The boxer rebellion - sales of boxer shorts are up at discount stores

Discount Store News, August 2, 1993 by Stanley H. Slom

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

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.

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.

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.