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6 Best Shirt Stays and Shirt Garters for Men
- By Tug Samarreta
- Published: November 24, 2024
Our approach to content is the same as our approach to building a great wardrobe: it's about quality, not quantity. We only recommend products we believe in and would buy for ourselves or a friend.
Shirt stays are one of the most well-known products designed to keep your shirt tucked.
Shirt stays go by many names, including shirt garters, shirt holders, shirt locks, shirt stay belts, shirt straps, and a few others.
You’re probably already familiar with the most common type of shirt stay, which is the traditional shirt stay.
But, I’ve recently been introduced to some other types, so I thought why not outline the six primary types of shirt stays currently available?
Hint: When you’re done reading this article, checkout my 13+ Best Ways To Keep Your Shirt Tucked article!
1. Traditional Shirt Stays
Traditional shirt stays are the ones most folks recognize.
They’re best described as elastic straps that clip to the bottom of your shirt on one end and either clip to the top of your socks or wrap around your foot at the other end.
There are different types, including straight shirt stays and y-clip shirt stays, but this type extends from the bottom of your shirt to your socks or foot.
Shirt Stay Plus
My pals over at Real Men Real Style, Alpha M, and Teaching Men’s Fashion regularly recommend the shirt stays from Sharp & Dapper, but the ones from Shirt Stay Plus have gotten some pretty amazing reviews over on Amazon (Price: $20).
They also have created this informative image showing the different types of shirt stays I mentioned above.
Where to buy: Amazon
2. Shirt Garters
Instead of connecting to your foot or sock, these attach to a band around your thigh.
NV S-Holder
I didn’t know that these garter-style shirt stays existed until I came across the NV S-Holder Kickstarter campaign. They finished their campaign with an impressive 2,343 backers pledging $101,193.
The brand now offers their garter shirt stays in three sizes (based on your thigh circumference) and three colors (black, beige, red-black). They have tons of great reviews too.
Where to buy: Amazon
Mr. Shirt
As far as I know, Mr. Shirt offers one of the only American Made garter-style shirt stays. Mr. Shirt has been veteran owned and operated since 2014.
These bad boys come with a 100% money-back guarantee too.
Where to buy: Amazon
Comfy Clothiers — Garter-Style Men’s Shirt Stays
Check out these adjustable elastic shirt garters with locking, non-slip clips.
Where to buy: Amazon
3. Shirt Stay Belts
I’ve covered this type of shirt stay fairly well in my Best Ways To Keep Your Shirt Tucked article, but I will touch on them briefly here.
Shirt stay belts are semi-thin elastic or rubber belts (with anti-slip texture) that you wrap around the bottom of your shirt.
Once you put your pants on, the friction between your pants and the shirt stay belt can further assist in keeping your shirt tucked.
There are several different types and brands, including:
TCKYOU
Offers both traditional shirt stays and shirt stay belts. Adjustable, so you can get the best fit. TCKYOU offers both traditional shirt stays and shirt stay belts. Plus, they’re adjustable so you can get the best fit.
Where to buy: TCKYOU.com
Hidden Tailor: Rubber Belt
This type of rubberized shirt stay belt comfortably holds your shirt in place without the elastic straps of traditional shirt stays.
Where to buy: Amazon
Tucker Shirt Stays
This brand’s shirt stay features a clasp that hooks onto your bottom shirt button.
Note: Please see the comments section of this article down below. A commenter suggests that many people are not receiving their orders from Tucker. Please do your research before making a purchase.
Where to buy: Tucker Shirt Stays
Tucker Shirt Stay Update: After coming across the information and comments in this article, one of the founders of Tucker Shirt Stays contacted me regarding patent and copyright infringement from a knock-off brand named “Near Shirt Stays”.
Beltaway’s Tuck-N-Stay
This product is similar to Tucker Shirt Stays, though it has a button hole instead of a clasp for securing the belt to your shirt.
Where to buy: Amazon
4. Tabs
This category of shirt stay comes in several varieties as well, which I’ve also covered in my article on how to keep your shirt tucked.
I’ve also discussed a few in my article on how to keep pants up without suspenders.
These tabs attach to the inside and outside of your shirt, and the outer stay tab provides friction to keep your shirt from coming untucked.
These shirt tuckers include products like:
Where to buy: PantsProp
5. Shirt Gripper Strips & Pads
Another variation of a shirt stay attaches either temporarily or permanently to the inside of the pants waistband.
They include products such as:
- Sewn or glued in shirt gripper tape
- Mayka Toy Block Tape (Amazon) – thanks to my friend Lori, who is a flight attendant, for offering up this recommendation. Just use a glue gun to attach the tape to the inside waistband of your pants
- Freddy’s Waistband InvisibleBelt (Amazon) – only has 3-star rating
The main problems I have found, from personal experience, with the shirt gripper products that attach to the inside waistband of pants are:
- The grippers are fairly thin and shallow, so you still need to wear a tight belt
- The shirt gripper makes it a bit more difficult to retuck the shirt
6. Underwear Shirt Stays
This product category encompasses any underwear that has integrated shirt holding or gripping technology.
Over the years, I’ve seen a few variations of this, such as:
Tukz Underwear
A true hybrid of garters and underwear, available for men and women.
Where to buy: Amazon
Tucked Trunks
Underwear comprised a few inter-joining components, that when assembled, keep your shirt from coming untucked.
Where to buy: Amazon | TELALEO (Amazon) | CROPAL (Amazon)
Frequently Asked Questions
For those interested, here are people’s most frequently asked questions about shirt stays.
In simple terms, shirt stays are elastic (e.g. rubber) straps that fasten to the bottom of your shirt. They are elongated and attached at a second lower point, such as your socks or the bottom of your foot.
The tension allows movement, but also continually pulls the shirt tails downward, helping keep the shirt tucked in.
Yes, generally speaking, most shirt stays do help keep your shirts tucked. However, not all products are created equal, and each different type of shirt stay has its potential drawbacks.
Shirt Stays are believed to have been first invented by the US military in the late 18th century to prevent military uniform shirts from coming untucked during ceremonial parades. In 1910, The Shirt Garter Company (Columbia, Tennessee) sold a shirt garter with the trademark brand “Shir Gar” with their claim of being “The Only and Original Shirt Garter.” These shirt garters are attached to the bottom of the shirt at two points and at two points at the top of the socks.
At that time, they were priced at $4.25 per dozen (around $0.35 each)!
One of the best ways to keep your shirt tucked in all day is to wear shirt stays. There are six different categories, and each type has benefits and drawbacks. Some will do an excellent job of keeping your shirt tucked but may make other things a bit less convenient, like going to the bathroom.
Shirts come untucked for a variety of reasons. It most commonly occurs when someone reaches up, extends their arms upward, or sits down. Shirts generally stay tucked when your arms are resting by your side, so when extended, it pulls the material upward and out of your pants.
Since the waistline of your pants fits closely and is more taught when wearing a belt, your tucked-in shirt can’t slide back down into your pants without something pulling it back down.
No. Shirt stays (shirt garters) are worn under your clothing and generally remain unseen.
Most who wear shirt stays say that it takes a bit to become accustomed to the feeling of wearing them. Initially, wearing them may feel slightly awkward; however with regular wear, you will get used to them.
Traditional shirt stays are reported to be the most effective product currently available. Traditional stays come in several different styles, including straight, stirrup, y-style, and other minor variations.
Not really. You’d need two suspenders to get the same result. You may be able to re-purpose an old pair of suspenders, but you’re likely better off just purchasing a set of shirt stays.
Other Types of Shirt Stays?
Did I miss any other types of shirt stays? If so, please tell me about them in the comments section below!
About Tug Samarreta
Tug Samarreta is the world's undershirt & underwear expert. He is also one of the most knowledgeable individuals on sweat management solutions, men's shapewear, grooming, and new fabric technologies. Got a question? Visit the contact page and send a message.
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