A Brief Look at National Underwear Day

Andrea Brown, The Gazette

It's National Underwear Day.

Sorry, an underwear holiday won’t get you a day off from work. It’s a marketing gimmick to honor your undies ¬— and maybe get some fresh ones.

Oh, why not?

Freshpair, an online underwear retailer, founded the day in 2003 as “annual event where mentioning your unmentionables is the rule, not the exception.” It’s hardly taboo any day of the year. There are blogs, tweets and Facebook pages devoted to boxers, briefs and bikini bottoms. There’s even a National No Underwear Day. According to Freshpair, Americans spend $13 billion annually on intimate apparel. Anything to wedgie-proof the tush. In Freshpair’s underwear poll, the majority of men surveyed, 40 percent, preferred briefs and the female majority, 36 percent, favored bikinis. Second choice for men, at 25 percent, were boxer briefs, a hybrid of boxers and briefs. Only 5 percent of guys admitted wearing thongs, making it the last place choice for men — well, at least on men. Thongs and briefs tied as the second choices for women, with boy shorts barely behind. Boy shorts are a wider, cheekier version of bikinis, but not your grandma’s briefs. Don’t get your panties in a twist: Gazette readers can make their preferences known in the “What kind of underwear do you wear?” poll at gazette.com.

Where do some area politicians stand on underwear?

Fountain Mayor Jeri Howells and Manitou Springs Mayor Eric Drummond both declined to disclose what’s under their mayor suits. Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera and Monument Mayor Travis Easton both fessed up to being boxer aficionados. “J.C. Penney boxers,” Rivera said. “Any boxers” Easton said. “Any kind in my drawer.” Woodland Park Mayor Steve Randolph is a brief kind of guy. He buys them by the five-pack, colors only. “None of the ‘tighty-whities’ stuff. No whites. Whites aren’t flattering,” he said. When the Wal-Mart finally opened, after much controversy, in his mountain town, it was more than a ribbon-cutting event. “I rushed right down and bought a bunch of underwear the first day they were open,” Randolph said. Palmer Lake Mayor John Cressman oversees his scenic foothills village wearing black, fly-free boxer briefs made by Patagonia. “They’re comfortable,” said Cressman, who earns $1 a year as mayor. “I’m addicted to these things.” No kidding. Those “things” sell for $32 a pair. Seems every day is National Underwear Day for him.