I honestly don’t know why this question comes up with the frequency that it does, but based on the DMs and emails I have been receiving I guess I need to spell it out. If you google the question “what kind of underwear should I wear with men’s leggings?” you get a wealth of great information.

• Quora has a bunch of user feedback (some users commentary is NSFW)

• There’s a wiki on how to wear running tights!

I am not really interested in providing a detailed and nuanced article on all the options available to you when looking to answer that question. Instead, I am going to give you my biased opinion. There is only one option when it comes to the underwear you should pair with leggings and that is a thong.

Thong underwear is the superior choice for leggings.

Honestly, thongs are great for daily wear no matter what kind of clothing you have on your bottom half. They have a lot of qualities that make them the best choice for habitual wear and those qualities make them the clear winner when you are wearing men’s leggings. Let’s start with the obvious.

No VPL and no worries

I know we dudes don’t normally have to worry about this but leggings make it really clear if we have other underwear on. The nature of how leggings cling to your body and showcase your body without any need for imagination means that it is very easy to see what you are wearing underneath them if you don’t have a thong on. Briefs? yep, I can tell. Jockstrap? the same thing, folks will see the seams and lines and bunching from other underwear.

Thongs make that distinction much much harder. The nature of where the thong sits around your waist, above your hips, and how they wrap between your cheeks means there isn’t any material to see under your leggings. I should say that the opacity of your leggings matters here, and depending on how you bending and moving there is a potential for the seams of your thong to be seen but it is much harder. Wearing a thong allows your leggings to sit and ride across your skin and folks generally won’t be able to see anything to showcase what kind of underwear you’ve decided to wear. They just won’t be able to tell. They may assume, but that’s an entirely different thing than knowing what you are wearing with clear evidence.

Now for argument’s sake, you can get the same effect if you go commando, meaning wearing no underwear but the second reason thongs are the superior underwear choice for men’s leggings handles this issue.

Thongs hold the twig and berries and give them a better shape

Leggings require you to share your complete self with the world. Your glutes, your quads, and your package. Providing a nice and refined shape to your bulge helps keep everything more modest and presentable to the public. In the same way, as above you don’t necessarily want people to see your underwear you certainly don’t want them to see a graphic outline of your junk.

I realize this is a major double standard and I have written about it before in Men’s leggings and the Great Seam Debate but men have a penis and it is not easily hidden when wearing leggings. The smoother and more undefined that bulge the easier it is for the public at large to accept our appearance in leggings.

Giving yourself a nice outline and smoother appearance can also be done with a jockstrap or brief as well as a dance belt. But these options don’t hold a candle to the comfort level of a thong.

Thongs are extremely comfortable

Frankly, this is the major reason I reach for thong underwear. They just fit the male anatomy so well. They lift and support the boys and they ride on your body in a minimalistic and comfortable way. There’s no extra material getting in the way. No bunching, twisting, riding up, falling down, etc. Thongs are lightweight and conform to the curvature and natural lines of the body. Once they are on you and in place they nearly become you and that is pure comfort.

It also makes wearing leggings a lot more comfortable. Leggings don’t help to keep everything in place. Things can shift and move and result in you having to readjust and manage a lot more “moving parts” if you wear leggings without underwear. The whole experience of wearing leggings becomes drastically better when you pick a specialized garment to hold and support your package so that you no longer have to think or worry about what is happening down there. The thong is great at holding everything together in a modest and extremely comfortable way.

Sure, you could choose to wear other undies, but the extra material under your leggings snagging and pulling becomes cumbersome and annoying. Dance belts would be great if they were more comfortable, they really aren’t. Thongs have a great blend of support and shape while also disappearing to your conscious awareness and just being there doing great work.

If you are reading this and going what does he mean comfortable?? They literally have a strap between your legs, how could that not constantly be on my mind? Sounds crazy uncomfortable!

If you haven’t tried thong underwear yet. Get over your worry! They rock! You’ll love the way they improve the experience of wearing men’s leggings. 

If you have tried wearing thongs still and hate them here are a few words of advice.

Focus on fit

There is no doubt that thongs are all up in your business. They are a very intimate fitting garment and it may take a few tries to find a brand that works for your body and fit preferences. Avoid getting them too big or too small. There’s a goldilocks size for every brand that will fit you “just right”. With some brands, I am a size medium others I am a size small.

If you find yourself feeling all slopy in the thong and it isn’t supporting you or they are bunching up and moving around on your body the thong is too big. If you feel like they are squeezing you to death and cutting into you they are clearly too small. Find your fit and realize certain brands run big and others run small.

They should be snug and confident - like a good handshake.

Materials matter

I have found over the years that I like certain fabrics over others. Modal and microfiber are great! I can live with and enjoy cotton and poly/spandex but I am not a very big fan of silk. It’s all personal and you have to jump into the pool and try it out. I’ll also say that I have purchased cotton thongs from Calvin Klein and hated them whereas my cotton thongs from Joe Boxer are great!

This leads me to my final piece of advice for wearing men’s thongs.

Find the best brand for you

Once you find a brand, fit and material that you like buy a bunch! Early in my thong buying experience, I was hopping around from brand to brand, size to size, and material to material, and wasting a bunch of money and time. Years ago I stopped all that nonsense and condensed my underwear drawer down to a few select brands and styles. This has helped me out immensely. If you’d like more detail I wrote a follow-up article as a brand guide of sorts. Check it out - What are the best brands for men’s thong underwear?

Here’s what is in my thong collection (among others)

Joe Boxer Cotton Thong. These guys are my workhorse lol. They are cheap and available in multipacks and are just a great thong for everyday wear. They used to be available at any Kmart location and were like $9.99 for a 4 pack. Finding them has been harder in the last few years I am not sure if they are discontinued or what - but if you can get your mitts on these guys I highly recommend them.

Jockey Microfiber Thong. This is another relatively inexpensive and great thong for daily wear. I find that they run very big. The fit is a bit more high-waisted and larger than most thong brands out there but they do the job very well even if aesthetically they may look a bit comical.

Vuthy Sim Thong. These guys are one of my favorites! A wonderful thong that is both highly aesthetic and crazy comfortable. They come in about one million different colors and patterns. Technically they are sold as swimwear but while I have worn them to the beach I generally wear them as underwear. I recommend purchasing them with the liner so you can wear them as swimwear if you want. They are a bit pricy but the quality, fit and comfort they provide are worth the money.

Emporio Armani makes a few pairs of microfiber thongs that are out of this world in my opinion. Sadly you never know when they’ll be in stock but they are a great choice.

Final thoughts on thong underwear

Again I realize this was all pretty straightforward and obvious but again I have been surprised how many gentlemen have reached out to ask me questions about what they should wear under their leggings. Is choosing a thong your only choice? No - you can wear whatever you want. But in my humble and biased opinion thongs are the best choice.

I have been wearing thongs pretty regularly for almost two decades now and to me, they really are the best underwear in basically all circumstances. I realize that opinion isn’t universal and I am sure there are folks getting into men’s leggings that won’t agree or even try them. That’s totally fine.

I am also sure that even with the blog post up and published I’ll still receive DMs and email asking me all about underwear - I never thought I’d become an underwear advisor but here I am writing this silly article. I hope you, dear reader, found the info useful. Perhaps I’ll have to provide more detailed thong reviews in the future.