LycraKeen

Wrestling With Tradition: a NYT article from 2005 about the emergence of the two-piece wrestling uniform.

Yet to the casual observer these [professional wrestling] costumes, or the lack thereof, are less humiliating than the wrestling uniforms that adolescent and collegiate competitors have endured for the last century. From the high-waisted tights of the 1920′s to the three-piece tank, stirrup tights and shorts combo of the 50′s to the modern-day singlet mandated by athletic organizations for at least four decades – basically an oversize jockstrap with suspenders – they may be the most mocked athletic uniform in existence, but they are part of a sport that above all values tradition.

The article then describes the two-piece:

The new outfit more closely resembles a superhero’s ensemble, a skintight T-shirt tucked into skintight shorts, like something the cyclist Lance Armstrong would wear. Compared to the singlet, its design is conservative, but it has touched off a smackdown among coaches, regulators and manufacturers over what two-piece uniforms will do for the sport.

I like the singlet because it holds my junk just right, something the shorts don’t always do well. Also, we have to acknowledge that the singlet is part of what makes wrestling the sport that it is by giving its athletes their own look. Don’t make them look like cyclists. Nevertheless, Keith Boykin likes the two-piece, saying he never liked the singlet.

While I still prefer the singlet, I don’t mind the extra variety of lycra available to us. I’m just thinking that once some guy’s dick flops out because the shorts got pulled down, there will be an outcry to go back to the modesty of the singlet.

More reading: here, here, here, and here.

Double Sport Apparel is the company that started this whole two-piece thing.