A swim brief or racing brief is any briefs -style male swimsuit such as those worn in competitive swimming , diving and water polo . The popularity of the Australian Speedo brand racing brief has led to the use of its name in many countries around the world to refer to any racing brief, regardless of the maker. Occasionally, the speedo genericized trademark is applied to square cut swimsuits, but in general the generic term is used in reference to swimming briefs. Swim briefs are also referred to as competition briefs, swimming trunks, bathers, togs, racer bathers, posing briefs, racing briefs, and colloquially in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as budgie smugglers .
34-489: Like underwear briefs , swim briefs feature a triangular shaped front and a solid back providing form-fitting coverage. They typically are worn below the true waist. They are generally secured by thin banding at the upper thighs, and a drawstring around the waist and/or an elastic waistband . Swim briefs are often made of a nylon and spandex (Lycra) composite, while some longer-lasting suits are made from polyester and still others from other materials. Most swim briefs have
68-423: A wetsuit such as waterskiing , scuba diving , surfing , and wakeboarding often wear swim briefs as an undergarment to the wetsuit. While swim briefs are used worldwide by athletes for water sports, the popularity of swim briefs as casual beachwear and swim wear varies throughout the world. In Continental Europe and South America , briefs are relatively common among male casual swimmers and beach goers. In
102-426: A beige or white front lining made of a similar fabric. Swim briefs are worn by professional and recreational athletes in many water sports . They are the standard for competitive diving and water polo . They are preferred in competitive swimming for the reduction of the water's drag on the swimmer, although jammers and bodyskins are sometimes worn instead of the swim brief. Participants in sports that require
136-524: A fly is optional, and many styles do not include them. Briefs without a fly-opening are often referred to as " slips " or "slip-briefs", a term that also sees use in non-English speaking European countries. Unlike boxer shorts, briefs hold the wearer's genitals in a relatively fixed position, which make briefs a popular underwear choice for men who are participating in athletic activities or who prefer more support than loose-fitting underwear can provide. In addition, boxer shorts and boxer briefs may ride up
170-411: A large-mouthed funnel with a wide outlet surface that supports a woven wire base, or metal plate with a grid of holes. The lower part of the funnel is tapered to fit the receptacle or tank-filler aperture. A suitably sized chamois skin is soaked in clean fuel and placed over the grid in the funnel and brought up the sides, forming a bowl, to prevent any leakage past the skin. Fuel can then be pumped into
204-689: A period of decline, became more prominent in the 1970s as the belief that wearing fashionable underwear was less masculine declined. By the 1980s, men's fashion briefs became more popular in the United States; in 1985 they made up 25% of the men's underwear market, whilst they had almost no share c. 1980 . The Underoos and Funpals fashion brief brands for children were introduced around that time. According to Hanes marketing director John Wigodsky, women purchased fashion briefs for their husbands for aesthetic reasons, and therefore fashion briefs became more popular with men. In 1990 Tom Zucco of
238-482: A style of brief with narrow material at the sides and which often have a low rise; reminiscent of a bikini , and are designed for either men or women. Men's briefs often have a fly —a covered opening on the front of the garment which allows for convenience in urinating. There are several different fly designs in common use, including the standard vertical fly, the horizontal fly, the Y-front fly, and others. The use of
272-410: A thong. Briefs is also the name given to costumed outerwear worn by female dancers and athletes in sports such as cheerleading , figure skating , and tennis . These briefs are typically worn under a short skirt ; they may be attached to the skirt or dress body, or a separate garment (cheer briefs, or spankies). Research on the effect of men wearing tight underpants, like briefs, on male fertility
306-468: A variation used as swimwear. Men's classic briefs were first sold on January 19, 1935, by Coopers, Inc. (now known as Jockey International ), in Chicago , Illinois , at Marshall Field's department store. They dubbed the new undergarment the "Jockey", because it offered a similar degree of support as the jockstrap (one style of which is also called "jock briefs" or "support briefs"). The designer of
340-416: A very absorbent drying material for any automobile surface. This has made it a popular product for car cleaning and drying. The elasticity of the skin's pores, which are very close together, allow it to be used in micro-filtration. Its water absorbency and low friction make it good for other uses, such as in cycling shorts (although most modern cycling shorts now use synthetic "chamois" leather). It
374-624: A wide variety of solid colors and patterned designs. The most common racing suit styles are 1.5 inch to 3 inch paneled briefs (as measured by the height and length of the suit's side panel). The racing suit's main function is to reduce the drag of an athlete in water, thus improving his time. For this reason racing suits are made of materials that hug the body, minimize friction and minimize water retention. Spandex (Lycra) suits generally produce less drag, but are also more vulnerable to prolonged exposure to chlorine than nylon. Therefore, nylon suits are preferred for training and practice, where
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#1732782906576408-493: Is a type of porous leather, traditionally the skin of the chamois ( Rupicapra rupicapra ), a type of European mountain goat, but today made almost exclusively from the flesh split of a sheepskin. The British Standard BS 6715: 1991 defines chamois leather as: Leather made from the flesh split of sheepskin or lambskin, or from sheepskin or lambskin from which the grain (the top split) has been removed by frizing , and tanned by processes involving oxidation of marine oils in
442-500: Is inconclusive. Briefs, boxer briefs, etc. have been blamed for negatively affecting sperm production, since they may interfere with cooling of the testes . However, not all research has come to the same conclusion. A study in the October 1998 Journal of Urology , for example, concluded that underpant type is unlikely to have a significant effect on male fertility. Chamois leather Chamois leather ( / ˈ ʃ æ m i / )
476-401: Is typically cut with a high waist to provide full coverage of the hips and buttocks . A control brief is a kind of high-waisted panty girdle . French-cut or high-cut briefs expose more of the front part of the thigh, while boy briefs have short legs, similar to men's trunk briefs , often combined with a lower waist. Full briefs cover the woman's upper-thighs, with some styles covering up to
510-405: Is widely used for drying and buffing vehicles after washing. Small pieces of chamois leather (often called "chamois cloth") are commonly used as blending tools by artists drawing with charcoal . The leather blends the charcoal more softly and cleanly than the artist's fingers, which can leave smudges. The chamois is also used to lighten the drawing (or portions of it) by removing some charcoal in
544-564: The Tampa Bay Times interviewed menswear sellers: one worker stated that about 50% of the underpants sold were white briefs. During the 1990s to early 2000s, the popularity of men's briefs declined in the U.S. and boxer shorts became widely portrayed as the casual and masculine choice. However, more recently, as men's fashion has trended in favor of more tailored clothing, form-fitting underwear such as briefs have come back into style, including newer styles like boxer briefs . In
578-607: The United States and the United Kingdom , the roomier and less revealing trunks or board shorts are the suits preferred for recreation, although swim briefs are still seen to some extent. In some swimming pools in France , men are only permitted to wear form-fitting suits and not shorts, purportedly for reasons relating to hygiene. Reasons that swim briefs are chosen for recreation include style, ease of movement in
612-537: The United States , " jockey shorts " or "jockeys" became an often used generic term for men's briefs. More recently, " tighty-whiteys " (and some less popular variants of it) has become a commonly used slang term for traditional full-cut male briefs. In the UK the term "jockeys" did not catch on and men's/boys' briefs are often referred to as " Y-fronts ". The term derives from the genericized trademark "Y-Front", property of Jockey International. It, in turn, derives from
646-426: The body uncomfortably when the wearer is running or wearing form-fitting attire. There are different names for variations of the brief depending on the height of the brief at the sides, with names including low-rise, mid-rise, full-rise, sport, active, hip, and bikini. Some briefs have the cut all the way to the waistband on the side, called a tanga . "Briefs" also refers to a style of women's and girls' panties that
680-485: The care and polishing of carriages . This industry usage later transferred to the chauffeurs of the " horseless carriages " invented in the early 1900s. The popularity of chamois leather greatly increased with the advent of mass-produced automobile windshields , which needed to be washed frequently for visibility purposes, but were inconvenient and time-consuming to dry through alternative means. Genuine chamois leather has almost no abrasive properties, and can be used as
714-580: The crotch of the garment for the bicycle portion of the race. This is a lighter version of the chamois leather in cycling shorts , to allow running in to be performed more efficiently and the shorts to dry faster after the swim. In addition to the style's generic trademark term’s namesake company Speedo , competitive briefs-style swimwear are produced by companies including Adidas , Zoggs , Tyr , Dolfin , Arena , Kiefer, Nike, Inc. and aussieBum . Many of these companies have expanded their merchandise to reflect recent trends in water sports. These include
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#1732782906576748-505: The growing popularity of the jammer style and the development of full body suits for competitive swimming. On the fashion end, several designer companies including Nautica , Olaf Benz, Calvin Klein and aussieBum have begun lines of brief style suits in the United States. Most designer brands of male swimwear in Europe, Asia and Australia produce lines of much briefer style suits, including
782-500: The increased durability is required for the long periods of usage and the extra resistance brings a training benefit. Lycra suits (and composite hi-tech swimwear fabrics ) are preferred for actual racing. In water polo and in diving , suits may have panels greater than 3 inches. Water polo players generally wear racing suits. This is to minimize the fabric available to grabbing and pulling by opponents - actions that are illegal yet often happen underwater - while not compromising
816-507: The increasingly popular Brazilian square cut trunks (known as sunga(s) in Portuguese). Briefs Briefs (or a brief ) are a type of short, form-fitting underwear and swimwear , as opposed to styles where material extends down the thighs. Briefs have various different styles, usually with a waistband attached to fabric that runs along the pelvis to the crotch and buttocks, and are worn by both men and women. Swim briefs are
850-431: The inverted Y-shape formed by the seams at the front of the underpants . The colloquialism is used even when the fly opening may differ in style, and not actually form the shape of the inverted letter "Y" fly on Jockey brand briefs. In Australia , male briefs are referred to as " jocks " but should not be confused with jockstraps (more specifically used by athletes) which expose the buttocks. Australians generally use
884-440: The navel. Midi briefs are a hybrid between boyshorts and a full brief, sitting on the woman's hips while providing full-coverage. Brazilian-style women's briefs, usually made of modal-fabric , have high-cut legs and sit low across the hips. The back is wider than a thong , but often smaller than other women's brief styles, making Brazilian briefs an ideal choice for women to avoid showing a visible panty line without having to wear
918-485: The new style was reportedly inspired by a postcard he had received from a friend visiting the French Riviera depicting a man in a very short, form-fitting bathing suit. 30,000 pairs were sold within three months of their introduction. In the UK , briefs were first sold in 1938. Soon, shops were selling 3,000 pairs of briefs per week. In the 1960s, fashion underwear was introduced in the United States, and, after
952-480: The prepared skin of any goat-like animal, specifically the European antelope —commonly called the "chamois"—and exclusively used by the glovemaking industry of southwest France . It was discovered that when tanned in the local cod oil of nearby Biarritz , the result was a material of unprecedented absorbency. This leather was fashioned into soft white gloves designed for carriage footmen, who were responsible for
986-509: The skin. In the United States, the term chamois without any qualification is restricted to the flesh split of the sheep or lambskin tanned solely with oils (US Federal Standard CS99-1970). Chamois leather is often counterfeited with goat or pig skin, the practice of which is a particular profession called by the French chamoiser . The term chamois as used to refer to specially-prepared leather originated sometime before 1709, referring to
1020-436: The strength of the fabric. High-level players wear specialized suits, usually of a very tight fit and made of thicker, tougher and more slippery fabric, intended to thwart pulling and grabbing during rough play; they often wear two suits, one over the other. A special variety of briefs and trunks made for the triathlon features the racing suit's design for the swimming portion of the race but also incorporates light padding in
1054-417: The top of the funnel by the fuel dispenser and watched for signs of water accumulation. The process can be stopped to lift out the assembly from the tank and the trapped water removed so that the job can be continued. Chamois leather is used thus as a fuel filter by boaters, auto detailers , and aircraft refuelers, particularly of a past age when aircraft were flown into very remote areas. Chamois leather
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1088-522: The water, sunshine exposure, quick drying time, and the ability to be worn under pants or shorts. Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott was a fitness fanatic noted for wearing speedos or "budgie smugglers". Swim briefs are sometimes worn under board shorts for modesty purposes, and they are often used as an athletic supporter under shorts during sporting activities. Briefs worn for competitive and recreational swimming are manufactured in standard sizes and in waist measurements. They are available in
1122-595: The word “briefs” to refer to the bikini-style briefs for men, which do not have a fly opening. "Briefs" additionally is the official name of a specific cut of female underpants similar to male full-rise briefs. Traditional size briefs for both sexes cover the uppermost part of the thigh and extend upward up to (or cover, depending on the design) the navel at the waistband . This style is often referred to as "full rise" or "full cut". There are also "low rise" and "mid rise" styles whose measurements vary between manufacturers. Bikini briefs or simply bikini in context are
1156-409: Was also used in purifying mercury , which is done by passing it through the pores of the skin. Chamois was historically used as a gasoline filter. When soaked with clean gasoline , chamois will not allow water to pass through its surface fibers. This property is used to filter fuel that has been stored in drums prone to ingress of water, or from any other doubtful source. The technique is to provide
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