Gotta keep 'em fresh?

October 5, 2020 8:56 AM

Why are men's underwear packed in ziploc (resealable) bags?

I've jokingly queried every other guy I know. They don't need to stay fresh; most people wash them - all of them in the multi-pack - before initial wear (not a germaphobe, but even that....*shudder*).
I'm talking commodity drawers - Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Champion...

Growing up, Ziploc bags were not nearly as ubiquitous (in general use) as they are now, so I notice whenever they're used, *especially* in incongruous applications.

posted by notsnot to Grab Bag (25 answers total)

So they can be hung up with greater density and organized more easily by size, and so that people won’t try them on in a changing room.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:58 AM on October 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Same brands for women are also packed in ziploc bags, at least at Target and Walmart and the like.
posted by cooker girl at 9:07 AM on October 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

For multipacks, the contrast seems to be in sealed baggies vs.zip, not zip vs. loose/hanger packaging.

The zip bag allows them to be opened up non-destructively for a quick size/quality check (hopefully just a visual!) without wrecking a sealed bag that won't be as saleable afterward.

Of course, we still have the cardboard hanger packaging that breaks my argument by being impossible to open up non-destructively, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by fountainofdoubt at 9:11 AM on October 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

Could be because people like to open them up and feel the material or check the size? I have done that when shopping for my kids. You don't want to tear open a bag but you also don't want to get home and realize they're not going to work.
On preview--yeah.
posted by Jemstar at 9:12 AM on October 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Packages I've seen usually have a "window" in them to feel the fabric - not sure how universal that is or whether it's in combination with the zip lock packaging.
posted by LionIndex at 9:15 AM on October 5, 2020

Response by poster: I guess I forgot to mention - all the bags I've seen have had "sample" ports to feel the material. Thus I didn't consider those packages without the port.
posted by notsnot at 9:40 AM on October 5, 2020

For a very long time women were the main purchasers of men's packaged briefs, as part of clothes shopping for the family. (In the old days, underwear was also laundered, folded, and sometimes put away in the correct bedroom drawer by women.) Boys and men rarely saw the retail packaging. Now that men do this shopping for themselves, torn packages of men's briefs don't sell. Shoppers still take out a pair of briefs to check the dimensions besides waist size, but the resealable bag doesn't reveal that sordid history.
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:52 AM on October 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

It's not just underwear. A lot of things I've purchased in the last couple of years have come in resealable bags. My guess is that the resealable bags have become so prevalent that they're somehow cheaper than other choices, but I have zero evidence to back that up.
posted by jonathanhughes at 10:13 AM on October 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

Because men have become notorious for not washing new underwear before wearing them for the first time?
posted by jamjam at 10:29 AM on October 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

"So they can be hung up with greater density and organized more easily by size, and so that people won’t try them on in a changing room."

"Because men have become notorious for not washing new underwear before wearing them for the first time?"

Neither of these things seem related to the fact that the underwear is packaged in a resealable bag, which is what the question is about.
posted by jonathanhughes at 10:39 AM on October 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

I assume the company that makes the bags because they quoted the underpants company the lowest price is set up for resealable bags because that's what they make the rest of the time, and it's cheaper not to change over the machines between runs. I don't think there's an actual reason beyond that.
posted by blnkfrnk at 10:40 AM on October 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

I keep some of them; I wonder if there's a thought that you might want to use them for going away, either to hold clean or dirty ones? I think the store/production chain quality check reason sounds the likeliest so far though.
posted by lokta at 11:57 AM on October 5, 2020

I use a cotton pad for my astringent and they are in a bag with a sealed top AND a resealable top below that. I've also wondered why.
posted by tmdonahue at 12:51 PM on October 5, 2020

I remember when I worked in the kids' department of a department store, it seemed like 99% of customers ignored the resealable flap at the bottom of the package and just ripped them open at the top. We even put a sign up telling people there was a resealable flap at the bottom of the package, and the ripping continued unabated. Eventually home office got us some empty bags for repackaging, because nobody wanted to buy underpants from a bag that had been Scotch-taped back together.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:32 PM on October 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

(I mean, it looked like some kind of underpants monster had been through there.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:33 PM on October 5, 2020 [33 favorites]

There is something odd about shopper thinking here - evidently we like stuff in plastic because it’s Clean, but we insist on holes to feel the fabric and ignore the little vent holes often punched through the bag.
posted by clew at 1:36 PM on October 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Women’s hosiery used to have separate samples of all the hosiery weights hanging next to each brand's shelf, so you could feel and stretch the material without undoing the complicated cardboard the hose were wrapped over. For all I know they still do!
posted by clew at 1:39 PM on October 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

Nah, it's so guys can buy 3 packs of 6 and throw one in the drawer. Wash the 12, wear and wash them, when one gets a hole, or the elastic is no longer elastic... toss it and replace with one from the resealable bag. When the bag 'o spares is empty, buy another bag. If you open all three you'll end up with 18 pairs of dirty underwear and not even an emergency spare. Same goes for socks for that matter.

Underwear and Socks are a bazillion times easier to deal with if you just have one type that you like. I can't fathom how people who have dozens of different undies or socks suited for special occasions where nobody is going to see them anyways. Join me in the Underwear / Sock Apocalypse and just pick something you like and buy a couple dozen of them and call it a day.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:28 PM on October 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

tmdonahue, I believe that cotton pads have a sealed top so you can tell they are untouched when you buy them, and a resealable top below so you can close the bag after you take one out so the rest don’t come out in the drawer. Seems very practical to me!
posted by insectosaurus at 6:27 PM on October 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

I don't know why they package underwear in anything but a postage paid envelope, because I just have a 6 pack of undies on subscription at a regular interval and have never contemplated the apparent deep psychology of underwear packaging. And since brand new ones appear in my mailbox without an intermediary, it's never occurred to me to wash brand new ones before wearing them. I am also on team One Type To Rule Them All, obviously.

I think resealable bags probably reduces shrinkage at retail because people don't tear them up, when I do wander into a store I am totally one of those people who will open the box up to see it better.
posted by bradbane at 6:32 PM on October 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's so you can take one out and leave the rest in the package. I don't know why that makes sense to me.... Like having a good pair of jeans with the tags still on so that when the old ones get too grungy or you have a job interview you can grab nice ones without needing to shop or sort or dive.

Sub "job interview" for "hot date" I guess :-)
posted by Lady Li at 12:26 AM on October 6, 2020

Oh, but hey, the singleton pairs of underwear at Uniqlo are the same way. I guess it's the "wanting to unfold them in the store" problem then. ??? . People.
posted by Lady Li at 12:27 AM on October 6, 2020

Other bags would require a staple, tape or adhesive to seal and maybe some cardboard for the hanger or a separate plastic hanger. A printed ziplock is 1 item. I'm guessing it has to do with cost of the packaging and perception of the quality of the packaging and strikes a nice balance.
posted by onya at 3:20 AM on October 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've often bought sets of women's underwear in resealable bags. I'm pretty sure that this arrangement exists purely so that people can try on one pair without ripping the bag open, whether it's in a changeroom (over their underwear; ew!) or outside by holding them up. In my country there's a limit on how many items you can take into a changeroom at once, and multipacks count multiple times, so the attendant in the changeroom may be the person actually taking one pair out for a customer and then putting it back in the bag.
posted by confluency at 6:27 AM on October 6, 2020

I know from my experience buying men's underwear for the ex-hubs that they're not always what the dude expects, especially in the crotchal region. Maybe guys want to unfold and check to be sure there's a slit or not a slit, or whatever? Women's underwear doesn't have that particular question needing to be answered before purchase.
posted by nosila at 7:47 AM on October 6, 2020