As I got dressed this morning I noticed something as I put on my underwear. As I’m typing this I’m still wondering whether this is worthy of the finger energy to type it, but it annoyed me, and what better inspiration for writing than being annoyed? I don’t think I’m giving too much away to family and friends that may read this to say I wear Boxer-Briefs. Exclusively. I’m not brand loyal, although it seems as though I should be. I don’t remember the circumstances surrounding my most recent underwear acquisition (Christmas gift, Sale…..), but I will say that the underwear in question were purchased from The Gap. What could possibly annoy me so much about Gap underwear this morning? Was it not a quality garment? It was. In fact, they’re very comfortable, and I would even go as far as saying better than average.
GAP Boxer Briefs for whatever reason, have 3 goddamn labels stitched into the back. Not short stubby ones either. Ridiculously long flowing silky labels. Worn conservatively, these labels are long enough, that they easily pass the top end of the crack in my ass. My questions regarding this are….
1) How much information could The Gap think I could possibly need (to carry around with me at all times mind you) regarding this underwear? Information so important that it wasn’t sufficient to have it posted on the packaging the underwear came in, or on their website, but rather tickling my hind parts as I walk around.
2) Could they not have found a way to somehow consolidate this extremely urgent information so that either the labels weren’t as long, or there weren’t 3 of them, or both?
For those curious as to what information is contained on these labels, let me first assure you that there is typing on both sides of each label, so it’s more like 6 in terms of information provided. My favorite part has to be that the first label says one of two, and the third label says two of two, but the middle label isn’t numbered. It tells you where the garment is made (India). The cotton vs. polyester blend. It tells you care instructions in no less than 20 different languages, and it has importing information in the same amount of languages. All very important information for the paying customer. You may note sarcasm and say “But wait a minute…. Care instructions actually are important for the end-user”. You would be right, but any underwear that has care instructions indicating something other than ‘throw these in the washing machine’ need to be discarded immediately, or never purchased preferably.
To be thorough, I decided to see how the other guys do it. I went through my underwear drawer to see what other brands I wear, and how they handle this important situation. I have some Hanes. They stitch one label into the waistband at the back. Just exactly the way you’d expect. The message is short and sweet. Found another Hanes product here, but they have the information stamped in. No label even. Puma underwear? My favorite so far. No information at all. No label. I can probably go to their website if I have a question, right?? Here’s the thing though….. I’ve been wearing underwear for 40 years, and this is the first time I’ve had a question about it. The question is why the crazy labels, GAP?
On another underwear note, I have a diaper thought regarding my son, who I’m sure would grow up to not appreciate me discussing his underwear situation so publicly. By the time he’s old enough to read this, the internet will have probably exploded or something, so here we go. My son’s diapers have characters from Sesame Street on them. Every time I put a diaper on him, he points at the diaper and says “Elmo?” To which I say ‘yes’ if it is Elmo. Sometimes it’s Cookie Monster, or Oscar The Grouch, and on the night-time diapers, it seems to be Bert & Ernie most of the time. He either asks for Elmo because he’s more familiar with Elmo’s spin-off show than he is with actual Sesame Street, or maybe he prefers Elmo, or maybe it’s because he just knows how to pronounce Elmo, but I wonder this…… You know how adults tend to have a couple of favorite outfits in their wardrobe? You know, the ones that when you wear them to work, you’re full of confidence, and you know it’s going to be a good day?? I wonder if my son has a good day when he draws an Elmo diaper in the morning?
thoughtsandrantsinjoggingpants 