Do what now? What’s wrong with Hanes and fruit of the loom? This is not something I knew people had strong opinions on.

This feels like a thinly veiled advert, where I'm made to question my choices and then someone else in the comments talks about how awesome is.

IDK what a step up would be. It's underwear. As long as it doesn't chaff or crush my nuts or constantly ride up my crack, I'm happy. And since these also tend to be the cheapest brands with the most "bang for your buck," I buy them. The only time I really changed underwear was discovering boxer briefs. Briefs chaff, boxers bunch up so I hated both. But boxer briefs are the middle ground that is perfection.

I had a drawerful of FoTL boxer briefs in various colors that I bought in various quantities from the late 90's to the mid-2010's, replacing worn out ones as I went. In 2021, my wife bought me a pair of Duluth Trading Buck Naked boxer briefs for Christmas. After wearing them a few times, I dumped all my FoTL and bought 3 dozen pairs of Duluth, mostly Buck Naked but a few Armachillo as well. Best decision ever.

Never. They are cheap and work, and nicer underwear isn't so much nicer that it's worth the extra money. It's underwear, it's not like other people are going to see it.

When my girlfriend (now wife) started buying me nicer underwear with the strong suggestion she no longer wanted me to wear Hanes.

Those brands make more than only one style, so I'll just go over the ones I've worn.

Kid: basic tighty whiteys, not like I had a choice tho

Youth: only ever wore the loose plaid style boxers

Adult: started wearing standard boxer briefs

More recently: got some briefs that are slimmer than the standard ones, they help keep cool better in the summer heat.

I got gifted a meundies subscription and I am quite in love. Very comfy, very long lasting, fun designs, They are kinda pricey I guess, but underwear is a small part of my budget either way.

I have recently tried bamboo underwear and I will not buy different anymore

I know this post and comment might sound shilly but switching to more expensive microfibre underwear actually made a big impact on my life and motivated me to start buying better fitting and better material clothes.

I'd always bought cheap and thought anything else was silly. I was wrong. So much more comfortable, I haven't had a single pair even begin to wear down a little bit, less sweating and feel cleaner, fit better, and haven't been scrunchy or uncomfortable once compared to the daily issues of that cheap FotL life. This led to more expensive and longer lasting socks with textures I like better, better fitting shoes that survive more than one season.

It was spawned by some severe weight loss and a need to restock my wardrobe. My old underwear stuck around as backups to tell me I needed to do laundry, but going back to the old ones was bad enough that I stopped postponing laundry.

Basically, I really didn't appreciate how much I absolutely hated so many textures I was constantly in contact with until I tried alternative underwear and realized you don't have to just deal with that all the time.

I actually switched to using exclusively store brands. Maybe you think that's a step down, though?

I wear Haines X-Temp - boxers when I'm wearing loose shorts or sweatpants, boxer-briefs when I'm wearing more fitted trousers or snowboard gear or motocross gear. Both the boxers and boxer-briefs are very stretchy and comfortable, plus they don't hold sweat or chaffe when I'm exercising. My decisoin to wear Haines isn't a cost thing at all - its solely comfort and utility; and, frankly, I look really good in the boxer-briefs.

Never heard of either of them...

I'm older and have tried several brands. I prefer Fruit of the loom. Don't care for any others including Hanes.

They are just comfortable.

I wear Fruit of the Loom hipsters (I'm a woman).

Personally I like them bc while the waistband has elastic in it and has stretch, it's not literally an elastic waistband like some underwear.

The material is really soft and comfortable to wear all day long.

I still have "other" undies for special occasions, but day to day I'll rock the hell out of some Fruit of the Loom granny panties. I'm married and my husband doesn't care what he pulls off me, so I'd rather be comfortable lol

Hanes is fine, I've got some others, nice ones for date nights, but they make no real difference to me. I've never bought Fruit of the Loom.

Jockeys are a little warmer which is important in the frozen-6-months northern wasteland, boxers are nice when it's warmer.

Mid-teens? IDK I care more about fit and shape than brand. Boxer-briefs for life!

Fruit of the Loom is cheap. They have all the advanced underwear technology too. These are what I'm wearing now. They're that spandex crap or whatever that are tight against your leg so they don't clump up, they don't absorb a lot of moisture, and have thinly woven spots to increase ventilation. What else do you need in an underwear? Every other brand's version of that is like $20+ more expensive for no reason.

Idk if it's an upgrade but I switched to Jockey. They are comfier but do not last that long.

The real upgrade is Bomba socks though. I'll ask for those every Christmas.