The Best Swim Briefs You Can Actually Buy
Six swim briefs worth buying, from club chlorine proof kit to the Mediterranean beach pair, with the honest weakness of each and when cheap is correct.
Your First Speedo: The Complete Buying Guide
How to buy your first speedo: the three cuts, getting the fit right, which fabric survives chlorine, what colour to start in and where to wear it first.
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So the argument has landed. You've read the numbers, you've watched the comeback happen on screen and at the beach, and somewhere in your head a decision has quietly been made: this summer, a swim brief. The Speedo Comeback Is Real (and We Have the Numbers)
Now the practical questions. Which cut, what size, what colour, and where on earth do you wear it first? Here's the complete first-timer's briefing.
Know your cuts
"Speedo" gets used for everything, but there are really three cuts, and choosing the right entry point matters more than the brand. The pairs worth buying in each cut are a short list, and it barely changes from year to year. The Best Swim Briefs You Can Actually Buy
The square-leg trunk. A snug, short, squared-off cut with a few centimetres of leg. All the performance of a brief, a little more coverage, and the single best gateway garment in swimwear. If you're nervous, start here and nobody will even register a change.
The classic brief. The standard: sides of five to eight centimetres, full seat, the cut worn by every swim club and half of continental Europe. This is the destination for most men and the pair every drawer eventually contains.
The racing brief. Narrower sides, competition cut, built for people counting hundredths of seconds. Buy it for training and racing; nobody needs to start here.
Get the fit right
Size on your waist measurement, not your ego and not your fear. The most common first-timer error is buying a size up "for modesty," which produces a baggy brief, and a baggy brief is the one genuinely bad version of this garment. It should sit snug and flat at the hip with no gaping at the leg and no waistband dig. If you can fit a fist down the front, go down a size. If it leaves red lines, go up.
Drawstrings matter in open water; a wave should never win an argument with your swimwear. And check the lining is sewn flat: cheap linings, not the cut, cause most swim-brief complaints.
Fabric, briefly
Pool swimmers need chlorine resistance above all; the endurance-grade polyester fabrics from the big swim brands keep their shape and colour for years of laps, and this is exactly what their bestselling ranges are built for. Sea swimmers can prioritise comfort and quick drying, which everything in this category does well. Fashion fabrics from the premium houses feel wonderful and cost accordingly. CDLP swim brief
Colour strategy
Dark and plain first: navy, black, deep green. A plain dark brief reads as sporting kit anywhere on Earth and buys you total anonymity for the debut. Prints later, once you've realised nobody was looking, at which point the flamingos and the county colours become available to you. The Australians have the print market gloriously cornered. Budgy Smuggler printed swim brief Break Out the Budgy Smugglers: The Aussie BBQ Guide to Swim Briefs
Choose your debut venue
This is the bit most guides skip, and it's half the battle.
Easiest: a lap-swimming session at any pool. You'll be the third-most-ordinary sight in the water, behind the swim squad and the aqua aerobics class.
Easy: any beach or slipway with a sea-swimming crowd. The friendliest, least judgmental swimwear environment in these islands. The Sea Swimmer's Case for the Swim Brief
Easiest of all: France, where it's the rule and the decision is made for you. The French Pool Rule: Where Swim Briefs Are the Law
Save the local leisure-centre family session for pair number two. Not because anything would happen, but because confidence compounds, and you may as well stack the first outing in your favour. The fear, as we've written elsewhere, is a room in your head with nobody in it. The Locker Room Question: Getting Over the Fear of Being Seen in Briefs
The one-line summary
Square-leg or classic, true to size, dark and plain, endurance fabric, debut at a lap session. Total outlay: less than a round of drinks. Total time to stop thinking about it: one swim.
In you get.
Questions people ask
What size swim brief should I buy?
Your true waist measurement, and nothing clever. Swim briefs are cut close by design, so sizing up to feel more covered gives you a garment that fills with water and slides, which is precisely the outcome you were hoping to avoid. If the chart puts you between sizes, take the smaller one for pool fabrics and the larger for fashion fabrics.
Are swim briefs uncomfortable?
They are the most comfortable thing you can swim in, which surprises everyone who has only ever swum in shorts. There is no fabric dragging at the knee, nothing filling with water, and nothing to pull back into place at the end of a length. The discomfort men associate with them is social rather than physical, and it lasts about one swim.
Do I have to wear a swim brief in French pools?
Many public pools in France require close fitting swimwear and refuse loose shorts, usually on hygiene grounds. The rule is posted at the entrance and enforced at the door, and it is the reason a great many British and Irish visitors have bought their first swim brief from a vending machine. The French Pool Rule: Where Swim Briefs Are the Law