Althouse: Based on the average American man's waist measurement, the top-selling size pants should be 38, 39 or even 40.

July 28, 2014

Based on the average American man's waist measurement, the top-selling size pants should be 38, 39 or even 40.

But it's 34, and I think you know why.

No, it's not that the bigger men get the less likely they are to buy pants.

It's that men don't wear pants at the waist level. The belly floats free, above the so-called waistband.

38 comments:

madAsHell said...: Most men aren't obese, but they do drink too much which causes a distended liver.; 7/28/14, 7:58 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Well, yeh. But if you did wear the 38-40 inch pants, you would need a belt or maybe even suspenders to keep them up. And, a lot of pants, jeans in particular, are just not meant to be worn that way. Awhile back, I bought a pair of Levis closer to the size you probably think that I should be wearing, and even with a belt, they always felt like they were falling off.

And, no, I am not going to give up wearing jeans - I have been wearing them, when I could, since maybe 2 or 3 years of age. One of the most exciting things about starting high school was that we could start wearing jeans again. And, that was almost 50 years ago. Scary. Also scary about how little my casual dress code has changed in that time - mostly I tend to wear sneakers instead of cowboy boots, and if I do wear the latter, they aren't rough out boots, but rather ostrich or shark skin (almost indestructible). And, I now wear polo type shirts in the summer, instead of button down year round. Other than that, very little difference. Oh, and back then, my Levis were button up, and actually fit my 28" waist.; 7/28/14, 8:18 AM
TCR James said...: I can't speak for all men but I wear my pants slung low because hiking them up to navel height causes the most amazingly painful case of cameltoe that I have ever suffered.

You want me to hike up the pants to the area just below the nipples? Fine. Then bring back the codpiece!; 7/28/14, 8:21 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: Could it also be that women are buying men's pants?; 7/28/14, 8:31 AM
Anonymous said...: Terrible Reading Comprehension Guy says:

And what, exactly, does this have to do with Scarlett Johansson? I do not see any apparent connection. Althouse is slipping.; 7/28/14, 8:44 AM
Humperdink said...: Most, if not all overweight men, have Dunlaps disease. Their bellies have dun lapped over their belt.

There is an upside. In a reclining chair, the TV dinner can rest comfortably w/o the use of a tray table. Of course this depends on the stage of the disease.; 7/28/14, 8:59 AM
Dick Stanley said...: It's wishful thinking.; 7/28/14, 9:22 AM
Wince said...: My belt holds my pants up from the side at the hips where my pelvic bones widen.

I can't imagine tightening a belt sufficiently to hold my pants up consistently at navel level under any circumstance, even when I'm on the thinner side of my weight oscillation.; 7/28/14, 9:26 AM
stan said...: The waist is measured at the navel. No one wants to look like Urkel.; 7/28/14, 9:36 AM
Balfegor said...: It's that men don't wear pants at the waist level. The belly floats free, above the so-called waistband.

And vanity sizing. Judging from the article, the 1.5-5" vanity sizing difference makes up a significant chunk of the discrepancy between actual average waist-size (39-40") and the most common label size (34").

That said, I'm around a 37" waist (need to lose some weight again), and I can't imagine trying to squeeze into a true 34". 36"-38" (the latter with braces) is reasonably comfortable.

Regarding the "cameltoe" mentioned above -- if wearing trousers at your natural waist results in a squeeze down there, you need to get longer rise trousers or just larger trousers in general. The squeeze is probably a result of the rise being sized for someone who is actually 34" or 36" in, but if you're a 40" waist, you have a lot more circumference down there, as it were, that the trouser material has to wrap around back to front. You can solve that either with a longer rise, or just getting trousers that are properly sized. That, and even properly sized off-the-rack trousers nowadays trend towards being a bit on the low-rise side.; 7/28/14, 9:39 AM
dreams said...: Also the listed pants size is not the actual size, its bigger. I measured my waist at 36 but I wear size 32 pants and I wear my pants up to my navel.; 7/28/14, 9:43 AM
Brian said...: As a dude that's spanned size 42 down to size 34 over the past year, I don't believe for an instant that your average size-40 dude can really make size 34s buckle by wearing them lower.

It seems to me the solution is in the problem: "38, 39 or even 40" is three different sizes; 34 is just one. So if we're counting the single most-common size, 34 has an advantage.

In mathematical terms: body size distribution has positive skew. Essentially, there's a floor under waist size: an adult male is not going to be lower than size 28 or so. This compresses the curve on the left side. Meanwhile, heavier dudes get smeared out all over the right side of the curve. The skew in the distribution creates the observed separation between the mean waist size and the mode of pants size purchased.

All of this is much discussed in the context of women's clothes and why stores tend not to stock bigger sizes: most women may be a size 12 or larger, but because of the skew it's still the case that an individual dress in size 6 can be bought/worn by more women than the same dress in size 16.; 7/28/14, 9:50 AM
dbp said...: ""They can wear a smaller size, and though the belly hanging over is not the most attractive sight, most men don't care," Gribbin says."

What is the alternative if you have a large belly? It will not look better to have wider pants at belly button level. Besides that, they will not stay in that location with a belt, you need suspenders.

On a related topic, I made a discovery about where girls wear their belts these days--to the extent they wear them at all. We were traveling to Vermont so that the oldest daughter could tour UVM and she needed a belt, so I gave her mine. It fit on her at the same notch I use! Neither of us are fat, but I am much larger than she is. What I found is that while I wear my belt at the narrowest point of my waist, she wears it on her hips at a point just above the widest part.; 7/28/14, 9:58 AM
tim maguire said...: I have a lot of pants that are too small for me because one day I will exercise more and get back to my natural waistline--the one I had on college.; 7/28/14, 10:05 AM
SteveOrr said...: Reminds me of that humorous meme about feminism:

"This is Barbie. Throughout the years, she has been the center of much controversy, because feminists claim she represents an unrealistic, unhealthy and unfair standard of beauty, leading to a crisis for young girls and their self esteem.

This is He-Man."

Sadly, male clothing manufacturers are flattering male self esteem with vanity sizing:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8739365/Wrong-trousers-on-the-High-Street-as-men-fall-victim-to-vanity-sizing.html

Men are becoming more neurotic. I guess this is progress, if you value equality. I just would have preferred it if women became less neurotic.; 7/28/14, 10:13 AM
Charlie Currie said...: Back in the day, we called them 32 lows...it appears that now it would be 34 lows...; 7/28/14, 10:16 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: This is like parents deciding a boy or girl would be "better":

Who cares?

If there's one thing I'm despising about the current cultural configuration is the mental disorder women have, regarding body image, being popularized.

It's a sickness, not a goal,....; 7/28/14, 10:20 AM
David said...: Most men's clothing have terrible fit and are badly sized. Oh poor men.; 7/28/14, 10:57 AM
LarryK said...: The real reason is that really fat guys wear sweat pants rather than pants - sometimes as part of a jump-suit ensemble; 7/28/14, 10:59 AM
dreams said...: The style the last few years is for low rise pants which is a problem for me because of my body type, short waisted and wide hips near my waist causing a wedgie effect because of the low rise of most pants. I just recently found some pants (Relaxed Fit) at kohl's sufficiently high rise enough to fit so I bought a bunch of them.

The clothes in big and tall were too big so that wasn't a solution for me.; 7/28/14, 11:01 AM
n.n said...: 34 because they fit. 33 on a good day, typically after several days of hard work or exercise, balanced diet, adequate sleep, and managed stress.; 7/28/14, 11:30 AM
Unknown said...: As a tyke in the late 60s being fitted for his first suit - seersucker, of course - my father had several rules of thumb. For pants, it was two fingers between the navel and the waistband/belt.

Pant legs should have a slight break in the crease. Shirt sleeves extend just below the wristbone and suit coat sleeves at the wristbone. Et cetera, et cetera.

Mens' pants aren't cut like they were, and other than a suit men are not having anything fitted. Men don't wear suits.

How much does divorce affect mens' wardrobes?; 7/28/14, 11:42 AM
From Inwood said...: I have ADHD.

Keeps me at real size 34.; 7/28/14, 11:49 AM
William said...: I was size 34 for most of my adult life. I'm no longer size 34, but, expressed as a lifetime average, size 34 was my average waist size. My present waist is an outlier and should not be factored into the equation.; 7/28/14, 12:00 PM
cassandra lite said...: Here's another reason that I discovered on a recent trip to Nordstrom. The 32s I took off the rack turned out to be really 34. I asked the salesman, who said men's manufacturers had begun doing what women's manufacturers have been doing for years.

Those 34s are probably 36 or -7.; 7/28/14, 12:18 PM
Gahrie said...: I would bet that sagging accounts for a large part of the "problem". Much of today's youth is wearing their pants around their thighs, not their waist.; 7/28/14, 12:35 PM
rhhardin said...: Waist not want not.; 7/28/14, 1:04 PM
mccullough said...: Men haven't worn their pants at navel level since Bogart died.; 7/28/14, 1:52 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Buy good pants. I go to Duluth Trading Company. They specialize in making clothee for middle-aged working men. Their pants fit right, are durable, and look good.

They take "relaxed fit" to a new level so that you don't squeeze yourself every time you sit or squat.

Carhartts are good, too, but not as comfortable.; 7/28/14, 2:31 PM
SJ said...: @Brian, I agree.

The distinction between "mean" and "mode" may account for a lot of the difference.

As a personal note: I was wearing a Size 32 waist, which was getting a little snug.

Then I took up the practice of concealed-carry of a pistol (usually inside the waistband). And I decided I wanted a size 34 waist for my pants.

However, CC-permits are a small percentage of the total population, so this factor can't skew things very much. (And some percentage of people carrying use a non-inside-waistband option.); 7/28/14, 3:47 PM
Rusty said...: I wear them low because I need Aragon pants.
You know. Plenty of ball room.; 7/28/14, 4:16 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Oh yeah.

Well how about this. This is viral to me.; 7/28/14, 4:22 PM
TennLion said...: Actually, I've looked for pants in the appropriate size, but they are almost impossible to find on the shelves (at least, with the appropriate inseam length). I always assumed they just sold out quicker than the others, but maybe they just aren't kept in inventory?; 7/28/14, 7:09 PM
Alex said...: Most men aren't obese, but they do drink too much which causes a distended liver.

You speak from experience?; 7/28/14, 7:10 PM
Joe said...: I wore 32 for years, then 33 and then 34. I started eating better and going to the gym. I lost 14 pounds and went back to 32.; 7/29/14, 12:51 AM
Skyler said...: Measuring waist that way has not been done, except in very formal wear, in decades. It is archaic. It is a remnant of a long dead past.; 7/29/14, 6:38 AM
Doug said...: Jerry Seinfeld changed the tag on his Levis to read "34 waist" even though he really wore 36! There was an episode about it.

Humperdink said he has Dunlap's disease. I have Furniture Syndrome - my chest has fallen into my drawers.; 7/29/14, 3:12 PM
Known Unknown said...: You know, you have to build a shed for that tool.

(Or something like that.)

Also, I wear my pants low. If I wore them on my "waist" I would need something smaller than a 32.; 7/29/14, 5:16 PM