Shinesty vs. All Citizens — Key Differences
You’ve probably seen influencers and big name publications mention All Citizens and Shinesty underwear, but which ones should you try? We take a look at two highly rated brands to compare the key differences between their products, prices and missions.
What Is Shinesty?
With the single goal to produce and sell the "most outlandish clothing the world has ever seen," Shinesty was born in 2014. After starting as a store that only sold vintage items, Shinesty began expanding into different products and crazy-themed clothing for holidays.
During their expansion, Shinesty has created underwear for men and women, specializing in their Ball Hammock Pouch underwear (for men, of course).
With patterns this funky, Shinesty is not for the faint at heart.
What Is All Citizens?
All Citizens is on a mission to democratize comfort by making premium performance-based products, offering them at wallet-friendly prices with sustainability and charity at its core. From patent-pending boxer briefs to performance dress shirts and training shorts, All Citizens is committed to making the most feature-packed products that enable you to seamlessly transition from work, play and everything in between.
All Citizens believes that comfort is a basic human right and that businesses are one of the most powerful forces for positive change. Their aim is to serve a higher purpose and make sure comfort is available to all.
How Do Shinesty and All Citizens Compare?
Fabrics
Shinesty’s primary underwear line uses micromodal and spandex to create their underwear. Micromodal is a type of breathable rayon known for its softness and lightness — but that lightness comes at a price: micromodel tends to fade and pill after a few wears and washes, especially in high-friction areas like between your legs, so its durability is called into question.
Micromodal in its natural state absorbs sweat instead of being moisture-wicking, so you will find yourself sitting in your sweat on hot summer days, but Shinesty’s modal has moisture-wicking properties, likely from a chemical treatment that will wash out after a few washes and can leach into your skin. Shinesty’s fabric is stretchy so it’s great for movement, but the lack of quick-drying properties makes this a single-use underwear and not great for activity or movement.
Shinesty also offers ParadICE Ball Hammock Pouch Cooling Boxer Briefs that are made with a fabric that is stays 3 degrees cooler, are moisture-wicking, quick-drying and breathable, all for a price that is twice as expensive as All Citizens’ (we’ll talk about price later).
All Citizens’ eco-friendly Re:Luxe Performance Microfiber is made with 90% recycled polyester and 10% spandex. The Re:Luxe fabric is built with technical qualities for all-activity and all-weather comfort: moisture-wicking, quick-drying, 360°stretch, anti-odor, cuddling-with-pandas soft, durable, breathable, and everything-able.
It’s also made from recycled bottles (two, to be exact) that diverts waste from landfills, oceans and incinerators and lessens our dependency on fossil fuels. The performance features of the Re:Luxe fabric make All Citizens underwear perfect for every activity, from hikes to crossfit and commuting to lounging.
Their performance microfiber also has better colorfastness, so it retains its color and brightness wash after wash and does not fade, ensuring that your underwear looks as good as new for years.
Range of Features
At All Citizens, your underwear is equipped with technology even the Terminator wishes he had.
We’re talking horizontal flies for faster, more natural access when nature calls, strategically-placed Mesh Breathe Zones for uncompromising ventilation and airflow that kicks swamp ass’s butt, a thick, no-roll waistband to prevent plumber’s crack, a free motion gusset that provides a complete range of motion and unencumbered stretch, for those days when you just have to attempt that split (if you’re into that sort of thing).
Yeah, you get the picture.
The shining star, though, is the Paradise Pocket. It gently keeps you and your jewels separated from your thighs to prevent stickage and uncomfortable skin-on-skin contact. This mesh ball pocket has a 3-dimensional shape that extends into the underwear and holistically wraps around your goods so that you never fall out of the ball pouch, even when you sit, stand and move around, leaving you feeling like angels are cradling your nuggets.
Shinesty's underwear features a hammock pouch used to keep your berries in their basket, but the hammock is forward set so it’s easy for your boys to fall out of the ball pocket as soon as you take your first step or sit - not the most effective design. Shinesty’s underwear also has a gusseted crotch, anti-bunching construction, and what they describe as "an invisible map to the city of Atlantis".
Shinesty’s paradICE line has the additional of mesh zones meant for allowing air to reach your warmer areas. Neither of their lines have no-ride up legs though, so expect to need to pull the legs down with every step you take.
Fits
Both Shinesty and All Citizens have inclusive sizing, with Shinesty offering sizes S to 5XL and All Citizens offering sizes XS to 4XL.
However, All Citizens is the only brand to go above and beyond with their extended fit options for different thighs widths. When purchasing underwear from All Citizens, you have the opportunity to find a perfectly tailored fit:
- The Standard Fit is the most common fit and was designed to fit average width thighs (which is most guys)
- The Athletic Fit was designed specifically for men with larger thighs (AKA the tree trunk community)
- The Longer fit offers full thigh coverage that was designed for tall guys or guys who like their underwear to hit above the knee
That’s not all — the Grip Thighs mean no matter what size you choose, you won’t have to worry about your underwear riding up (or awkwardly tugging it down through your pants). The problem with one-size-fits-all underwear like Shinesty’s is that the thighs tend not to have any smart features to keep the legs from riding up.
Both brands offer a contoured pouch with room to breathe that conforms naturally around your giggle berries to prevent mashing and public re-adjustments.
Patterns and Styles
Taking you back to Shinesty's overall goal, they want to produce a collection of the most outlandish patterns you've ever seen — and boy, have they done just that.
A few of Shinesty's patterns include: The Tool Kit briefs with a measuring tape design, The Hair Down There Mullet Ball Hammock Underwear with Fly, and The Big Bang glow in the dark long leg boxers that include dirty images of stick figures doing things in the dark. Risqué to wild, they have a ton of patterns to choose from.
All Citizens offers several core solid colors as well as a lot of patterns — their patterns err on the side of playful, classic and not outlandish, like Rainforest, I Mustache You A Question, and Skull and Bones.
But if you aren't a pattern person or have a preference for basic colors, All Citizens gives you the option of choosing between six of our bold label colors (which have a signature orange waistband), six of our color block options, and 13 of our classic colors. Because sometimes, you don’t want your date to think you’re an adult, not a kid.
Giving Back
All Citizensbelieves that comfort is a basic human right, so they created their For All social mission to help support communities in need and democratize comfort for all.
Through funding the physiological, external, habitat, and future aspects of comfort, All Citizens helps people across the globe have access to education, equal work opportunities, and income stability.
All Citizens has worked with organizations that share our values to create a limited line of underwear where each sale gets donated to a specific cause. They are currently working with Eden Reforestation Projects where for every purchase of the rainforest underwear, five trees get planted in rainforests in Central America, Kenya, and Indonesia.
Prince Range
When comparing prices between All Citizens and Shinesty, the two come out almost tied if you sign up for Shinesty's subscription service.
Shinesty offers a monthly box subscription service that will send you a pair of boxers for the price of $16.99. If you were to buy your underwear without the service, that same underwear comes out to $25.99.
With the boxer subscription, you choose the first style you want to be shipped to you. After that, Shinesty will send you a monthly pair based on your original choice, giving you the option to send the underwear back if you dislike them. You don't receive a second pair of boxers for free if they’re not your vibe — you’re just subscribing to have someone else pick out your underwear for you. What are they, your mom?
At All Citizens, the Re:Luxe Paradise Pocket™ Boxer Brief - Standard Fit is priced at $18. The same briefs, without the paradise pocket, can be purchased for $16. All Citizens doesn’t believe in pricing games and pushing people into another subscription (in addition to your Netflix, Spotify, HBO, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple+ subscriptions).
All Citizens also offers a $99 Drawer Refresh where you can get 6 pairs of Paradise Pocket boxer briefs for just $99, or 12 pairs for just $189 with thier Complete Drawer Refresh — bringing All Citizens’ prices to be half of Shinesty’s.
Sources:
Tool Ball Hammock® Pouch Underwear | The Tool Kit
What is Micromodal Fabric: Properties, How its Made and Where | Sewport
