Problem: How does an underwear conscious straight guy in college not only feed his desires for the finest quality underwear available while living on a budget?

Solution: To save money buying underwear, one must be patient and buy clearance undies, take advantage of designer sales, and buying from wholesale department stores when possible.

To love high quality, super fashionable underwear while living on an very tight and almost miniscule college budget is a very difficult scenario with which to be faced. Unfortunately, I am currently faced with these budget constraints; however, I still find a way to buy the undies that I like by never overspending on a given pair. I would estimate that most guys waffle between buying new undies or some other essential product a few times throughout the year. Unfortunately, this is a harsh reality of the real world, but a tight budget should never deter any man from buying the undies that he desires. Through being a very patient shopper and having the savvy to know when sales are throughout the year will yield major savings on underwear. In the following paragraphs, I outline a few techniques which I use to ensure that I am always wearing high-grade undies while still being able to pay my rent.

Chances are that if you are a frequent visitor of the Underwear News Briefs website, you know that wearing the best underwear is not a cheap proposition. You can quickly find yourself spending upwards of $100 dollars on only few pairs of underwear. Doing this while living on a college budget is nearly impossible so you must be patient and wait for products to reach the clearance rack. By doing this I have purchased a great deal of my favorite briefs for a fraction of their original price. Recently, I purchased one pair of Andrew Christian ‘show it’ low no show briefs and one pair of C-IN2 low no show briefs for $12 each on clearance from nordstrom.com. Which  is 50% off of the original price. There are pitfalls to this money saving strategy such as a very limited selection of colors and sizes.

Online sites keep our top drawers fresh and diverse with new undies. Being an underwear junkie, I look forward to wandering various online retailers of undies and find new styles and cuts from my favorite designers. Large semi annual sales featuring brands like 2(x)ist and Calvin Klein are the times where I try to buy new underwear. For instance, during one of 2(x)ist’s 25% off all their products’ sales over the summer, I purchased three pair of their touch no show pouch briefs for $18 each. I have also found equal savings during CK’s 25% all products’ sales and most recently picked up two X micro limited edition hip briefs for $18 per pair. I understand that resisting the urge to purchase just released undies is incredibly tough, but through waiting for the big designer sales throughout the year, you will be able to match my savings.

Discount and wholesale department stores such as TJMaxx or Marshalls sometimes carry great undies from Calvin Klein, 2xist, Hugo Boss, and and Diesel, but it is usually tough to find the perfect pair since these stores feature closeout and clearance items from designer’s factories. For example, I am a thin guy and I wear size small underwear. As a result, I usually don’t find the undies that I am looking to buy. Even though this is very frustrating, you must not let this stop you from checking these stores often because each week they receive new shipments of products. As a result, you will eventually find undies that suit your preferences at a price which is very modest for designer underwear. In the past, I have purchased brand new CK X Cotton and X Micro hip briefs at TJMaxx for $7 per pair! This is less than a third of the price that designers and other retailers charge. Granted this does not happen often, but underwear scores at wholesale stores are very exciting. When you don’t have much money to dedicate to buying undies, finding cheap briefs in a TJMaxx or Marshalls store makes for a wonderful day.

Wearing the best underwear available is not something that is always super affordable, but it should be a right for all guys. As underwear aficionados, we understand and deal with this. There are ways to do it affordably. As long as you the consumer know what you are buying and when to buy undies, you will save a large amount of money. Just make more intelligent purchasing decisions. Don’t sacrifice underwear quality because of your budget.

The Holiday Season is coming up. We want you to know we are going to be your underwear sales central. We will run Sales Briefs every day starting the week of Black Friday. We will add extra sales info that is either a spontaneous flash sale or sales ending on our Sales Tumblr. So make sure you check it out daily.

The annual UNB Holiday Guide will be out on Black Friday. We are shooting it today! It’s going to be the biggest guide we have ever done. We will be tweeting and sending pics out via twitter and instragram. So make sure you stay on top of it! You will see a preview of our models and undies!

Are you a fan of sexy underwear? Something fun and a bit of mesh but not too much? Then you need to check out the new B Erotic collection from Go Softwear. The pair in the picture is the Tease Brief. It is named so because the mesh panel runs above the pouch to show enough skin without showing everything. The Go Softwear website says it combines “combines European elegance with a bit of eroticism”. Which we couldn’t agree more!

Alex from Go Softwear (who you have seen in our videos) says this about the line: “The idea for the TEASE brief came to us during our brainstorming session.  We wanted to create a brief that was alluring and provocative but sexy nonetheless. Therefore we incorporated rayon/spandex and mesh  in this design to  ‘tease’ visually, but  wanted to leave something to the imagination. ”

The Tease brief is available in Black, Silver, Turquoise and Olive.  Constructed in a 95% Rayon/5% Spandex blend. Which means that it will be a great pair to wear all day, not just on a date night. It is available for $23 at the Go Softwear

There is no question that men’s underwear market is experiencing something of a renaissance lately. It seems like more brands are entering the fray, and the “giants” are reacting by providing more options, more designs, and more colors. It is 2012, and it could not be any easier to get the pair or pairs of underwear that best fit you, satisfy your style preferences, and maybe even make you feel good. The problem is, a huge majority of men out there simply don’t know this and the reasons really are not that numerous so they can, and should be easily solved.

The most prominent reason most men are unaware of all of the options available to them when it comes to underwear is really the root of the problem. Most men hate to shop, especially for clothing, and the reason is that even when they know what they are looking for it is not easy to find. Department stores and other retail chains (with few exceptions) do not organize their retail around this baked-in apathy. Take jeans for example. If a man needs a new pair of jeans and wants a nice pair from a department store, all he likely cares about is the size, and maybe the shade of blue. Yet he’s got to sift through all these other options: button fly or zipper fly? Boot cut. Straight leg, Relaxed, or Skinny fit? Pocket stitching or plain pocket? If the same guy needs to refresh his underwear drawer similar problems exist, but he first has to walk about a quarter mile to the “men’s furnishings” section, and when he gets there, he’s met with what? Ugly display stands with underwear in boxes, all of which are not sorted by color or style.

It seems that every time I check out the men’s underwear section at my local Nordstrom, it looks the same as it did two weeks earlier, and I don’t just mean that anecdotally either. I actually mean, it looks exactly, the same. The problem is two-fold, one is more baked-in than the other and that is most men are notwilling to pay $24 for one pair of underwear. But I am convinced the reason there is never anyone looking at men’s underwear in Nordstrom (or any retailer for that matter) is that they can’t see the product.

It’s a matter of fact, that when men actually can see a lineup of colorful briefs or trunks hanging on a hanger on a rack, or neatly folded for all eyes to see, the will shop, and they will buy. The reason I know this is that in the same Nordstrom underwear section, those colorful Diesel briefs and trunks, and the same styles from Calvin Klein that are displayed on hangers are always picked over, while the same types of underwear languishing in their boxes, continue to be stuffed into the gargantuan wooden stands.

Think about it this way. In any department store, you don’t see many pieces of clothing tucked away into boxes where you can’t see them, do you? Ever checked out the women’s underwear section? There isn’t one pair of underwear in a box. Why is that? You have to go back to the apathy of the male shopper first. Women tend to care more about their underwear then men, yet all it takes is one glance at human anatomy to figure out that this should at least be even, if not flipped. Remember those Diesel briefs and trunks that were on the hangers that sold out so quickly?  The hangers did something for the underwear that a box can never do. The contoured pouch, shaped like a man is shaped, gets noticed, and the guy who’s wearing his multi-pack boxers, briefs, or boxer briefs thinks, “I bet these fit better” and makes the purchase. Meanwhile, all the underwear in the boxes in that stand, which is just feet away, possess the same contoured pouch the ones on the hanger do, but how is Mr. Ill-fitting Underwear supposed to know that by looking at a 2D black and white picture on a box?

The small change of moving underwear to hangers and display tables means exposure of brands and styles to men who might not have known even existed in the first place. My wife didn’t know jocks were being made with “everyday wear” designs until she went into and men’s underwear boutique with me. Since underwear for men comes with ridiculous cultural connotations what better way to expose the public to the options that are out there, than to let the public actually see what is available to men. 

 While such a change should be applauded, department stores should not stop there. Why does the men’s underwear section need to be in the same location as cuff links, umbrellas, and ties? Why can’t it be by the pants or the workout clothes? You know, the things that you put on right after you put your underwear on? I don’t know many men who put their ties on, or situate some cuff links right after they get their boxer briefs on. However, even if you get the underwear displayed properly in a department store, most men don’t go to department stores to buy their underwear. Location is just as important to growing sales.

Think back to the guy buying some jeans. What if, on his way to the counter to buy them, he and the sales person pass a round table with some form fitting briefs displayed neatly? The salesperson says, “I don’t know what your preferences are, but these underwear are designed specifically with the cut of the jeans you are buying in mind.” Obviously the sales person won’t convince every customer, but they only need to convince a couple men per week and the store’s underwear sales go up.

I firmly believe that the guy that picks up his first pair of underwear with a contour pouch from a department store is going to feel the same way I did when my wife brought home the pair that started my obsession. Online retailers will be the likely beneficiaries if he really gets into them, but the guy has to know that they’re available to him. And as far as I can tell, despite large increases in men’s underwear sales, a simple re-evaluation of how their products are being displayed by retailers is an opportunity worth pursuing.