Review: Pact Makes My New Favorite Boxers. Here’s Why.

In this review, I explore why Pact Clothing’s soft, tagless knit boxer shorts make a great alternative to the Gap.

For me, and I suspect most people, underwear is an afterthought. I tend to find a brand that works for me and then I stop thinking about it for a very long time.

Then, every once in a while, I reevaluate my choices.

A couple of years ago, I decided to try RibbedTee and found their made-in-America undershirts were a great reason to re-evaluate my underwear drawer.

Before that, colorful socks from Unsimply Stitched brightened up my plain sock drawer.

Until recently, I had been buying boxers from the Gap.

Why?

Boxers from the Gap are tagless and 100% cotton. They’re soft enough. They’re also affordable as long as you buy them on sale.

Those factors were enough for me to put my underwear buying on autopilot.

Lately, I’ve decided to re-examine my choices.

I recently reviewed stretch, tagless boxer shorts from Goodthreads, one of Amazon’s core private label fashion brands for men. (They’re fine but not my new favorite.)

Then I received a pair of tagless boxers from Pact Clothing. (Disclosure: I received them for free.)

About Pact Apparel

Pact Clothing specializes in sustainably and ethically-produced organic cotton basics, and is an impressive example of the kind of direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand helping men and women dress sharp in the digital age.

Entrepreneurs Jason Kibbey and Jeff Denby founded Pact Apparel in 2009. In 2011, Brendan Synnott’s Revelry Brands acquired Pact Clothing.

Jason and Jeff started with underwear.

Under Brendan’s leadership, Pact has expanded to produce socks, hoodies, short sleeve t-shirts, pants, shorts, sweatpants and sleepwear. They are a solid bet for striped polo shirts.

For women, Pact also sells leggings and tights, dresses, skirts and maternity wear. Pact also makes children’s apparel and has bed and bath lines.

Brendan serves as Pact’s CEO.

Prior to acquiring Pact, Brendan launched Bear Naked, which specializes in organic granola.

Why Pact Clothing’s tagless knit boxers are a great alternative to the Gap

While I usually don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my underwear drawer, I am pretty particular when it comes to what kind of underwear to wear.

Here’s what I look for:

• They should be boxers, not briefs or boxer-briefs;
• They have to be tagless;
• They must be constructed of soft material made from 100% cotton or something close to it. (It’s increasingly difficult to find anything from boxers to chinos without a little bit of stretch in them these days);
• They have to be affordable.

Pact’s tagless boxers check all of those boxes:

1. Pact’s knit boxers are tagless.
2. They are made from a blend of 95% organic cotton and 5% elastane.
3. At a list price of $12.95, they are also nominally cheaper than the list price of boxers at the Gap.

In addition to all of that, Pact sources its knit boxers from a Fair Trade Certified factory and its cotton is certified organic by the Global Organic Textile Standard scheme.

The big question is, how do they fit and feel?

When I first unboxed the boxers, I was a little worried that the knit material would be too flimsy and lack the structure that I liked from the relatively soft and thick cotton boxers that I was used to from the Gap.

But, when I put them on, they felt great. They’ve continued to feel great all day long through multiple washes and wearings.

I love the material, that they are tagless, that they are relatively inexpensive, and that the company supports certified organic and fair trade.

It’s also nice to see Pact putting out their knit boxers in even more colors (they’re up to 4 different colors as of this writing, including a bright, multi-color “resort stripe” pattern.)

That’s why they’re among my new favorite boxers.