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MBA Style magazine's
Undressing for Success

Sometimes a recruiter can ask you a questions that hits you below the belt. If difficult questions like, 'Tell me about your weaknesses,' catch you with your pants down, you need to be prepared and confident. Specifically, you need to be wearing a good pair of underwear.

One student who snagged a job on Wall Street wore his lucky red-striped boxers to his first round of interviews. Another MBA wore his "Get Lucky" horse-shoe patterned boxers. All we recommend is that you wear any color and any style, as long as its clean.

A color consultant recommended that women wear red underwear, since she felt red tends to promote strength and confidence. For those of you who want to feel rebellious under your charcoal gray suits, we recommend that you wear a pair of Ron Chereskin's tattooed briefs, or a pair of Joe Boxer's motorcycle-print boxers.

While some students swear by boxers, others only wear briefs to their interviews. As one student put it, 'Wearing briefs give me one less thing to worry about during an interview. If they're tight, I can concentrate better on cracking those case questions.'

Sixty-seven percent of the men's underwear business is controlled by two companies: Hanes and Fruit of the Loom. FTL has 40% share, and Hanes, a division of Sara Lee, maintains 27%. Jockey comes in distant third with 7% of the overall market, but 35% of the department store channel. Calvin Klein and Joe Boxer each maintain 13% of the department store channels. FTL has 18% of the women's panties market, Hanes holds onto 16%, and Jockey grabs a 3% share.

While 70% of all men's underwear used to be purchased by women, the figure has recently slipped closer to 60%, as more men are taking control of their intimate purchases.

Photos courtesy of (1) Jockey International (2) J. Boxer (3) Jockey International (4) J.Boxer
Copyright © 1996 MBA Style magazine
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