I am not a hoarder, but I do like to buy in bulk.  When you buy in bulk, you get a greater value.  I apply my bulk mentality to purchasing socks and undershirts and underpants.  I like the bulk approach when it comes to unmentionables because they all tend to wear out at the same rate.  Buy quality once, and the degradation of that quality is matched across a bunch of material over time.

I recently bought a batch of Jockey “trim cut” boxer briefs.  They were on sale at Macy’s.  The price was so good, in fact, that I bought every single last package they had in the store.

I was feeling right and good on the way home with my massive underpants purchase, but that euphoria lasted only a few days after the first washing.

One great thing about modern manufacturing is that it is predictable and everything always fits.   You buy one item, and all the other items are made precisely the same.  I’m sad to report that was not the case with my Jockey purchase.

Every pair of boxers I bought fit in a different way.  Some are tighter in one leg than the other.  Some are looser in the waist.  Others have problems with stitching.  As the days passed and I tried on a new pair of ill-fitting underwear, I began to wonder about the how and why of this boxer mess.  Were the patterns wrong?  Did I buy a batch that was manufactured on a Friday afternoon?  Does Jockey have any sort of quality control on the production line?

As I struggle to find comfort in my fruitless bulk purchase of these underpants, I realize there was no good way to defend against this sort of indiscretion in manufacturing.  In fact, since most people only buy a package or two of underwear at a time — the problem would not have likely been noticed — while my big purchase actually proves there is something wrong in the Jockey line that must be immediately addressed because their manufacturing failures affects how I get dressed!

4 Comments

    1. No. I haven’t contacted Jockey. I don’t know what the point would be in doing that because they’d likely send me replacements that could be worst than what I already own. This is a simple problem to identify and solve, and since they haven’t done either on their own, I don’t have much faith in them ever really fixing anything because I bring it to their attention. I learned my lesson. Quality control is important.

  2. I tend to not bulk buy in socks and underpants because I found quality made a difference and the better (of course more expensive) was in the end more value for money over time. I should add that especially with comfort and protecting those very important male elements within them, that going cheap on underpants was a no-no.

    Cheers and a happy 4th of July
    Damien Charles
    Gibralter

    1. Another excellent, point, UglyFringe! I tend to buy in bulk what I know I have liked — because things have a habit, over the last 15 years, of disappearing on you without warning. So, if I find tea or a foodstuff or underpants that work for me — I tend to buy as much of it as I can so I can enjoy it for the longest possible time. If I only buy what I immediately need, then when the time comes later to replenish the need and the product is no longer being made, I feel as if I cheated myself out of not knowing better that nothing last forever — not even underpants.

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