PUMP! Underwear Sugar Rush Jock

 
PUMP! Underwear, formed in 2009, is a Canadian company that produces athletic-themed men’s attire, primarily underwear. The Sugar Rush Jock is composed of 64% nylon, 19% cotton, and 17% spandex. Like most of what the company has to offer, it has an excellent quality of construction and is well designed for its athletic function. (Even the packaging was of impressive quality.) The fit, while still a little troublesome, worked out for me much better than their boxers or brief. 

I think I should also mention my experience with their customer service as evidence of PUMP!’s status as a great company. After a long wait for my package arriving, I sent them an email about it. They promptly apologized and sent another package, but with a few extra items. This left me with a lasting good impression, and is the best that a customer could expect from customer service.  

Materials and construction: As I mentioned, the construction quality is excellent. The mesh on the pouch is very stretchy, and breathes very well. The taut elastic in the waistband and the slightly more forgiving elastic in the leg straps are well balanced for offering flexibility without relinquishing stability. Unlike the pouches in some jockstraps, where the pouch is designed as a relatively flat piece of fabric, the pouch here is an actual cup, although I’d prefer it to be larger. The only tag on this item is a tiny one on the back. Being washed numerous times, the only significant sign of wear that I can find is the information printed on the inside of the waistband getting harder to read. 9/10 

Comfort and usability: Despite what the company offers in its sizing information, PUMP! Underwear tends to be rather small, so I’d recommend everyone go up one size. I found the pouch very constricting at first, but realized that if I adjusted the elastic on the sides of the pouch to be flat against my body, it became comfortable enough for a workout session, with some adjustment. The pouch keeps everything close to the body, so it shouldn’t form a bulge. It should also be noted that the leg straps stay consistently flat against the legs, which is often not true of jockstraps. All in all, this would be a perfect item for me with a bigger pouch. I suspect a lot of men who do not have trouble finding comfortable underwear would already find it to be the perfect jockstrap. 8/10

Aesthetics: PUMP! Underwear always looks cool. The red, blue and white colors look good together, especially inverted on the inside of the waistband, and the mixed visual textures of the waistband, mesh pouch and straps add to the appeal. 8/10

Overall rating: 8/10

Big enough? The pouch isn’t ideal, but going one size up made this item comfortable enough for a workout session.

Double Review: 2(x)ist Electric Jock Strap, 2(x)ist Stretch Jock Strap

 

 I’ve tried a number of 2(x)ist products, and they seem to be all over the place with regards to both sizing and quality. Seeing some Amazon.com reviews on their jock straps, I saw a lot of complaints that the pouch was too large, so I decided to give two of their products a try. I’ve yet to find a single jock strap that I’m completely satisfied with, and the two items in this review certainly are imperfect, but they do offer more space in the pouch than any of the other jock strap I’ve tried at this point. 

Materials and construction: The Electric Jock Strap is 89% nylon and 11% spandex, and the Stretch Jock Strap is 92% cotton and 8% spandex. Right out of the box, there were issues. The Electric Jock Strap had more loose threads than any other clothing product I’ve ever purchased; so many, in fact, that I had the suspicion that the product was already used for display purposes. (This suspicion disappeared when the Stretch Jock Strap arrived in a similar, but less severe, condition.) The Electric Jock Strap has a slick and smooth appearance, with a slight shine to the surface, and what appears to be a single rubber logo on top of the left side of the waistband. The Stretch Jock Strap has a subtler look, with the branding stitched into the waistband. The pouches of both are a rather large, flat surface. The leg straps are thick in the Electric Jock Strap and thin in the Stretch Jock Strap. After being put in the washing machine only two times, both times using a gentle cycle before being air-dried, the Stretch Jock Strap showed serious decomposition in the waistband. I’ve never before seen such rapid damage to a piece of clothing, which is a testament to how poor the quality of this item really is. In the end, the large pouch is the only functional feature of these items that deserves to be commended. 2/10

Comfort and usability: While large, the pouches of these items are not very contoured. This means that, despite the rather snug waistband and leg straps, they shift around quite a bit. My frequent experience in wearing them is to put them on, feel comfortable for a while, and then feel pain after their position has shifted only minutes later. It doesn’t even take vigorous movement for this to happen, and I’ve found just walking around the kitchen will cause these uncomfortable shifts. This shifting is exactly what athletic gear should not do. The rubbery, sticky surface on the Electric Jock Strap’s logo also makes gives it undesirable traction under gym shorts. The leg straps on the Electric Jock Strap have a smooth, silky and comfortable feeling to them. 2/10

Aesthetics: This seems to be the one factor in which 2(x)ist is consistent. The Electric Jock strap, with its stark black appearance and crisp white logo, looks good. The Stretch Jock Straps look neither good nor bad. 6/10

Overall rating: 3/10

Big enough? Yes, the pouch is big enough, but the items don’t provide enough overall comfort.