Having a more average-athletic build, and larger thighs, one issue I regularly run into with my boxer brief underwear is them (the fabric) wearing down in the inner thigh area.
This reader approached me with a similar issue:
You have underwear topics on here. So thought I’d ask advice.
I wear several types of underwear. Including boxer shorts, boxer briefs, and trunks.
I find sometimes my underwear wears down very quickly getting all scratchy on the thigh with minimal exercise or use.
I’m big. But not huge.
I prefer boxer briefs. But I don’t want the scratchiness.
Can you offer assistance?
My other big problems are around wedgies. Either the trunks ride up occasionally giving me a wedgie. Or siblings give them to me.
Is there a type of boxer or material to fix either of these or limit the tearing of my boxers.
I won’t wear briefs. I have worn all boxers since I was little. Find briefs impossible.
Thank you, Blake
[Tug: I asked Blake for some additional details on what types and brand of underwear he currently wears]
Mostly cotton/polyester I think. I wear all sorts.
Tradie, alpha, calvins, hanes, fotl, rio, Hollister, bonds, h&m, h&h. List goes on.
My boxer shorts are just h&h though.
Boxer briefs and trunks are the variety. I don’t wear boxer shorts alot. Too much activity as a chef.
And if you have same issue with legs. What underwear types do you wear and which has most problems?
And if you have solutions would be great.
And if you have a way to undo the damage to the boxers, that’s be great.
Abrasion Resistant Underwear
Heya Blake,
Thanks for the additional info.
The most common abrasion-related issue with fabric is pilling (tiny balls of fabric).
There really isn’t a great solution for pilling, but there are some shaving-type devices that are designed to remove pilling.
While you can remove pilling at home on many fabrics using a typical blade razor, there are tools made specifically for this purpose. You can find fabric de-pilling razors on amazon (see links below).
These devices are commonly called:
- A fabric shaver (Amazon)
- Comb for de-pilling fabrics (Amazon)
- Sweater shaver (Amazon)
- Fabric defuzzer (Amazon)
- Lint remover (Amazon)
- Pill remover (Amazon).
The biggest culprits of inner thigh fabric abrasion are:
- Big thighs (yours truly)
- Underwear fabric that is not abrasion resistant (some cottons, modals/viscose, bamboo, some polyesters, etc.)
Diet and exercise can help address #1 above by reducing the girth of your thighs.
However, if you’ve been blessed with big thighs like I have, keeping thigh girth down over long periods of time with diet & exercise takes a great deal of discipline.
You could consider finding underwear that has compression in the legs only, however, I have not yet come across any compression underwear that isolates the compression to legs only.
Alternatively, you could also wrap your thighs with plastic wrap, but that’s more of a short-term hack for people looking to loose water weight in certain areas of their body.
Abrasion Resistant Fabric
The easiest and most common solution is to find underwear made with abrasion resistant fabric.
There are some cellular cotton, mesh polyesters, teflon, and jersey or tricot nylon fabrics that are abrasion resistant.
The ExOfficio Give-n-Go boxer briefs (link) are pretty popular, and have a mesh nylon fabric option that are known to be great for traveling since they dry fast.
The G3 CoolnNlon boxer briefs from RibbedTee (link) are also made with an abrasion resistant nylon fabric.
Uniqlo also has an AIRism mesh underwear line that is made from a mesh polyester, that is likely more durable than a jersey-type of polyester. That said, i’m not really sure if they are pill resistant or abrasion resistant off the top of my head.
Will do some more research and turn this convo into an article so we can continue the discussion on my site (:
Hope the information helps!
5 Brands With Abrasion Resistant Boxer Briefs
Here’s a list of 5 brands that have boxer briefs with some form of abrasion resistant characteristic.
- G3 Boxer Briefs (link) – abrasion resistant nylon
- Ex-Officio Give-N-Go Boxer Briefs (link) – mesh nylon fabric
- Hylete Performance Boxer Briefs (link) – abrasion resistant gusset
- GORE Wear Boxer Briefs (link) – made from polypropylene, which I understand is abrasion resistant
- Buck Naked Performance Boxer Briefs (link) – diamond-waffle knit nylon/spandex blend
Wedgie-Proof Underwear
I didn’t address the wedgie issue, because I simply forgot to. Sorry about that Blake.
While wedgies can occur on several different types of underwear, I’ve found it’s most common to get wedgies when wearing underwear briefs, and traditional loose fitting boxers.
Mostly this is caused by the back of the underwear riding up.
Since under briefs don’t have much fabric around underwear cheeks area, they are more prone to ride up.
Conversely, boxers have an excess amount of fabric that drapes within your pants, so as you move around, there can be a tendency for your boxer underwear to creep up into your butt crack.
Boxer Briefs are the least likely to ride-up and cause wedgies, but it really depends on your build, and the design of the boxer briefs.
If you have bigger thighs like me, and wear boxer briefs that have shorter legs, or a less ideally designed gusset, there’s a greater chance the legs will ride up, and then cause some fabric to also bunch up in the rear area.
So, to minimize the chances of getting a wedgie, you:
- Are blessed with a near-perfect physique, and you never have to worry about such non-sense
- Buy Boxer Briefs with close fitting legs that have a 5-6″ inseam or longer, which will help keep them in place better
- Buy Boxer Briefs that have a more proper fitting gusset, and legs that fit you well. The combination will minimize your chance of getting wedgies
Surprisingly, in my research, I found that not many men’s underwear brands focus on wedgies, or lack there of.
Most of the no-wedgie or wedgie-proof underwear marketing is related to women’s underwear.
The only two brands that I could find with no-wedgie underwear marketing was Tommy John from back in 2015, and RibbedTee.
Wedgie-Proof Briefs?
If you prefer wearing underwear briefs and looking for a way to prevent getting wedgies, you may want to try this.
It may not fully prevent wedgies is well as you want, but if you’re looking for a way to get out of your underwear quickly, I think you just found the holy grail.