The 6 Best Underwear Brands for Kids of 2025

I started by consulting dozens of parents (in my circle of friends as well as at Wirecutter) and hundreds of customer reviews, to gain a baseline understanding of what brands kids like — and reject — most. To understand common pain points, I perused questions posed by frustrated parents in online forums such as the Official Peloton Mom Facebook group and Parenting subreddit.

After taking in all that underwear intel, I came up with a list of 37 well-liked styles from a total of 15 different brands. I then divided the testing pool into six categories of underwear: girls briefs, hipsters, and legged styles (which are often called boyshorts or shorts), and boys briefs, boxers, and boxer briefs. Note that the majority of brands, including almost all of the ones we tested, separate underwear by gender. In reality, most kids would likely be able to comfortably wear the majority of the pairs we tested, regardless of their anatomy.

Visually, most underwear for kids looks similar. But variations in construction, fabric quality, and trim options can make the experience of wearing different pairs vary dramatically. To cover all of our bases — and behinds — we assembled a panel of seven parents with a total of 11 children (a diverse group between the ages of 4 and 12 and in a variety of shapes and sizes). Many brands of kids underwear are sized by age, though going by age is often not a good way to find the right fit for a given child. We measured each tester and referred to the company’s size chart, if it had one, to choose the best size.

Our panel provided detailed feedback and evaluated each pair on a scale of 1 (“I hate you for making me wear this underwear”) to 5 (“best underwear in the world”). Panel members assessed each pair for several key criteria:

Overall comfort: When choosing what to test, we looked for pairs made of soft, breathable material. Kids let us know if there were itchy tags or trims, irritating seams, rough fabric, or other uncomfortable facets.

Anti-wedgie: Though few pairs were completely wedgie-proof, we worked to pick those that were as butt-picking-resistant as possible.

A range of sizes: We looked for brands with a wide variety of sizing so that favorite styles can be worn from preschool through at least early middle school.

Durability: The best kids underwear should hold up well enough that it can be handed down after a child outgrows it.

Style: We looked for brands whose undies are as cute as our kids, with a diverse selection of colors and patterns that might appeal to the style or interests of a range of children.

To prevent any confusion between discomfort from wearing something new versus discomfort from undies being subpar, each child tested the types of underwear they are used to wearing. For example, kids who love boxers didn’t test briefs. Children wore their test pairs many times over the course of many months. We machine-washed and -dried each pair between wears, paying attention to any shrinkage, fading, or durability concerns.