Underwear for Tall Men: 11 Pairs Measured, and the Rise Is Not the Number
I own a lot of underwear. Eleven pairs of it are now taped, flat and unstretched, on a hard table, at 6 foot 8 and 285 pounds. Nothing here is off a spec sheet.
The category is sold on waist girth and almost nothing else. Nobody publishes a rise, nobody publishes an inseam, and the label size is close to meaningless — across these eleven garments, the same body wears everything from an XL to a 4XL.
Two things came out of the tape that I did not expect, and the second one is the reason this page exists.
The briefs
| Garment | Cut | Label size | Waistband flat → stretched | Front rise | Back rise | Where it sits on me | Do I reach for it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Adams Air knit brief | bikini brief | XL | 15.0″ → 18.0″ | 8.0″ | 12.0″ | Below the naval – high cut waistband | Wear them during the summer months |
| Box Menswear Prince Fit – Mesh | brief | 2XL | 17.0″ → 18.5″ | 10.25″ | 11.0″ | Below the naval | Riske undies – see thru |
| MeUndies Briefs | brief | 2X | 17.0″ → 18.5″ | 10.5″ | 12.0″ | At Naval | Not really |
| Jockey Briefs | brief | XXL | 18.5″ → 21.0″ | 13.0″ | 11.5″ | Naval | Not really |
| Real Men Air mesh bikini brief | bikini brief | XXL – C POUCH | 17.0″ → 18.0″ | 8.5″ | 13.0″ | Below naval | All the time |
| Real Men Modal Bikini Brief | bikini brief | XXL – C POUCH | 14.0″ → 19.0″ | 6.5″ | 10.75″ | Below Naval | All the time |
| Kumori Briefs | brief | XXL | 17.0″ → 19.5″ | 11.0″ | 11.5″ | Below Naval | All the time |
Finding one: the flat measurement tells you very little
Look at the two Real Men briefs. The Air mesh measures 17″ flat and stretches to 18″ — one inch of give. The Modal measures 14″ flat and stretches to 19″ — five inches. Same brand, same label size, same body. One of them is three inches smaller on the table and ends up an inch bigger on.
If you buy underwear by the flat waistband figure, or by the number on the packet, you are reading the wrong number. The stretched figure is the one you wear.
Finding two: front rise is not what decides it
This is the one I did not see coming. I expected a long torso to want more rise. The tape says the opposite, and more precisely, it says rise is not the number at all.
| Garment | Front rise | Where it sits on me | Do I reach for it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jockey brief | 13.0″ | At the navel | Not really |
| MeUndies brief | 10.5″ | At the navel | Not really |
| Kumori brief | 11.0″ | Below the navel | All the time |
| Real Men Air mesh bikini | 8.5″ | Below the navel | All the time |
| Real Men Modal bikini | 6.5″ | Below the navel | All the time |
The cleanest pair in the set is the Kumori against the MeUndies. Half an inch apart in front rise — 11.0 against 10.5 — and they behave like different garments. The Kumori sits below the navel and I wear it constantly. The MeUndies sits at the navel and I do not pick it up.
Front rise is a measurement of the garment. Where it sits is a measurement of the garment on you.
I cannot fully explain the half inch from the tape alone, and I am not going to pretend I can. The waistband heights are close (1.0″ against 1.25″) and the pouch widths are identical. What the numbers do say, clearly, is that the Jockey — the highest front rise in the set at 13″ — is the one I never wear, and the lowest at 6.5″ is one of the two I wear most.
On a long torso, ‘at the navel’ is a different place than it is on the model in the photograph. That is the whole problem with this category, and no size chart has ever addressed it.
The boxers and trunks
| Garment | Cut | Label size | Waistband flat | Front rise | Back rise | Inseam | Leg opening flat → stretched | Where the leg lands | Do I reach for it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under Armour Performance boxer | boxer brief | 3XL | 18.5″ | 10.0″ | 11.5″ | 5.0″ | 9.25″ → 14.0″ | Mid-high thigh | Durring the winter |
| Under Armour Essential tech | Trunk | 3XL | 18.75″ | 10.5″ | 12.0″ | 2.0″ | 11.0″ → 13.0″ | Almost crotch | yes |
| Box Menswear | Trunk | 3XL | 18.25″ | 10.0″ | 13.0″ | 1.75″ | 10.5″ → 13.5″ | Almost crotch | yes |
| Real Men | Trunk | 4XL-C POUCH | 17.5″ | 9.0″ | 9.0″ | 2.0″ | 11.0″ → 14.0″ | Almost crotch | Yes |
‘Trunk’ and ‘boxer brief’ are three inches apart
Three of these four are sold as trunks and they are remarkably consistent: 1.75″ to 2.0″ of inseam, all landing just below the crotch. The Under Armour Performance, sold as a boxer brief, has a 5″ inseam and lands at mid to high thigh.
Same brand, same 3XL label, two cuts: the 5″ Performance is a winter garment for me and the 2″ Essential Tech is one I wear all year. Three inches of leg is the entire difference, and neither name tells you that.
One oddity worth recording: the Real Men trunk is the only garment in the set with no rise differential at all — 9″ front and 9″ back. Everything else in the eleven has a back rise taller than its front. It still gets worn.
What I would tell a tall guy buying underwear
- Ignore the label size. The same body here wears an XL and a 4XL. It carries no information between brands.
- Read the stretched waistband, not the flat one. A 14″ waistband and a 17″ waistband from the same brand both land near 19″ worn.
- Front rise will not tell you where it sits. Two briefs half an inch apart sat in different places on me and got opposite verdicts.
- For boxers, the inseam is the spec. Trunk means about 2″ here and boxer brief means about 5″. The name is not the measurement.
What to measure on a pair you already own
Lay a pair you actually reach for flat and unstretched, and take four numbers: waistband edge to edge, then the same waistband pulled to where you would really wear it, the front rise from the top of the waistband down to the crotch seam, and — if it has legs — the inseam. Then note in plain words where the waistband sits on you.
Put those into the Fit Finder and see which of the garments I have taped match the one that already works. Everything measured on this site is listed in the tall sizing database.
What is not here yet
Eleven garments, not twelve — the Kumori short boxer is not taped yet, which is the one pair that would have given a clean brief-against-short-boxer comparison inside a single brand. I also have not yet recorded how far off the floor each leg hem lands, standing, which is the figure I most want and the one nobody publishes. Both will be added here rather than written up somewhere else.
No affiliate links on this page. I bought all of these myself.
