It’s getting late and you want to say something special to your sweetheart. You put on your new male underwear designed by Noveen Benoir of Totally Random and then the words start to flow off your …ummm underwear . The uniquely designed underwear that actually do the sexy talking for you are the latest creation from Miss Benior. Of course she has also made a clean version, but the adult version is way to cool  not to wear for that special moment. They come in a wide assortment of colors and even have an attached prim to give you that manly look when needed.  A pair for your male sweetheart would make a great Valentines Day Gift!

  Totally Random & Walsh Photographs, Oceanus Island (81,212,210)

~~~28~~~

Spent 7 hours in Manchester City Centre yesterday Xmas Shopping….Nearly all done…just one lil trip to the Trafford Centre should see it completed. It was so heavy carrying it all back to Piccadily train station….Im shattered. Managed to get the girls Clubland outfits sorted too…remind me never to take four 15 yr old clubbers to Afflecks Palace….Cost me a fortune !!!

Outraged!!

JAIL DRUG BILL SOARS TO £40M Taxpayers are paying nearly £40million a year for the treatment

TAXPAYERS…Yes…You and I… are paying nearly £40million a year to provide methadone and drug addiction treatment for convicted prisoners, according to new figures.The sum – paid for from NHS budgets – has spiralled since jails lost a court case after being sued by inmates.They claimed that being forced to go  “cold turkey” – to suddenly withdraw from drugs – was a breach of their human rights. This failture to provide medical care for withdrawal from drugs ended up with 200 prisoners each winning £4,000 in compensation.Heroin substitutes are now allowed by the Ministry of Justice. But the bill has rocketed from £8million in 2006/07 to last year’s £39.7million.

CHRISTMAS PARTY DRESS SQUEEZE

MANY women will buy a Christmas party dress one size too small this year – then fail to squeeze into it.A quarter of them admit using the ruse as an incentive to try to lose weight before over-indulging on festive treats.But only half of those will manage to slim down enough to get into their new purchase, while the other half will either leave it mouldering at the back of the wardrobe or take it back to the shop.The average woman splashes out £68 on a new dress to look her best at the office party, according to research commissioned by nutrition company ­Herbalife.Almost half have a target weight in mind to hit before December 25 and the average amount they want to lose is 11lb.Marketing director Gavin Aley said: “Often dieters set themselves unrealistic targets and this can have a negative impact, leaving them feeling as though they have failed.“Panic dieting in order to lose weight quickly for an event or special occasion can often be counter-productive in the long run. After a ‘crash’ diet like this, the bad eating habits inevitably creep back in and people often end up heavier than they were when they started.“The key is to take a long-term view and change all the bad behaviours that led to putting weight back on rather than just suppressing them for a short while.“If you lose weight gradually it will make it easier to keep the weight off.”According to the study of 4,000 women, a third of them always go on a diet before Christmas but only one in five keeps the weight off permanently.Forty per cent of those who did manage to fit into their new dress said they needed help with the zip. Of those who did not manage to squeeze themselves into the dress, only one in three bothered to take it back to the shop.Six out of 10 women said they wanted to lose weight to boost their confidence and 13 per cent said they were slimming to impress a man.The good news is that almost seven out of 10 women planned to lose weight through healthy eating and one in five said they would cut back on the booze.Eight in 10 reckon diets are more successful when they have something to aim for, such as the Christmas bash. But the average woman put on 7lb after reaching her desired weight.

Touching

Lingerie

After My Comments the Other Day Regarding Lingerie…Someone asked me what defined Nice Lingerie As opposed to nasty…I must stress…this is only MY opinion

Nasty

Nasty

No Thanks Luv

Ewwwwwwww

Naff

OMG….NOO!!!

Call Me A Cab

Nightmare Time

Much Better

Even Better

Perfect

Beautiful

And Guys…No No No !!!

Why Would You???

Aghhhhh

WTF !!!

Obviously Wants To Remain Single

Funny Mummy

Todays WTF !!

AussieBum lanceert een beperkte reeks van kante boxershorts voor mannen. Bij aussieBum omschrijven ze het als “mannelijk”.

Boxer shorts bearing multiple identities such as loose boxers or simply boxers have been in vogue since 1944. These all-around elastic shorts have got the term ‘boxer’ because of their use by pugilists for boxing their opponents out. Since then, they’ve become a hot property for millions of men worldwide as elegant and comfortable underwear. Unlike briefs, boxer shorts are feature-rich with wide selection of fabric and print design. With the introduction of boxer briefs in 1990, males had the option of choosing something that lies in between.

Traditionally, boxer shorts used to wear the tag of loose fitting cotton undergarments. However, that particular image has changed considerably over the periods of time with the introduction of new styles, shapes and finest of fabrics. Many renowned underwear manufacturers lend a great helping hand by offering variety of designer boxer shorts in order to meet the growing demand of fashion conscious men. Fabrics have got a major facelift with the addition of several super soft and silky ones without even having a trace of silk. A particular type of fabric goes the distance to offer undergarments with anti-bacterial property and fit like a second skin.

Most of the boxer shorts nowadays include certain amount of Lycra to generate the effect of snug and close fitting as these styles of underwear are right on demand by modern men. There are so many replacements of traditional boxer shorts available in the market now and underclothing such as trunks, maxis, boxer briefs and hipsters are ruling the popularity chart to a great extent. The growing importance of men’s underwear can be judged from the fact that fabrics used for ladies lingerie are also put to use for their male counterparts. Some of these excellent fabrics feature cooling and sweat soaking qualities to be adored by active men and sportspersons.

There are many online shopping portals that exclusively deal in wide range of male underwear. If you find the purchase of designer briefs, boxer shorts, trunks and thongs difficult, you must then visit http://www.1underwearstore.com/ for availing quality products at the lowest online price guaranteed. Some of the renowned Calvin Klein undergarments give further boost to its existing rich collection of products. You can get the detailed product information along with its image by visiting the website.

From the BBC News:

“A 58-year-old man who fed pigeons wearing only a skimpy thong which was back to front has been fined £150.”

What on earth were pigeons doing wearing thongs?

Oh no, now I see what they were trying to say. It was the man who was wearing it. And after all, he was only feeding pigeons. You could get a lesser fine for killing them. Totally unreasonable.

As to whether it was back to front, with some crack slicers it’s not that easy to tell, so I would recommend something like this for those men who are not quite sure which way to wear it:

Asdumark didn’t respond to emails about their underwear advertising claims in GQ Magazine: ‘award winning’ designer underwear and promoting male fertility or helping spermatogenesis.

So I wondered what GQ Magazine would say about these adverts?

An apology about offending me. I have to say (what I also said to them), I wasn’t offended. Just concerned at claims being made without evidence.

A couple of polite emails from GQ about how they take their adverts seriously, meanwhile indicating that they were passing my enquiry on to the right person to deal with this: always a nice customer service touch.

And a few days later, not just an answer, but an outcome! GQ are serious. Which really goes to reinforce GQ’s quality image.

The advert will remain unchanged in the next issue. (It’s in printing… and, hey, it’s not exactly worth stopping the presses for.)

After that, the copy will change, dropping the fertility / spermatogenesis reference, but keeping the ‘award winning’, as the product really has won awards. Will it keep the quote marks though?

Mundo Único has been rewarded as a symbol of a painstakingly sought excellence. DUPONT has rewarded the designs as follows:

2001	First Place in Men’s Underwear Fashion
	Second Place in Men’s Beach
2002	Third place in Men’s Underwear Fashion
	Third Place in Men’s Beach Fashion
	Special Mention in Design

Why was it so hard to say this in the first place?!

I still have no idea what competition DuPont were awarding prizes in. Is this the Grand Prix of underwear awards?

I feel a little let down by these awards, both for distant dates and the lack of final touches of information. But if this had been on the site to start with, I’d probably just have passed over it and bought something anyway.

Incidentally, DuPont invented lycra – and lycra is used in the Unico Triple X range.

The final piece of this new section is:

However, the most important reward is the exclusivity and design recognition that Mundo Único uses to captivate its customers, adorning different showcases around the world.

Why was it so hard to write this in the first place?!

And you know what? Instead of all that inadequately backed up claims stuff, if the adverts just had catchy phrasing like this, I’d have thought, “Wow, looks good, sounds good.” Why? Because the designs really are different. Where patterns are involved, they’re obviously distinctive. Where the structure of the underwear is concerned, it too has an obviously distinctive shape – which other brands are starting to copy. Even so, still distinctive.

By the way – although I wasn’t going to say, the underwear is rather good.

While every care has been taken to ensure that the information in this website is accurate, both the owner and designers of the site, cannot accept any responsibility for omissions or inaccuracies appearing, or for any consequences arising therefrom.

Fine, everyone likes to have one of these, regardless of how much care has actually been taken. (Just like companies put disclaimers on emails, which aren’t that well tested in court.) But are you really sure as a retailer you can’t accept any responsibility for your website content?

And no responsibility even for the Design Theory text about the suspensor design…?

The suspensors unique design gives anatomical positioning to the penis and testicles while keeping separation between the body and the genitals allowing a lower testicular temperature in order to help spermatogenesis.

Well, the anatomical positioning is about as clear as it gets …

But spotted that bit about helping spermatogenesis?

Just because it’s copy on a website doesn’t make it right!

I’m surprised they haven’t found press articles and even a bit of cod-piece science to hold it up – though not firmly medically proven, at least to give it a little populist buff. Although there are other ways to avoid misrepresentation.

Package 10 – Big claims, small response, and the consequence of ignoring a potential customer

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Back in November I found an underwear advert from AsdruMark that I thought was making big claims without evidence.

Time for an update.

Now broadcasting icon Jeremy Paxman has complained about underwear, (inter)national awareness is up and it’s safe for men to come out of the top drawer.

The advert text has changed. Here’s before and after.

But what difference do the changes make?

Removal of the quotation marks around “internationally acclaimed”, that’s fine. Though now not ironic, I do still wonder how we can know that the underwear is internationally acclaimed?

However, the quotes are still there around ‘award winning’. Why? What is an ‘award’ that can be ‘won’? Marketing blurb or not, they’ve either won at least one award or they haven’t. Okay, it’s a short ad in a small space, but why doesn’t the website say what this ‘award winning’ is?

The Collection blurb is fine. I now understand that there are people who collect underwear. I wonder if it’s like haute couture, where clothes are tax-deductible if given to a museum (in applicable tax jurisdictions). However, selling used underwear on e-Bay is not permitted.

The blurb about the comfort and support of the design is fine, although whether they work for an individual will depend on body shape. Besides, it would hardly make sense for them to say the underwear is uncomfortable, or to be the butt of publicity like Paxman’s about the lack of support and gusset anxiety.

But it’s still the headline claim that bothers me. “The unique suspensor design promotes male fertility” has evolved into “The ’suspensor’ design helps Spermatogenesis.”

Replacing fertility with spermatogenesis seems neat. A nice, fancy medical term, it’s just got to impress people, knowing it’s the “process by which male spermatogonia develop into mature spermatozoa”.

Indeed the Unico Design Theory quoted on AsdruMark’s site may mean the product “gives anatomical positioning to the penis and testicles while keeping separation between the body and the genitals allowing a lower testicular temperature in order to help spermatogenesis.”

The theory may well be appropriate (what I’ve read says it is, so I’m not disputing theory). It’s the evidence I want.

This still looks like a MEDICAL claim. Drug literature has to be really careful about medical claims. See, in the UK, Medicines and Healthcare products regulatory Agency(MRHA), A guide to what is a medicinal product (2007). In the US, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will deal with this.

So I don’t see how underwear can get away with this. How many more sperm will a man produce and how much better in quality? And if I’m not mistaken, improving healthy sperm production is an important claim to those who care! And indeed, medical devices have legislation and guidance, look down for Medical Devices Directive (MRHA website). The MDD even covers first aid bandages.

The one amusement I can pull out of this is the spelling of Spermatogenesis with capital S. Imagine the (Greek?) football team Spermatogenesis, playing in white – home or away -, running out onto the pitch.

By comparison, in the same January issue of GQ (page 113, if you care), head & shoulders ran and ad “for blokes who love a result”, making a claim “for outstanding dandruff protection and a difference you can see and feel.” This was supported by – in very, very small print, but it was still there – “Claim based on visibility of flakes at 2 feet when used regularly.” Arguably short on detail, but you could at least see what they were aiming at.

Okay, AsdruMark’s is a small print ad, not so much space.

Still nothing on the website.

So I emailed AsdruMark. Twice. I even invited them to comment on this series of posts. It seemed polite to invite response to public criticism.

No reply. Not a shred about the suspensor design and spermatogenesis, nor about “internationally acclaimed” and “‘award winning’”.

The acclaim and awards should have been easy to answer. For the design claim, even I’d found out there was a doctor involved in the design.

The lack of knowledgeable response is poor product awareness. The lack of response at all is poor customer service.

And for that, AsdruMark, in my home country, lost my business.

If AsdruMark respond, I’ll publish.

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 9 – Buying Mundo Unico online

Package 11 – Advertising and reality

Underwear gets mainstream exposure as Jeremy Paxman’s private email to Marks & Spencer is slipped to the press.

In interview, Paxman refuses to reveal if he wears boxers or briefs. We wait for comments from “sources close to the seat of power”.

Paxman complained to Sir Stuart Rose, M&S Chairman, that M&S men’s underwear doesn’t provide enough support.

Sir Stuart rose to this by offering to take Jeremy to lunch with a range of M&S underwear. Jeremy declined the underwear. Perhaps lettuce should be the only shreddies for lunch?

Talking with his friends and acquaintances “revealed widespread gusset anxiety”. Perhaps Jeremy should buy a brand which offers a “suspensor design“, claims for which started me writing about underwear marketing a couple of months ago. As he has three children, he probably doesn’t worry much about spermatogenesis.

Will it affect M&S’s business? Reports in the press about M&S’s business may well lead one to wonder if there won’t be a business issue, though it may be an opportunity for M&S to put things right:

In the busy three-month run-up to Christmas, M&S’s share of its core lingerie market fell by 3% when measured by value, according to leaked research.

Ten days ago Rose announced poor Christmas trading with a 2.2% fall in like-for-like sales. “We have to compete with Tesco and Asda on men’s underpants,” he said.

One in four men wears [M&S] pants and we are the largest lingerie and underwear retailer in the UK by a long shot – we sell four times as much as our nearest competitor.

For the frenzied UK press reaction to this story, sources and further dangly bits of news and information:

• Paxman goes to war with M&S: ‘Their pants no longer provide adequate support’, Daily Mail (20 Jan) … the second half of which reads like a gentle promotion of M&S. The Mail on Sunday appears to have been the first to report this… what a scoop! (Arguably, it’s a pity the world’s news isn’t this trivial.)
• Jeremy Paxman tells M&S of angst in his pants, Times Online (20 Jan, from Sunday Times), Arts & Entertainment … WHY is it Arts & Entertainment?! Shouldn’t it have been in Life & Style?
• Paxman ’smalls’ talk with retailer, Daily Star (20 Jan) … which despite appearing in their online Celeb News section, they really didn’t make an effort over.
• Paxman to meet M&S over underwear, BBC Online (21 Jan) … quite apart from the intrinsic news value, Jeremy Paxman is a heavyweight political interviewer on the BBC’s Newsnight and current presenter of the BBC’s University Challenge.
• Jeremy Paxman stretches his brief to tackle M&S over lack of support, Times Online (21 Jan), Life & Style… or was it entertaining news on Sunday, but stylish by Monday? Certainly by Monday it was worth appearing knowledgeable, so this article included a short (or just brief?) history of pants.
• Great Pants Debate, Daily Express (21 Jan) … with a little more pants history.
• Jeremy Paxman lambasts lax underwear, The Telegraph (21 Jan) … where several men in the public eye feel no discomfort in letting the world know what their wear is, where?, yes, there.
• Paxman raises the big issue for British men: do M&S pants give enough support?, The Independent (21 Jan) … managed a more tongue-in-cheek article than most, or perhaps it just had more words.
• Paxman to talk pants with M&S chief after complaining about state of nation’s undies, The Scotsman (21 Jan) … where you can read about the Pant-Share-Ratio, known inside M&S as the Stuart Pant Index, which compares the price of M&S underwear with their share price.
• Paxman raises smalls problem with M&S, The Guardian (21 Jan) … whose reporter really didn’t seem to take an interest.
• Jeremy Paxman in Marks & Spencer underwear complaint, Sunday Mirror (21 Jan) … a rather flat piece of reporting by one of their Showbiz reporters.
• Feared BBC interviewer on warpath over underpants, Reuters (21 Jan) … yes, even Reuters picked this up, so the whole world knows (and it’s not my fault).

For those who don’t know their gusset from their gore, Wikipedia’s gusset page provides a definition, but not as much else as you might hope for.

A gusset is a device, often triangular, used to reinforce a connection between two components. Gussets are used in engineering, sewing and armour.

For helpful pictures to understand the construction of clothing with gussets and gores (one’s cup runneth over, perchance), see Tunic/Coat and Pant Construction at the Renaissance Tailor.

This entry is related to the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Lots of pictures and info already. Now where can you buy or browse them online?

So now you want to buy? Or you just want to browse? Online shopping is perhaps quicker, certainly drier and covers a lot less distance than physical shopping. But you still need to know where you’re going. (And where not to go – more on that later.)

The online shops I’ve found useful so far are below: name, web address (front page) and country they ship from (as far as I know). Shops in this list are here because: they have Mundo Unico available on branded pages. [edit: Well, some claim to, but when you get there, the drawers are bare. On a few of them, use the search option to pull up the brand: "mundo" usually does the trick.] Some have dozens of styles, some carry a only a handful. There are other outlets in other countries, but this can’t be an exhaustive list – though I could add to it. They will probably all ship abroad and may charge in more than one currency. Currency fluctuations may make shopping abroad worthwhile! Mailing rates will vary.

Disclaimer: use this list at your own risk!

Web addresses that aren’t shops

As far as I can tell, the following addresses are not related or are no longer related to the Mundo Unico brand. They lead to sites which claim to be search interfaces for underwear-related sites. They may or may not be legitimate.
- www.unicohome.com and www.unicounderwear.net .

As far as I can tell, the following addresses formerly belonged to legitimate shops. They now point to underwear search sites.
- www.attivousa.com (Attivo USA).

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 8 – Marketing prejudice and perfection

Package 10 – Big claims, small response, and the consequence of ignoring a potential customer

I started with a simple question: “The unique suspensor design promotes male fertility. You’re joking?!”

Nine entries and two weeks in underwear and I’ve found both more and less than I expected. I’ve had to scratch really hard to bring this lot together, but I’ve still got info itch.

I’m nosing into these issues (and possibly other things too), so I will be packaging up some more. But I need a little time,as this is a new area for me to be groping in the dark.

Comments are currently open to all (if I’ve set that up right). Please add some, or anything you’d like to know about, or any answers you have.

And for making it this far, this image at the bottom of the page is completely gratuitous!

Stories of stereotypical advertising, whether unintended bias or outright prejudice, are far from rare – whether it’s about TV, cinema, print or online campaigns.After looking at 30 online stores and 2 fashion shows, I wondered how Mundo Unico’s image comes over. This is, of course, not a scientific head, body or mannequin survey – but first impressions count when shopping: seeing is believing is buying, or not.

MensUnderwearGuy discusses race and the underwear industry very much to the point, with major brand campaign images that will be recognisable to many. I offer this as a first view on Mundo Unico’s image.

In Package 7 – Shooting men in underwear I noted that the online catalogue photographs belonged to fewer sets than shops using them. It’s not clear where they’re sourced from. Also, the number of products sold in any particular shop ranges from less than five to several dozen, and nowhere seems to have all of any photograph set. So, it’s not worth picking on particular shops for “apparently bad” imagery – at this time. That’s the disclaimers done with!

Overall, well … my impression wasn’t good – lots of white, fewer hispanic and yet fewer black guys, whether full body, torso and groin or groin only (including mannequin groins, which are silver or black).

Thumbs up for the official Mundo Unico site – www.unicointerior.com, which is a relief since the company’s Colombian and Columbia has a very diverse population!

Very well done to MensUnderwearStore.com, see the images at top as examples – and also for a diverse range of poses with faces.

Honourable mention (and range of poses with faces) to Audace, whose images were featured in Package 7.

The best I can say here is that Mundo Unico itself uses an ethnically diverse photograph set, but most of the outlets don’t. What this reflects isn’t clear. Mundo Unico don’t seem to be promoting themselves as a brand in the same way as the huge international companies, such as Calvin Klein, can afford to and insist on by controlling campaigns at regional and higher levels. Is this in fact because they don’t or can’t (at this stage) require particular photo sets to be used or insist on particular balances within a shoot to be maintained?

MensUnderwearStore.com also score extra points for featuring a range of body types from muscular to slim/lean.

Moda Audaci also deserve a mention … for obvious navel-down “treasure trail” hair. (Though no chest hair. There’s none of that anywhere!)

Mundo Unico’s fashion show photos – featured in Package 5 – are diverse, but not just ethnically (as one might expect). If you look carefully, the faces are different, I think, from the faces we’ve been presented in western media. There isn’t an obsession with perfect symmetry. Another feature is that the guys don’t all have perfect skin, which is, I believe, very unusual.

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 7 – Shooting men in underwear

Package 9 – Buying Mundo Unico online

What’s the best shot to sell you underwear when you can’t touch?

Prefer full-frontal, side view, or backside? Close-up and personal or whole body shot?

I visited 30 online shops which sell Mundo Unico, and others that don’t, while researching this brand.

I noticed that the photographs belong to a smaller number of photo shoots. The shots are posed in different but distinctive styles, and the pictures cropped in different but distinctive ways. Also, the product galleries and product pages are presented with different structures.

These images are all from thumbnail, product galleries, most of which lead to a larger version of the same image on-site. Each image here has a comment – hover over them with the mouse to see.

What’s effective for online or catalogue sales?

A: simple poses, leg to head.
B: He might look natural if there’s a background, whether it looks like a real place or not.
C: Let’s pretend he’s doing something interesting in these poses.
D: Chop his head off, then cross his arms to make him look muscley.
E: Crop his torso tighter and tighter. Then go arty black-and-whiter.
F: Slimmer or musclier. Then cropped as tight as tight can be.
G: We couldn’t afford a model, so mannequin crotch will do.
H: Front and rear, because you have to see both sides of the story.
I: So many colours, so little space.
J: My cup runneth over with enthusiasm.
K: It’s all in the details.

What sells? Some of the sites really fail to sell me the goods. Here’s my thoughts on garment gallery pages – for if you lose me here at the shop window, I may not come in or ever come back.

There’s a trade-off between image size, image content and quality. In print, advertising space and catalogue pages costs money. But on the web, it just depends how you design pages which show multiple items or single products – cost is more or less only down to models and photographers, or buying in stock photos if the manufacturer doesn’t supply them.

For items in different colours, the effect of overall garment colour can’t be shown with a little square of “imagine this”. The same goes for patterns. Equally, the same colour or pattern on a different cut may or may not work for different people.

If the model’s going to be cropped, make it a clean cut! No half chins or necks. For background, make it plain and undistracting, make the contrast with the garment work, and make sure objects don’t intrude or distract when cropped.

As for poses, they can bring some welcome variety, but headless posers are just weird. Sexy, sophisticated or fun – and isn’t that what designer wear is about? – isn’t just stand-like-this-there-with-that. It takes a bit of chemistry in the model’s eyes and attitude, and a photographer who can bring it out. Even a torso shot can have this, but clearly not all do.

While it’s so much more convenient to have displays of plastic crotches in a shop – you don’t have to feed or pay them – a mannequin is not a man. Online they just look cheap.

If you must put logos or other stuff on the images, keep them out the way of the clothes.

Front, sides and back matter, because colour, pattern and cut matter, because words don’t impress me much. I don’t want to look an like an ass in them, I want to have a fine one (whether it’s mine or not).

Show me detail – let the garments say, “see me, feel me”. If the garment’s got quality workmanship, be proud (in spirit, not boasts), show me, impress me much! Fabric, waistband, fastenings, stitching (outside and inside). Doesn’t have to be for every pair, there can be too much of a good thing.

Don’t airbrush or pad the crotch (that includes over-inflated mannequin crotch), it shows when you cheat. I know you’re selling me a little fantasy, but cheating with plastic isn’t upstanding model behaviour.

Slim, lean or muscular models… hmmm, open on that one – probably depends on who you think you’re going to persuade to buy! I can probably work things out, but only if you provide decent sizing information. Variety of models suggest you believe your product will be of value to a range of people – not just (excuse the stereotypes!) muscle marys or emo waifs. Of course they need clothes too, as does everyone in between or outside this range. Fashion isn’t just for the hyper-fit or ultra-slim.

If you’re feeling technically savvy… sometimes I’ll choose a pattern/colour first and then the design, sometimes design first – there’s more than one way to arrange images and pages to achieve this. It’s nice to have the choice of approaches, like being in a well laid-out shop, not digging through the bargain bin.

An imponderable… why do products change name when sold by different shops? Just curious!

Passing thought, if there’s season information, let me have that too! Although that’s probably for the really well-organised shops. I might not really be interested, but it gives an additional sense of your professionalism.

Thank you for listening!

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 6 – Cutting the cloth to fit

Package 8 – Marketing prejudice and perfection

Bikinis, boxers, boxer briefs, boxer shorts, briefs, full cut boxers, g-strings, jock straps, long underwear, low-rise briefs, mid-rise briefs, string bikinis, tangas, thongs, trunks … and whatever else the underwear industry can throw at us.

Would you know the difference if one hit you in the face?

Probing questions

Underwear, “overwear”, “outerwear”, swimwear and just “wear”. Does underwear only make sense if it’s worn under something?

Is overwear or outerwear only the stuff of Superman, or is that just underwear from the Land Down Under?

Has the contemporary post-jail, post-gang sagging style created “peek-a-boo-wear”?, to show off your branded waistband and insane patterns.

How are sportswear and underwear linked? Is swimwear just underwear that doesn’t come off in the water?

Is “underware” metallic like tableware, intimate clothing with a chastity belt shine? As for “unmentionables”, there’s little point in talking about those.

It’s enough to get your knickers in a twist, as the flustered say in the UK.

The bottom line is that what counts as underwear or not depends on various things. For example, clothes with a completely or partially open fly aren’t acceptable in most places, so they’re underwear (or undone outerwear) at the moment – a design factor with social implications or a social factor with design implications.

Some garments start out in one place and end up in another: pants, shirts and t-shirts started out as undergarments, derived from long underwear, particularly in the form of union suits and long johns. Swimwear, beachwear, sportswear and nightwear design are interwoven with the design of undergarments adapting from and to each with function-appropriate materials and cuts. In any case, underwear or at least garments which cover the genitals have a long history back to prehistoric times, Ötzi the Iceman’s breechcloth, and spread across the world in various forms as the loincloth (the French term cache-sexe – “hide genitals” is more direct that “loincloth”) or the many ways to tie the 2,000-plus year-old Japanese fundoshi.

Design for

The reasons behind the designs of male (and similarly female) underwear and the changes to them are seated in a mixture of:

• hygiene – changeable and washable with less effort than larger garments, breathability enabling better wicking (moisture dissipation) to reduce bacterial or fungal growth (e.g. tinea cruris);
• comfort – against rubbing of skin or other clothes, or maintaining warmth or coolness (sports compression shorts are for muscle warmth, not genital protection);
• protection – especially for sport or strenuous activity for example, where crushing or twisting of the genitals may be a risk (e.g. the numerous varieties of jockstrap, and dance belts or thong jock);
• religious significance;
• modesty – not showing things which aren’t socially acceptable, Westeners found the loincloth indecent;
• social – age and gender issues show up in the way shorts are handled in different societies;
• eroticism – showing things for effect, or not showing them in such a way as to achieve the same effect;
• adaptation – changes to other clothes change the way existing ones function, such as the mediaeval codpiece which covered the otherwise open crotch of the hose (leggings) as doublet (upper garment) lengths grew shorter, or the more recent fashion of sagging which reveals the area below the navel and most of the crotch, so underwear adapted to have a lower waistband still or use the now-revealed waistband and fabric to fresh effect;
• innovation – new fabrics or construction methods make new designs possible, such as elastic which could initially replace drawstrings with a band inside the waistband or fly fastenings with a self-closing opening, and then as fully elastic materials emerged could change the shaping of the entire garment;
• fashion – when it becomes cool to talk about design or belong to a cultural brand tribe, or having garments that match in design or pattern another cultural phenomenon becomes cool (army camouflage, for example);
• money – it’s not cynicism rearing its head, surely just good economics;
• fertility – not to forget this! … it’s where these blog entries began, on claims about a suspensor design that “promotes fertility”.

Two fabrics to watch are:

• bamboo fabric – water-absorbent, anti-bacterial, insulating
• soy fabric – also called vegetable cashmere, very smooth texture, uses raw material that would otherwise be wasted.

A Matter of Size

I’d hoped to get to the point of producing a nice little table of garment names with features. There will be one, but first the features to take into account – my list isn’t quite the same as others.

• waistband position – this can range anywhere from navel (high-rise) down to just above the penis, but hip level (low-rise) to half-way between there and navel (mid-rise) looks to be the “usual position”. Really, as waist size and height aren’t (as far as I know) especially linked, where the waistband sits for any product will depend on how tall you are.
• inseam – the actual distance from the crotch seam to the leg hem. This is at least a consistent measurement, but leg length will still change the position of the leg hem relative to the thigh.
• panels -
  • front – ranges from a pouch through a pouched panel to a flat fit, and the panel can be from narrow to broad.
  • back – ranges from nothing through cover for the buttocks to cover down the legs; also the seat design can vary from a single panel to two or three, depending on where the seam is placed.
  • sides – ranges from nothing through side-vents down to matching the front seam length. The sides are not usually separate panels of materials, but are descriptive of the region.
• waistband thickness – this is important when trying to tell thongs from g-strings. But with styles that have broad waistbands, the waistband might be considered to contribute to the vertical material length above the crotch.
• support structure – some underwear are constructed with support for the front panel (which is the point of men’s underwear!) that wouldn’t be affected by panels being added or removed, or the structure could be strengthened.
• material – elasticated panel material fits snug to the skin, non-elasticated material drops.
• leg hem – elasticated material creates a design that sits still.
• fly – none, mock fly (styled but not working), open, buttons, cloth flap, other fasteners, even a zip.

Now here’s that table, according to me. In the end, much of this is a matter of degree. Designers will find more ways to play with the features. And with only fluffy definitions, designers and the marketeers will call them by any name convenient! Hipsters, for example, they might be low-rise boxer briefs? But getting the perfect image to show each of these? The images are mostly from MaleBasics’ Unico pages, with others from the AsdruMark Unico Gallery and Men’s MICRO Sexy Swimwear by DORE (on eBay). They are matched to an item despite any product name they may be given.

item	description	image
micro pouch	pouch only, no fly, supported by cord around waist.
thong	may cover all of the following or be just one type, none have a fly G-string - thin material or string from pouch between buttocks, connected to a (string-thickness) waistband V-string - like a G-string, but with a (small) triangular piece of material where the groin string joins the waistband thong - perhaps with more material in both places.
jockstrap	like a thong, also no fly, but with two straps connected from the base of the pouch to the waistband, each passing under one buttock.
bikini	full rear coverage, no (or little) side panel material, narrow or triangular front panel, no flytanga – unclear whether there is a general distinction between this and the male bikini (which only has a lower part).
brief	full rear coverage, top of the thigh, with or without (working) fly
trunks	full rear coverage, mid to top of thigh, tight at leg hem, if there’s a working fly it’s probably doubled material
boxer brief	full rear coverage, mid to top of thigh, tight at leg hem, (usually) a working fly
boxer	full rear coverage, (just above) mid-thigh, (usually) loose at leg hem (especially if called boxer shorts), (usually) a working fly (often buttons or open)

Gourdy solution

Alternatively to all these options – and this might catch on in some places if the climate becomes warmer -, we might see the koteka catch on. Gourds farming would see a boom. Though the koteka is perhaps not best suited to rush hour on the Underground, or being hit in the face with.

If you can’t touch, look! Check out Mundo Unico at the Colombiamoda 2006 and 2007 shows.

Beyond looking at photos of men in underwear, or even assessing the underwear - mail order requires a leap of faith -, there may be a point in posting these. But not today.

Colombiamoda is an annual fashion fair in Medellín, Colombia, organized by Inexmoda.

Colombiamoda 2007 – Pasarela Unico Interior (galleries on GENTE ELITE.COM). (The official site for Colombiamoda 2007 wasn’t fully functional when I visited.)

Colombiamoda 2006 – Pasarela Unico (Colombiamoda 2006 Official site) Mundo Unico’s exhibitor information (in spanish). The first of these pictures shows a “ruana”, the Colombian word for the poncho – the traditional wrap-around cape, after which they named the season’s collection “Unico de Ruana”.

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 4 – Missing the awards

Package 6 – Cutting the cloth to fit

Still can’t find information on awards for Mundo Unico underwear. Hmmm? No idea what the significance of this is. But if they have won awards, like it said in the advert in Package 1 – Big claims, we should be told!

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 3 – Lifting the nuggets

Package 5 – Showing off in public

After much and inconvenient rooting around to find out the background to Mundo Unico underwear, at last I hit the gold seam: the story behind fashion and fertility with a social conscience.

I eventually located the Mundo Unico site, which as it’s “under construction” looks somewhat frayed. The U.S. (“Our Company”) and German (“Über uns” – About us) sections, though not yet the Colombian part, contain company information, which should be authoratative. Indeed it may be, but it’s surprising how differently the messages are tailored for these two markets.

Our Company

Established in 1996 by Nicolas Echeverri, a well known designer in Latin America and Europe, Unico brought new ideas and designs to the market; always keeping in mind that underwear must be comfortable and sexy.

Our company understands the need for quick response, dependability and convenience in today’s retail business market. For those reasons, Unico, which is manufactured out of Colombia, South America, has a Distribution center located in Miami, FL with more than 80,000 units in stock ready to ship to our customers in the US, CANADA & ASIA. This guarantees you to have our merchandise at your store 3 to 5 days after placing an order.

Our Product

Mundo Unico and Triple XXX feature more than 85 styles, 15 colors, and 5 sizes. We carry items ranging from the most classic styles to daring and unique designs featuring an array of vibrant colors.

Our collection includes Underwear, Body Suits, T-Shirts, Sleep Wear and Swimwear with comfort being the foremost aspect of design.

We at Unico believe that continued innovation is a key for retail success and we are proud to offer new collections every 6 months. We also offer the flexibility to customize our products according to your needs under our private labels programs.

History

Nicolas Echeverri presented his designer fashion collection in Paris in 1986. After a 6-month stay in France, where he further expanded his experience in the fashion industry, he returned to Colombia with the vision of revolutionizing the product offer in the area of men’s underwear. Boring and uncomfortable underwear, which can be bought anywhere in the world, should be a thing of the past. The future should be a combination of biker and boxer shorts.

With this idea, he went to work and developed a totally new, unique product with the assistance of urologists, who supported with additional recommendations.

On the basis of these findings, Nicolas Echeverri tested many different sensuous textiles and ergonomic cuts in order to realize his idea.

And finally, after 8 years of hard work, he had developed a product that corresponded to his ideas and highest standards. The result is a very pleasurable, comfortable and very practical and contemporary male underwear range for the fashion-aware man of today. This was the birth of Mundo Unico, a label that has created a new era in men’s underwear.

The philosophy of Mundo Unico (C.I. Unico Interior S.A.) is not only to have commercial objectives in sight, but as much to pay attention to social aspects. Therefore, we use almost no automation, to ensure that there is sufficient employment for the employees. Last but not least, our product quality benefits from being almost 100% handmade.

Our products

Our cuts are both classic and avant-garde. We have an extensive range with numerous different models, both in form and in color. All designs are available in sizes S, M, L and XL.

All styles offer the high wearing comfort and convenience of the Suspensor.

The development of the cuts takes into account that the scrotum should be kept at a temperature lower than body temperature. Non-observance such as the wearing of very tight and uncomfortable underwear risks damage to the sperm vesicles, possibly resulting in later infertility.

For his part, Nicolás Echeverri never imagined he would develop a large company. He began with a sewing machine and an idea for 40 years, applying his expertise in design, and now competes internationally with firms like Calvin Klein in the male underwear business.

Soon I’ll find what the prizes were!

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 2 – Rooting for information

Package 4 – Missing the awards

Looking for evidence to support retailer AsdruMark’s
claim that Mundo Unico underwear’s “unique suspensor design promotes male fertility”, I started to investigate the brand marketing.

Piecing the brand’s identity and the products’ key statements together proved to be a stiffer challenge than I anticipated.

So, what little information about the Mundo Unico brand I’ve discovered so far (and about the two lines currently on offer, Unico and Triple X) has been by a convoluted path from UK distributor AsdruMark via Google to the German Mundo Unico websites and back via Google to an otherwise inaccessible AsdruMark page.

There’s more though, but it’s stitching a design together without the pattern. Follow the treasure trail of information, or skip to the summary.

The 1stshot blog Underwear page which turned up early on in the search provided a few new photos, an additional source (MaleBasics) and little information – except for the really important news to:

“select one size up from what you’d normally buy as they do tend to be made somewhat tight. Also, their mesh fabric ones have a tendency to shrink even more after a few washes.”

How seriously should this advice be taken? AsdruMark’s on-site sizing information is – Small: 28″ – 30″; Medium: 32″; Large: 34″ and Extra Large: 36″ – 38″. So if smalls should be wearing medium, who wears the smalls! Just to add a touch of confusion, those sizes are for the Unico range; the Triple X range is 1cm wider.

Yet elsewhere, Erogenos (U.S.) has – Small: 28″ – 30″; Medium: 32″ – 34″; Large: 36″ – 38″ and Extra Large: 40″ – 42″. So for more confusion, there’s an additional size and the sizes aren’t assigned to the measurements the same way! This may or may not be due to different U.K. and U.S. standards for S/M/L/XL sizes. Is there any more fun to be had by adding European sizes (and measurements) into the mix?!

The question about taking a larger size up hasn’t gone away either.

The (U.S.) MaleBasics site provides some real information about the two product lines (Unico and Triple X).

Unico underwear is one of the world’s finest manufacturer’s of briefs, thongs and other men’s sexy underwear on the market today. Made with high quality materials to give great comfort and support, Unico is more than sexy men’s underwear; they are some of the most accommodating men’s briefs and thongs in the world. Mundo Unico brings many color and trends to the men underwear market.

Triple X underwear is made of soft fabrics, where cotton and lycra are the main components, it features all the designs of Unico Underwear and the same quality in sawing (sic) and elastics, The fabric tends to be Lighter than Unico Underwear, however it feels cooler than Unico, plus it has more daring colors and cool designs like (…).

Meanwhile, I found Steven Even, a U.S. distributor of the Unico and  Triple X ranges, who says, “Unico underwear is one of the most famous brands in men’s underwear category. Unico is the creator of the world wide legendary Suspensor Design.” It had never occured to me that an underwear design could be legendary!

Back to AsdruMark – information light product pages, Unico and Triple X – and their exhibition stand at Erotica 2007. Now we find the text that should have appeared on their website! Small parts of it were there, but this really expands things.

AsdruMark import established and successful Unico Underwear from Columbia to Europe already and have now opened a shop in England.

Theirs is a top end underwear product which has already won international acclaim and ranks highly along side other leading designer labels, surpassing most of them in design, quality and comfort.

Unico, now a decade old, were founded as an answer to the oft-neglected male market in sexy undies. Several characteristics set the product aside from others – Unico materials are cotton with a minimum weight of 233 grams, with soft and flexible elastics to avoid skin prints.

Their ’suspensor’ design is included in all of their products. It has three essential benefits that have led other male underwear manufacturers to follow their design. One is that the suspensor helps to maintain men’s genital care by giving an anatomic position to the genitals: thus keeping a separation thus allowing a lower testicle temperature, which is healthier in the long term. Then the aesthetic impact is that of sleekness of the form, flattering to any shape. And finally, the patterns themselves have a relaxed structure, thus giving the best body adjustment and therefore becoming a second skin.

How hard can this be?! Hard enough, to search some more …

Underneath.com says of Mundo Unico,

Unico Underwear by Mundo Unico is unique because of the absolute absence of seams in the inner part of the Boxer Brief, this will prevent any bulky sensation generated by the seams on the insides of the underwear. Finally the most advance feature in Unico Underwear is the pouch or suspensor, in leading investigations made in Colombia by urologist they have seen that this pouch regroup the genital area and separate it from the legs reducing the temperature drastically in physical activities, like jogging, cycling hiking and other sports like baseball and football. In Colombia, Unico Underwear has been used by many Colombian Soccer stars like Leonel Alvarez.

And HisRoom says of Mundo Unico,

Mundo Unico underwear is a men’s apparel company based in Columbia. Developed by Nicolas Echeverri, Unico has been noted for its introduction of Lycra, elimination of seams, and color to its products. As a major medical point, their under apparel line lowers the temperature of the male seminal valves thus lowering the risk of diseases associated with the area. Mundo Unico underwear is full of bright and fun colors in all of their products including the Suspensor Boxer, and Suspensor Trunk.

Summary

After a bit of a trawl… perhaps here’s the basis for some interest-arousing blurb…

A decade old from Colombia, this is a high quality brand, indeed one of the most famous brands, ranking with or above other designer brands (criteria measured how?), founded to cater to the male market. It’s got an original technical design (that suspensor thing.. patented? design-protected?), designed by Nicolas Echeverri and tested by a urologist. The high quality materials are cotton with a minimum weight of 233 grams, with soft and flexible elastics (lycra or spandex) to avoid skin prints, with no seams in the inner part of the boxer brief. The use of lycra and elimination of seams are innovations of this brand. It has three essential benefits that have led other male underwear manufacturers to follow their design: genital care, sleekness of form, and patterns with a relaxed structure adjusting to the body like a second skin. Mundo Unico brings many trends and bright and fun colors to the men’s underwear market, and it has (Colombian) soccer star support, including Leonel Álvarez. (Oh, and choosing the right size may or may not be obvious!)

With so few physical outlets in the UK, surely quality in the text description can only help to support the photos to promote the brand.

Still no sign of the awards it’s supposed to have won, but progress nevertheless!

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 1 – Big claims

Package 3 – Lifting the nuggets

The unique suspensor design promotes male fertility.

You’re joking?! Or…

Seven words start a hands-on exploration of men’s underwear.

OK, so here’s the meaty part of the advert text, from GQ, December 2007, page 388, UK edition. The photographs above accompanied the text.

ASDRUMARK. Bring to you ‘Internationally acclaimed’ and ‘award winning’ designer underwear from Mundo Unico. Two unique collections are produced each year offering collectable designs which are taking the UK by storm owing to their comfort, quality and design comparable to none. The unique suspensor design promotes male fertility. (info on where to, how to get them)

Pass lightly over what those quotation marks are doing: drawing attention to marketing phrases, yes, but oddly making them seem uncertain or ironic.

Let the question but briefly stir your imagination: How are the designs collectable? They come printed on cards for swapping with close friends or intimate strangers? Or collectable in a more stalkerish way? Or…? No, stop there.

Turn now to consider the headline claim: “The unique suspensor design promotes male fertility.”

Well that’s claim worth a closer look! Should fertility clinics worry? Does this eye-bite even mean ‘improves sperm count’? Or does it just mean you’re ‘more likely to have the opportunity’ when wearing these? It’s all down to what ‘promotes’ is getting up to.

Time to find the supporting evidence for this claim! And where better to look than the website promoted in the advert, that of the distributor, AsdruMark.

Nothing. Not a shred about the ‘unique suspensor design’, nor about ‘Internationally acclaimed’ and ‘award winning’.

What to do? Searching on Google for that teasing sentence brings nothing. Striping away excess words, suspensor design proves to be enough to give a lead…

… Unico-Shop in Berlin, for which this is the online shop that annoyingly creates it’s own browser experience, as does its alternative German address at unico-shop.de; unfortunately “unico-shop.de” is the name they also brand the easier-to-use site at www.underwear-unico.de; which hasn’t been well enough designed to use a human-readable web address, rather than the numbered address (http://62.75.219.232/shop2/index.php?user=unico).

Somewhere in here, it turns out that Mundo Unico is from Colombia. And at last some text! In translation-English. But at least that Google search also leads to the page that should have been to hand on AsdruMark’s site, Unico Design Theory, where the translation-English has been tidied up, though to little effect.

The ’suspensor’ designed by the Unico company, and included in all of their products, has two essential benefits that have lead other male underwear manufacturers to follow the suspensor design.

The suspensor benefits are:

Genital Care. The suspensors unique design gives anatomical positioning to the penis and testicles while keeping separation between the body and the genitals allowing a lower testicular temperature in order to help spermatogenesis.

Aesthetic. The suspensor supports the genitals thus enhancing body definition and the man’s anatomy.

At last, confirmation of both the suspected meanings of ‘promote’: medical and visual.

 Visiting some of the individual product pages, I later found that the “Description” link on each product page goes to the “design theory” page.  This is strange, I find – in fact, I find it bizarre – that the theory is used to describe products. Wouldn’t something about the individual item make more snese?

Still, it’s a little disappointing. (Not just for the American spelling of aesthetic, or providing an ‘adequate’ definition!) The science of overheated genitals and lower fertility may be well known, but where’s the much needed evidence? Firstly, a medical test that the suspensor design improves spermatogenesis; secondly, a survey that it makes men more attractive, or even that they believe they are.

Poking fun apart (with a hint of seriousness about making claims), it’s a shame for Mundo Unico that these websites don’t promote the goods better. For a line that supposedly competes with Calvin Klein, it’s seems like poor brand management.

At least the photographs make the underwear look really good!

But it’s clear I haven’t got the whole story yet. Perhaps there’s something staring me in the face that I’ve missed.

This entry is part of the Male Underwear: Marketing the Male Package & Mundo Unico Series.

Package 2 – Rooting for information

It happens less frequently than the Olympics.

I know what my heavy rotation pants are – they’re all in the wash.
So why can’t I throw out the others.
I don’t want them.  I don’t need them.
I cannot cast them aside.

They’ve been good to me.

I will terminate one of them.  So that the others might live.

NEEDLE RATING…  2.9 (idling)