Hunk2 is a new brand we think you guys need to know about. We got a chance to sit down and ask them a few questions:
For our readers who are unfamiliar with your brand, can you tell us about your brand?
Hunk² is a brand created in 2016. We are a group of men (with combined backgrounds in fashion, graphic design, engineering and e-commerce) who share a passion for fashion – specifically, men’s underwear.
As we were discussing our recent underwear shopping experiences last year, we realized that we all shared a dislike for brands using large logos all over their underwear.
Men’s underwear brands seemed to come in two main categories (with not much in-between): comfort brands and design brands.
The “comfort brands” provided very comfortable underwear, but were not very attractive or fashionable. On the other hand, the “design brands” looked great, but they were uncomfortable and the manufacturers seemed more interested in just promoting their brand with large logos than in making a high quality, great-fitting product.
Hunk² was born to be the perfect balance between top quality and comfort, for men like us who want to wear the best, without becoming a walking advertisement for a brand. Our products are designed to speak for themselves, and we feel that customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth will be the best advertisement for our brand.
Your tag line is “Striking Confidence!” How did you come up with it and what does it mean?
We use two slogans: Striking Confidence and The Power of Two Men.
The first slogan refers to what our brand embraces: the image of a man who projects confidence and power, and wants to look and feel great.
You’ll notice that our models do not follow the typical underwear model standards. While they look great, they do not have a perfect six pack or a ripped body. We are actually starting to work with a Brazilian photographer who has a campaign to show beauty in more natural looking gay men. With too many brands out there already showcasing the perfect looking jock, Hunk²’s focus is instead on making regular men look beautiful and feel great.
The second slogan refers to the ² in our brand name: Hunk². Being LGBT ourselves, we wanted to create a brand that supports the image of two sexy, masculine men. We do not mean only physical power – we refer mostly to the power and confidence projected by men who have gone through many things (including their own perceptions) to be together.
What has been the reaction to the brand?
We’ve had very good feedback so far on both the designs and fit of our underwear and swimsuits. Customers have also kindly suggested styles and new designs for our future collections. We are appreciative of all customer feedback, and we will be taking their suggestions into account when working on new products.
Your underwear has boxer briefs, jocks and thongs. Why don’t you have briefs? Do you have any plans to release briefs?
We did originally have briefs planned for our first collection, but as we got deeper into design and production, we honestly became a bit overwhelmed and decided to focus on a smaller number of products at first to make sure that we got everything right. We hope to release our new briefs line by summer 2017.
You also dare guys to try thongs and jocks? Why do you think this is important for guys to try new things in underwear?
I don’t think any of us wear the jocks and thongs ourselves, but we do think that they are super sexy – we probably wouldn’t at all mind our partners wearing them. While we based most of our creations on our likes and experiences, we know that our audience is much more diverse than the Hunk² team. We created the jocks and thongs with our most adventurous customers in mind.
Prints play a big part in your design, how do you find your prints you use to create underwear and swimwear?
Great catch! That’s one of the main aspects of Hunk²: fun, creative prints. We feel that there are already too many blocky & boring underwear designs on the market, and we wanted to make something different.
We wanted to be creative and bring vibrant colors, curves, pockets, prints, and more. We typically select what message we want to transmit with a certain product, and then we find the colors and shapes that best help us transmit that message.
It really helps when you design for an audience that you are part of, since we do not have to struggle with marketing avatars. We are the avatars!
For example, we all love to travel and so we created Alphae Voyageur² with that in mind. We love the circus, so we created Alphae Chemin² inspired in a circus tent. And so on.
What has been your best selling print?
Alphae Voyageur², and the reason is clear to us. We created this design for all of the adventurous men who are as passionate as we are about travelling the world and having new experiences. Men like us who know the emotions and excitement that can be stirred by something as simple as a world map.
Designing is one thing, but creating the physical product when you work with these kind of prints is very challenging. That’s the reason why most brands only design swimwear using solid colors. But creating fun designs like the Alphae Voyageur² or Patrie² is part of the fun, and it’s part of that extra mile that Hunk² brings to its customers.
