Underwear Guy Review: Artificial Flavor Tie Dye Low Rise Brief
Designer/Manufacturer: Artificial Flavor
Website: www.aflavor.com
Price: $27.50

Artificial Flavor has released several new designs as well as refreshes of their past collections for 2008 and this week I thought I'd give the new Tie Dye brief a try. I reviewed the corporal brief a while back which was a mostly positive review so I expected a similar level of design and performance from the tie dye brief. Available in a mixed color pattern of orange/brown or green/brown the look is definitely as titled: tie dye. Each brief is unique with a random pattern of splotchy color applied all over the 50% cotton 50% polyester fabric. Artificial flavor underwear runs true-to-size with the medium cut working out well for a standard 32-33" waist. The waistband is a fairly basic production as a 1 1/4" woven element in dark brown with bright yellow logos repeated all the way around. The tag on the back of the waistband on the inside is a cleanly printed silky nylon material that measures 2 1/8" wide by 1 1/4" tall. The back of this low rise brief is full coverage and the sides are fairly narrow at 1 3/4" tall not including the waistband. The leg-bands are a real fit/comfort issue for myself as I found them to be much too tight and allowed for very little stretch. The front pouch is not particularly comfortable either with a snug design to begin with that is compounded by the stiff fabric. There isn't too much shaping via the basic pouch design which is a simple cut seam at the base and everything feels very constricting. The front is dual-layer material which helps keep things modest for every-day wear.

The Grades:

Fit:	C-	The waistband might fit ok but everything else is really hampered by the stiff fabric and poorly designed pouch. If you like tight underwear in the pouch or have particularly skinny legs this might work for you but I don't recommend this for comfort or fit for most guys.	Pouch Fit
Design:	B	The tie-dye color options are definitely a fun alternative to solids or patterns and the bold logos on the brown waistband stand out nicely. The rest of the brief is fairly standard design so the major selling point is going to be the color over anything else.
Material:	B+	This material lacks any spandex for stretch and I think it really hampered the fit of the brief. On its own regardless of the cut, the fabric is smooth and soft to the touch so a positive score if one considers this material by itself.
Construction:	B	For the most part the construction of this brief is good if not stellar with clean cuts on the fabric and straight stitching. I noticed some issues on the join between the fabric and the waistband that weren't finished as cleanly as they could be so I'm lowering the score a bit for that.
Overall Grade:	C-	If you can't wear underwear comfortably then it doesn't matter how fun the color is so I have to go with a low score. I also feel like at this price point expectations should be high and unfortunately this product delivers far below that bar.
Would I buy another pair? No, the design is fairly basic beyond the fun colors and the fit really tanked it for me.

Wear Recommendations:

All-day Wear	Loungewear	Athletic	Sleepwear	Office Wear	Special Occasion	Bedroom Wear

Where To Buy:

There are not too many places you can order this brief but you can always go direct to AFlavor.com: Product Page, or online at Skiviez.com: Product Page, or via phone or in-store purchases at Underu4men.com.

Photos: