Boxer Short videos and fun novelty Boxer Short news

ART SHELL BOXER SHORT SPOOF of a 90's commercial
Boxers are fighting for space among the briefs.
Boxer shorts, long consigned to floors of department and specialty stores, have become an explosive business for many discount store chains.
Why?
* The burgeoning popularity of one fabric: silk.
* Novelties, taking off on trends started upstairs by Joe Boxer.
* Crossover buying, women making purchases in men's wear
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The trend at Kmart is definitely toward boxers, and has been for a number of years, according to merchandise manager Joe Tripoli.
"We started out with goods that were $4.99 and we graduated up to $15 goods, like silks at $14.88," he says.
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The chain also has a whole gamut of blotch prints in two-packs at $7.99. Knits, which are probably the newest at $12. Kmart ran a Father's Day ad on Father's Day and did very well. "So our boxer business is up close to 30% for the year--and moving," Tripoli says.
The boxer segment of business is probably 12% of the market and is growing by maybe a half a percent or a whole percent a year, says Paul Snyder, vice president and general manager, Hanes Underwear.
One executive at a midwestern regional discount store chain, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says the reason boxer shorts have been explosive at his operation is the success of silks, as well as novelty styles such as Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse A customer's age also determines choice, according to Mike Sherlock, vice president and general manager of underwear, Fruit of the Loom. Boxer shorts have a bimodal appeal. A high percentage of men 50 and older buy boxer shorts. And then there are the 18-to 24-year-olds. They like more of the prints and some novelties, like silks.
"If you look at people in their 30s and 40s," Sherlock says, "they perceive that boxers are something their fathers wore, so they buy briefs. And now the younger kids are perceiving briefs as something their fathers wore, so they're back to boxers."
While silk, flannel and knit boxer shorts have made inroads, the core of the boxer market is a woven 50-50 cotton/polyester or all-cotton white background garment.
Says Snyder, "It doesn't mean that dark ground boxers or tartan plaids, flannels, silks and knitted boxers aren't becoming more popular. All of those have their own niche in the segment, but none of them really dominates like the white ground boxers.
"There are fashion trends where people show parts of their boxing out underneath shorter pairs of shorts. That's helping because we make a more fashionable item to wear."
On basic boxers, Snyder says, a package of three white grounds, primarily sold in the mass market, is priced at retail in the $8 to $10 range. Novelty boxers are priced as single units anywhere between $7 and $15, depending on the fabrication. Boxers Punch Up Underwear Departments Boxer shorts have been the knockout performers in underwear departments across the country, adding the biggest punch to department store sales for the second consecutive year, according to a survey of retailers. The consumer interest in boxers has gained tremendous momentum, and strong sales increases are leading retailers to call boxers the major growth category in underwear.

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Also, there is the element of crossover buying of men's boxer shorts. A lot of women are apparently buying in the men's department. They buy boxers for their husbands or boyfriends--and for themselves, often as sleepwear and sometimes as outerwear over tights.
In addition to boxers, briefs--the men's wear mainstay--are a growth segment.
Fruit of the Loom's Sherlock says that last year the market grew by about 4 million dozen pairs of underwear and is continuing to increase. "For us, our brief business is up. Boxers were somewhat capacity constrained," he says, explaining that production is at full capacity.
Fashion briefs and boxers are the most rapidly growing segment, although sales of basic cotton garments is growing as well, says Hanes' Snyder. "But the most rapidly growing segment is fashion," Snyder says. Fashion accounts for anywhere from 18 percent to 20 percent of the market, which is an improvement over last year.
This year, Hanes introduced a new product, called Hanes Cool Comfort Brief. Its mesh fabric is meant keep men cooler and dryer.
While the overall men's underwear market was a bit soft the first half of this year, Fruit of the Loom's market share in the first five months of 1993 rose two percentage points from 35.3 percent to 37.3 percent, says Sherlock.
Kmart's Tripoli explains that this year the underwear business was rough, particularly in March and April, but extending even later. However, he foresees a change. "Father's Day as a total wasn't that good. Now we see it coming back again. I think we're going to have a great back-to-school."
Supporting the contention that men's underwear is now a fashion item is Cathy Casimiro, men's accessory buyer at Burlington Coat Factory, a national off-price chain based in Burlington, N.J. "It started with Calvin Klein," she explains. He came out with boxer shorts with prints in cotton and silks. "Silks have been very hot," she says, adding that flannels are beginning to sell for the fall.
Joe Boxer is also a hot item, Casimiro says. It's developed a strong name with novelty stuff like 8-Ball or dog prints. Best price points at Burlington are $4.95 and $6.95, anything under $10, she says.
But not everything is fashion-driven. At Rose's Stores, based in Henderson, N.C., the men's underwear business continues to be heavily driven by the commodity replacement side of the business, according to Kathy Hurley, vice president and general merchandise manager of total soft lines. "We have seen some interest in the fashion side of the men's underwear business, whether it be driven by silhouette or color, but for our customers, the high fashion end of the business--as in silk boxers--has not been successful," Hurley says. "We find our customers are still more practical in their purchases in men's underwear and it does seem to be heavily driven on a value, quality and price kind of scenario."I am sure you have noticed (how can you not?) that many men are wearing their boxer shorts as outerwear instead of underwear as they were originally intended to be worn. In many instances, pants are worn much lower, therefore, boxer shorts are becoming more of a fashion statement (or Fashion Fopa depending on your viewpoint) than ever before, especially amoung young adults.
So, if you are going to show them off, why not buy yourself a pair of boxer shorts that will make a statement about YOU. Lose the basic plaid and replace them with a pair of funky boxers listed below!
And, hey, if you are like many men that still wear their boxers as underwear, that's okay too, you can still partake in the fun!
At Rose's, as at other mass merchants, the category is heavily branded. Fruit of the Loom and Hanes underwear dominate. "They're both very strong on brand recognition, highly promoted and very strongly driven by rebate programs by the manufacturers," Hurley says.
Men's underwear is displayed in the chain's basics area--packaged and displayed on gondolas housing underwear and located adjacent to the hosiery area.
Price points? "They vary because of the nature of the commodity side of the business," she says. They are branded items and are treated on a competitive basis, "which means we recognize local competition and match their prices." Succinctly, she says, price points for men's underwear are "promotional."
In the brief business, white is just sort of holding its own, says Kmart's Tripoli. The trend is toward boxers and fashion briefs. "We have some great new packaging in fashion briefs. It's a sealed pack that keeps everything fresh. We have great new designs that are just hitting the stores."Looking at the boys market, Fruit of the Loom has started shipping its All Stars, which is its premium white brief that sells in the men's area, packed with six free baseball cards with each package. The company has picked only the top players from each major league team for a total of 66. That program, which hit the stores in July, will convert over to football in the fall. It will be a year-around program.Boxers Punch Up Underwear Departments Boxer shorts have been the knockout performers in underwear departments across the country, adding the biggest punch to department store sales for the second consecutive year, according to a survey of retailers. The consumer interest in boxers has gained tremendous momentum, and strong sales increases are leading retailers to call boxers the major growth category in underwear.
A major portion of children's underwear falls into the licensed category. "Barney [the dinosaur who is the star of home videos and his own show on public television] is, from what we hear from the retailers and from what we see in our own shipments, probably the hottest character to ever hit the licensed underwear market. It's equally appealing among young girls and young boys," says Fruit of the Loom's Sherlock.Although boxers represent only about 10 per cent of the underwear assortment for most retailers, the higher price points and quick fashion changes are resulting