swimwear so bad. It was $25, way out of my budget if memory serves me correctly. I never got this pair. We took a vacation to Virginia Beach to visit family a few months later, and two things happened. First, I saw my first two guys wearing speedos in the wild. I couldn’t keep my eyes off them. I had to get one. One afternoon I went to a store that sold swimwear and grabbed one and ran up to the counter to buy it. It was a purple speedo that was a size 36, granted at the time; I was a 31-inch waist on a good day. It was way too big. I would have that pair for many years. In college, I discovered the Boy Next Door here in Atlanta. I walked in and saw a wall of swim briefs in every color, pattern, and design. I was blown away. This would be where I would buy all my swimwear for years to come.

I wore Speedos/swim briefs as much as I could in the 90s. I would wear speedos under my swim shorts if it was a speedo-friendly pool and lose the shorts during this time. One of my favorite spots was in Piedmont Park. There is a hill by Tenth St. and Monroe, where the Park Tavern is today. But in the 90s, it was a vacant event space for most of the time. Guys would lay out in speedos on the hill. I was there as much as I could, laying out with the other speedo guys. I always had a speedo in the trunk to put it on and layout. Even if I ran errands and could go for 20 minutes, I’d do it. In 1996 I went to Panama City (i know, girl, I know). And wanted to wear my flag speedo on the beach, and my ex threatened to kill me if I took my shorts off.

Wow, this post has grown farther than what I wanted to do, but I’m not done. I want to share my first singlets, pre-internet days. In the early part of college, I decided I wanted a singlet. I had seen them on high school wrestlers and thought they were sexy as well. No one sold singlets in a catalog or store. You had to go to a sporting goods store. Not just any sporting goods store, but a store that specialized in wrestling. We had one near me, and I went in like I was looking for something for my younger brother and found three Cliff Kleen singlets.
One was a reversible nylon/poly singlet. The other two were a spandex red and a blue lower cut singlet. Sliding them

on, I was in heaven with the spandex. They felt better than the spandex shorts and tights I wore at the time. The store near me didn’t have the fuller cut singlets I wanted. I had to break out the yellow pages and call a specialty sporting store about 20 minutes away that specialized in weights and wrestling to ask if they had singlets. They said yes, and one day I ventured over there and got a navy singlet with white trim. They didn’t have many, but this one was in my size, and I got it. I still have all four of these singlets. I’m surprised they have survived the years. The Navy had some of the colors run onto the white trim, but other than that, it’s in good shape (well, last time I tried to put it on).

Flash forward to now, and you can get underwear, thongs, jocks, singlets, and gear online. You never have to talk to anyone if you don’t want to. You never have to walk holding a thong on a hanger up to the cashier and have her ring up your purchases. In my teens, I was very much “I don’t want them to see what I’m buying.” But, by my 20’s, I gave no fucks. I would walk up with a jock, thong, or singlet and pay for it. That carries over to this day; I’ll buy anything and not care what the person checking me out says or thinks.

Many guys today hate to shop in person. Some guys even refuse to go in and buy something. It’s all done online, and they can remain anonymous. I miss shopping in person, feeling the pairs, and seeing the colors in person. I am lucky I live in a city with a store that carries excellent brands in undies and swimwear. If you grew up in a world without the internet, please get in touch with me and share where you shopped. Any old brands you loved that aren’t around, and do you miss those days of going shopping in person for gear?