Happy Birthday Tighty-whiteys!
Let's not forget to celebrate another historical milestone this week: the invention of tighty-whities!
Just think! If it hadn't been for Jockey's debut in 1935 throngs of unassuming passers-by wouldn't have had the chance to peek at David Beckham's, ahem, assets.
This very week in 1935, in the cold winter of the first great depression, a glimmer of hope and change emerged: At Marshall Field's department store in Chicago, a new kind of men's underwear -- trademarked as "the Jockey" -- made its global debut. While they didn't exactly make boxers obsolete, briefs were an instant hit. The manufacturer, Cooper's Inc., eventually rebranded itself as Jockey, and its namesake product went on to launch the careers of "Marky" Mark Wahlberg and Tom Cruise, to spark a hundred thousand "boxers or briefs?" celebrity interview questions, and to incite raging debate about the health implications of each (USA Today's Better Life has the lowdown on that). Happy birthday, briefs!
