Fashion Labels Say The "Average" Guy Needs Extra Large

By Brian Patrick Byrne and Kaitlyn Kelly

If your pants don’t fit right, you might be wearing the wrong size. Or it might be because the world’s biggest clothing brands are mislabeling the clothes they sell you.

The average American man aged 20 or over has a waist measuring 39.7 inches. That figure wasn’t invented by a fashion designer—it’s taken from a 2007-2010 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of over 20,000 people. Yet all of the world’s biggest retail, apparel and luxury clothing companies suggest he needs XL—and if he shops at Zara, he may need XXL.

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According to Nike, H&M, Coach and Adidas, a man with a waist of 39.7 inches is an extra large. At Walmart, Ralph Lauren and Target, large stops at 38 inches, so the average man is likely better suited to extra large, which begins at 40 inches. Spanish import Zara, which specializes in slim-fitted clothing, and which a 2012 Economist report said is likely unsuitable for Americans, who tend to prefer a classic, regular fit, states in its men’s measurement guide that XL ends at 37.8 inches, which means the average man will need to stretch to XXL. That’s only if he’s looking for sport trousers, track suits, shorts or underwear—Zara’s official size guide does not even list jeans and suit trouser sizes for men with waists measuring 39.7 inches.

Zara is not alone in holding back some size details for what the CDC says is an average waist; H&M only publishes relevant measurements for its “pants & tops” category, and fails to specify which stack of jeans male customers with a waist above 38 inches will need to root through at one of their stores to find a pair that fits.

If every retail, apparel and luxury clothing company on Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 most valuable brands is to be believed, the regular man would measure no larger than 35 inches around the waist. A man with a 35-inch waist would wear medium at Nike and Adidas, but he’d need to measure half an inch smaller to squeeze into the same size at H&M, and 33.5 inches to fit into an M at Walmart, Coach, Ralph Lauren or Target. At Zara, to wear a medium in sport trousers, track suits, shorts or underwear, he’d have to measure no more than 33.1 inches around his waist.

We’re gonna need a bigger belt.

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