Now Calvin Klein is the Goliath, and if the slingshots wielded today are more in the spirit of spitballs and water balloons, that's the idea. This youthful version of masculinity is, while still sexy, far from the ripped and buffed torsos that became a cliche of men's underwear packaging.
"To me, the man on the Calvin Klein package is the man I am not, and the man I cannot be," said Charney of American Apparel. "You know, nerdy is in."
Daniel Fogg, 27, a marketing manager in Portland who had shopped on Internet sites until he discovered Under U 4 Men, appreciates packaging that is less body-obsessed. "That's one of the differences with the newer brands," he said. "It's not so oversexualized. It can be approached as something fun to shop for at the same time that you buy a pair of shoes or jeans."
Department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue have heard the call, selling designer underwear from D&G and Dsquared alongside the collections, not in the underwear department. In the last two years Saks has doubled the brands of underwear it carries.
Though sales of specialty underwear were once driven by gay men, that has changed, even if they are still more-daring consumers of new styles. "It's absolutely not a gay thing," said Michael Macko, the men's fashion director at Saks. "Straight guys want to be sexy, too."
Countering another preconception, he added: "It's not necessarily a young guy buying them. Who doesn't want to dress younger? No one wants to think, 'I want to look old and grumpy.' They think, 'I want to look younger and better."'
Indeed, Cohen of NPD suggested that Viagra was helping to fuel the trend, putting guys who had been benched back in the underwear game. "It's for young guys as well as the boomer consumer," he said.
Bruce Steakley, 58, a nurse in McLean, Virginia, who has bought several colorful briefs from the International Jock Web site, agreed with the assessment. "People who once seemed older no longer do," he said. In addition to a better fit and comfort, these styles, he added, "are just more fun and more attractive."
In other words, you are only as old as your underwear.
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