Note: The items in this review were provided to us by Y Athletics.
You may recognize the Y Athletics brand from our previous review of their SilverAir Crew Neck t-shirt which is still our favorite workout tee. Y Athletics prides themselves on developing custom fabrics for performance athletic clothing. We recently gave their Boxer Briefs and Socks (the 2.0 version) a try.
Boxer Brief
The SilverAir Merino Wool Boxer-Brief is made from a 200 gsm merino wool blend (90% 17.5 micron New Zealand Merino Wool, 5% metallic, and 5% spandex). The bottoms of the legs also contain Y Athletics’ SmartGrip. This is a soft silicone (like what you’d find in the legs of cycling shorts) that helps keep the boxers from riding up.
I found these boxers to be very soft and never had any issues with bunching, chafing, or riding up. They provide great support for athletic activities and do an excellent job wicking moisture (they never feel wet like synthetics). While advertised as having the best anti-odor technology in the market, I never felt like I could get a second wear. On a day when I did not work out or sweat a lot maybe I could get a second wear, but I did not want to push it. The odor resistance definitely was not at the level of the SilverAir shirt.
Overall, these are the best fitting and most comfortable boxer briefs I’ve worn.
Socks
The Sock 2.0 comes in both an ankle and a crew version. They are both made out of a midnight merino blend with slightly different compositions (ankle: 49% merino, 25% nylon, 13% acrylic, 11% metallic, 2% spandex; crew: 46% merino, 25% nylon, 13% acrylic, 13% metallic, 3% spandex). The ankle socks also have a soft silicone grip on the backs to keep them from sliding down. While wearing these socks I had my Darn Tough exercise and dress socks in mind for comparison.
As midweight socks, these were certainly thicker than my normal ankle and crew socks. However, thanks to the ventilation panels they did not feel that much warmer. The extra padding can also add a little comfort if you are going to be on your feet all day, but the thicker material makes these socks less appealing if you are going to be getting wet or wanting to hand wash the socks.
As far as odor-resistance, I found these socks to be equivalent to my Darn Tough merino socks. Letting them air out overnight lets me get a few wears out of a pair.
Overall
Both the boxer briefs and socks are very comfortable and deserve consideration. While remaining more odor-resistant than my synthetic underwear, I did not find the merino/silver to give me the ability to get extra wears. (I have not tried any other merino underwear, so I can’t compare to pure merino or another merino blend.) In the socks, I found the blend to be about equivalent in odor-resistance to the Darn Tough merino blend. While extremely comfortable, I still will keep some synthetic underwear and socks in rotation for times when I might get wet or want to hand wash while traveling.
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