Cup-Sized Underwear for Men
July 18, 2010
There’s a curious reality to men’s underwear sizing; It assumes all men who wear the same size underwear have the same size…er, private parts. So, to put this in bra terms, it’s like thinking that all woman with a 36 band size, for example, have the same cup size. And we know that’s not true.
I discovered this fact back in 2002 when I first went live with HisRoom. I interviewed some mens underwear manufacturers and asked how a man is supposed to size his jock strap and thongs for a document I was creating. Naively, I just assumed it was a similar system to a woman’s bra. A few questions into my interviews, I found out I was wrong. All the jock manufacturers told me that if a man’s "package" didn’t fit in the cup, he would need to go up a size (e.g. from a medium to a large) to get a larger cup – even if that meant his waistband would now be too big.
I admit I was surprised by this because it didn’t make sense to me. Men are already size conscious when it comes to their package. Why wouldn’t they have a sizing system in place to accomodate this? Since over the years, HisRoom received very few comments on this subject, I chalked it up to sizing and fit not being a big deal with men.
So now, along comes a new men’s underwear line, HARDDRIVE, with an attempt to address this issue. They claim to have created proportion fit underwear for men, and it’s sized by both a man’s waist AND cup size.
When I saw this my mind immediately started racing… How are they determining cup size? I jumped to their size chart, found their "How to Find the Perfect Fit" instructions, and let out a howl that brought my dogs running to my office. Here is what it says:
"First, measure length. Next, measure girth. Multiply length & girth." And, I particularly loved the footnote: "Remember… always measure yourself in the state of mind that you expect to be in while wearing." At last, giving men worldwide a legitimate reason to measure.
Not being one to totally dismiss an "out-of-the-box" idea, I decided to do a little research. Searching on "average penis size" I found that this apendage averages 6 inches long with a girth of 3.5-4 inches when at rest. Their calculation therefore concludes that the average guy is a 21-24 measurment. And, according to their size chart, this would be an "A" cup. Oh, did I mention they decided to match the letters given to womens bra cup sizing? At least I would have thought they would have chosen something more "guy-friendly" like, I don’t know, maybe coffee sizes… regular, tall, venti? Or, maybe a car analogy like Boxter, Cayman, 911 and Panamera? Oh, what about hamburgers: Junior burger, Big Mac, Quarter Pounder and Angus Delux? But, I digress.
Feeling that further research was needed, I grabbed a tape measure and headed for my pantry. I wanted to find examples that represented the various cup sizes they are porporting in their size chart. Here’s what I found: a can of tuna fish qualifies as an A cup. A traditional soup can is a C cup. A 16 oz. water bottle is a D cup. And a mayonnaise jar or larger is a DD cup.
And this final suggestion from a male friend re naming the sizes: there’s no such thing as Small and Medium. Just start with Large and go up from there.
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Posted by Tomima at 7:40am
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