We have relaunched our Brief Talk Podcast. We have been having a great time, but we are looking to add a straight guy or guys to our panel discussions. I know we have plenty of straight readers, why not join in on the fun with the podcast! We definitely want a straight point of view.

If you think you have what it takes to join in on the fun, email us! You just need a passion and point of view about underwear. And no you don’t have to be a thong lover to join!! So hit us up and join in on the fun with UNB Tim, Andy and Erik!!

We wrap up our 10 years with some of our most recent guide pics. These are shot by Taylor Campbell. We hope you enjoy these pics!!! We look forward to 10 more years.

Out 2014 Swimwear Shoot was done in Alabama, about an hour north of Bham. The one thing about this shoot is there was a massive staircase to get down to the lake. I went up them twice but it was enough to about kill me. We had a great shoot with some great brands. We worked with Bobby once but he did some amazing job.

One of the shoots we did was the rooftop shoot. It was done in a very warm December Day. It was the perfect setting and Brandon and Brad was our models. This is one of my favorite pics from the shoot. It was shot by Taylor Campbell.

My main goal when I started UNB was to show all guys, great underwear is for everyone. Regardless of age, body size, sexual orientation or anything. I kept the coverage in the middle of the road and it gained us quite a few straight followers over the years. We even gained quite a few straight writers.

Fetishwear used to be just for the leather bar. It was guys in leather standing around with cigars in a drinking beer. Now that’s not the case. There are more kinds of fetishwear outside of leather. There is spandex (singlets), satin, lace, rubber, leather-inspired and of course leather.

As you see fetishwear is defined by the guy. It’s now as diverse as our readers. It’s really great to see guys embracing their fun side. Like regular underwear, you should feel sexy and awesome in anything you want to wear. If it makes you feel great and sexy wear it! Have fun in it and own it.

I have discovered one big thing by doing the blog. Straight guys regular underwear could be considered fetishwear. They want to wear that thong or bikinis and have it lead to fun with their partner. And some of them really can’t do it right now. They get looked at like it’s strange or not manly. The way underwear is viewed by a lot of the mainstream people.

In covering fetishwear we will cover everything. I know some of you won’t be into it but remember there are others who are and love it. We will cover all mentioned above and more. If there is something you want to see us cover just say so! We will look into and present it to you guys!

Photo by Ignacio Rivera Jr.

One shoot I loved was by Scott Barnes. He shot a few different pairs of underwear for us back in 2012. It was an amazing and fun shoot. He had a great eye and I wish we would have done more with him over the years. Sadly, he passed away last year, so we will not have any more shots from him. But the one he did for us is one of my favorites.

Since we don’t do Swimwear Sunday in the fall/winter months, I thought this was appropriate to run on a Sunday. The first question is why did we create the swim brief challenge? And why is this so important to us at UNB?

Why did we create the Swim Brief Challenge?

I have always been a proponent of wearing swim briefs. I have worn them since my late teens and to the present. I don’t have the swimmers body but to hell with what people think. In my younger days, I was more bolder and didn’t care what anyone thought. I have been on the beach with only me in them. I know people prob pointed and laughed when I wasn’t looking but I didn’t care.

Flash forward to UNB and I was talking to a friend who wears them all the time. He asked me, “Why don’t you really challenge guys to wear swim briefs?” He meant to create a challenge and have guys take it. That very first year we really pushed it. We did many posts and really went all out. Years since then we have taken a more low key method of promoting. But we still run it a few times throughout the summer.

In the last two years, we have added the Swim Thong challenge. More guys have skipped from the shorts to the thong. This was something I didn’t see coming. But in the last two year, the swim thongs have taken off with gay and straight guys. It’s great to see the popularity of the style.

Why is this important?

Over the years talking to both gay and straight. They have always wanted to wear swim briefs anywhere they wanted to go. That includes public beaches, family trips, cruises and more. Society, in general, doesn’t accept men in anything that shows a bulge on a guy. If it does then “OMG the children!!!”

We want more acceptance and not have the swim brief be a fodder for insults and jokes. It’s not easy to do in this day an age. There is still a dichotomy in general. There are those of us who love gear and those who don’t. I hope we can get more of the general public to either not care or encourage guys to wear them.

This is how this feature came about and why we do it every year. If you guys take or have taken it to let us know we inspired you to step out of the swimwear box and enjoy yourself for a day or several years!

One guy I want to work with again is Nate. He is a natural in front of the camera and there isn’t a bad pic of him! Plus he looks good in anything! This is from the 2017 UNB Swimwear Guide.

This week I’m going to write a series of posts on the inner workings of UNB. Some stories you may or may not have heard. I hope
you all enjoy them and get to know why I have done things over the years.

We have done our own shoots since 2010/2011. I always felt we needed to do shoots. The early shoots had more real guys. They were not classified or had ever worked as models. But we got negative feed back from some in the industry and readers. I wanted ‘real guys” and that was my vision for the earlier shoots.

The Early Shoots

These we kinda struggled on. Having never done shoots it was a little bit of getting thrown in the deep end. We had too many pairs in the begging. In one shoot we had 70+ pairs. It was a pure nightmare. The shoot went for hours. After that shoot I said never again. And so far we have kept to that.

We had a lot of models just drop out or no show. We had several shoots that almost weren’t. The 2012 and 2013 holiday shoots almost didn’t happen. Models fell out the night before and that day. We had Matt who got on his phone and found some great guys. It got to the point instead of booking 2-3 models I would book a minimum of 6 in hopes 2 would show up.

One thing I learned quickly is you have to be organized before the shoot. The first really didn’t have a shoot list. It was here is Brand A then Brand B and so on. Now I create a document that lists all and the shoot order. So there is no question on what the guys will wear or what we will shoot.

The Current Shoots

The current shoots are a dream to do and manage. Taylor Campbell, our photog we use, can get the most amazing shots. He will take some and go ok done.The first time I was worried we didn’t get the shot. After seeing the pics I was like “Damn he got several shots.” So now when he says he got it, we move on. I trust him with pics we need.

Our current group of models is amazing. Andrew, Martin, Jacob, Chandler have been the core of the guys. They are always dependable. They aren’t in every shoot because I like to rotate guys in major shoots. I don’t want you guys to go “oh it’s Andrew and Martin again, seen it.” I want you to go “Oh Andrew and Martin are BACK!”

One thing I want to up our game on is video. I am the videographer and run the shoot. It’s a bit much for me to do all myself. I need to branch out and get someone to do the video for me. Some videos have been amazing and others I get the footage and go “Dear God, what the hell is this.” I can say this because I took the video. I have a few ideas for the future.

The Future Shoots

One thing I want in future shoots is more autonomy. More doing our own thing and taking it back to our roots. In previous shoots from 2013ish on we have brands pay to be in the shoot. This time we are going to allow brands in for free but we will pick what we want to shoot. So just because a brand submits it doesn’t mean we show everything we received.

I was planning a few shoots in my mind. Now note these are planned and not set in stone. But there are a few shoots I want to do:

• Real guy shoot – that has a very body positive message
• Thong shoot – thongs are very popular among all guys.
• Swim Thong Shoot – a real shoot of guys on the beach in thongs
• Superhero shoot – this has been long in the works no details just know I’m going to make this happen
• Work out wear shoot – Set in a gym and locker room

Video is big in the future. I want to do a true behind the scenes with talking to the guys and showing fun moments of the shoot. I also want to create our own short length videos as well. But video is a whole nother beast.

These are my insights into the world of UNB photos and videos past, present and future.