Don’t Ever Be Ashamed To Shop For American Big And Tall Mens Wear

Most American Men are Bigger These Days

                Big and tall mens wear in the United States has undergone a major transformation with regards to marketing over the past decade. It used to be that mens clothing for larger sizes was really sold as fat mens clothing – meaning that if you were a larger size, you were considered an outcast and a second class citizen in the world of fashion forward males.

                If you ever shopped in a big and tall mens store, you know what we are talking about. The styles were outdated and the fit was terrible. The fabrics, like polyester, were also actually unwearable. So if you weren’t already self-conscious about your larger size, you would be when you left one of these stores.

American Big and Tall Mens Wear

                Believe it or not, this is partially the bigger sized mens fault. This is because men, who are notoriously bad clothes shoppers, absolutely never made their voices heard when it came to big and tall sizes. Most of these guys are what the industry calls ‘end of the rack shoppers’. This means that these guys, who were too embarrassed to shop in the old school men’s fat stores, would go to the end of the rack in the regular department stores and wear the largest sizes sold there.

                The oldest trick was to buy a pair of pants and wear them on the hips with a large gut hanging over the waist band. Another trick was to buy the largest dress shirt possible and wear it unbuttoned with a t-shirt underneath.

                This practice lead American manufacturers to believe that there was no market for big and tall mens clothing. In addition, no American designers wanted to be associated with the existing fat man stores that were the last resort of any clothing shopper. To further put a further end to any progress in larger sized menswear, American women had already vocalized the need for larger clothing, and American designers put all of their efforts for manufacturing larger clothing into this lucrative market.

                Thankfully, all of this has changed in the in the world of big and tall mens wear. Statistically, the average American male has grown one inch taller and become 25 pounds heavier since statistics taken in 1960. At some point, clothing manufacturers had to take this into account. So even though there was not a big outcry from men who need larger sizes, American manufacturers created them anyway.

First off, the labels have changed as the sizes have changed. For example, t-shirt sizes are bigger than they used to be and the larger labels are more forgiving with the way they are sized. Now, instead of the size XXXXXL, making the wearer feel like an elephant, the size is a kinder 5XL. These sizes can also now be found in regular department stores in the same place as you can find regular sized clothing. This move alone takes the stigma away from being banished to shop in the big and tall mens section of the store.

Even stores that sell big and tall mens wear exclusively have more nondescript names. A good example is jeansxlusa.com, an online store that sell fashion forward men’s clothing that is trendy and fits well. An online store like jeansxlusa.comalso allows men to shop from home discreetly and take their time to get the right fit. As well, if there is limited shopping in your area of the country, online stores like this can be a lifesaver. 

So as you can see, the stigma of shopping at fat stores for men is gone as American designers realize that there is money to be made in the fashion forward world of big and tall mens wear.