We love Eric Turner and his husband Morné. They are doing something awesome this month. If you buy a pink pair you get to save $5 and $2 will be donated to breast cancer! Get some awesome undies for a great cause. Here is what Oryx Wear says:

It’s October, which is breast cancer awareness month. So we’re using our hoo-hoo’s to help your hah-hah’s. Save $5 on any PINK item during the month of October. And with every PINK purchase, we’ll donate $2 to Susan G. Komen.

www.oryxwear.com
Photo taken by Photo Studio Miami

So I’m not sure which sex got the first modern thongs men or women (man, we need an underwear historian or something?!). But I know that as a straight guy I first saw thongs on women. My entire view on thongs has been greatly influenced by that(I also quite like them on women, but that’s not the point). I’ve noticed over the years that while yes, men do have thongs, they really don’t have much in the way of variety. Sure, there can be subtle differences in back sizes.  There are really only two broad types: thongs, and g-strings. There hasn’t been much change in the world of men’s thongs recently, and I think that’s a shame.

The only real change in thongs over the past few years was the creation of the jock thong, and that was a few years ago now. I’m still not truly convinced that the jock thong is really a good innovation. But again, that’s another article.

Basically, I’ve gotten bored with every single brand thong and g-string being very similar. Where’s the variety? Why should girls have all the fun! I know some innovations have made their way over to the guy side. Pairs with multiple side straps sand such. I think there are a few more ideas in the realm of women’s wear that could work in men’s wear too. Women, on the other hand, have a huge variety of thongs. What I’m going to focus on today are the types of backs. Because I feel some of them might work well, or at least interestingly on a male frame.

First off is this curve back? I remember seeing a back this style from the brand Good Devil under the moniker “split back”. I think this is a cool idea and would like to see more menswear like this.

One type that I am very surprised hasn’t made its way into menswear is a kind that is more like a g-string. Instead of the strings intersecting into a T, or leading into a larger back. They meet in a triangle that sits between the depression between the top of the two checks. I’ve always been curious about this syle,as it seems very common in women’s underwear. While doing a bit more research I have noticed that some men’s thongs do mimic this concept somewhat. They don’t do it in quite a way like the feminine variety. They usually have what looks like a triangle, but is actually a part of a larger back strap. In this design, the only part of the back that is not a string is the triangle.

A trend I don’t see coming to the men’s side of thing is the idea of having the central part of the back strap being metal or made up of charms. That doesn’t look comfortable at all. Cute perhaps, but I can imagine that wearing that in the dead of winter is a bad idea.

I’m not saying these ideas will revolutionize men’s thongs.  I do think that the area of men’s thong design is somewhat stagnant.  I think ideas could help make things a little bit more interesting.
So what do you think? Am I a crockpot, or would you too like to see these ideas come to light? Let me know in the comments below, or on twitter.

As we celebrate our 8th year I thought I would share some things that I have learned over the years about underwear, the industry, and our readers. Some are no brainers and others really surprised me.

The Industry Is Small

I’m not talking as in sales or pairs sold every year. The men’s underwear market is $4 billion and growing. Rather, the people behind brands are a small staff. Other than Calvin Klein and 2(X)ist. Most brands have 4-6 people running it. They do amazing things on a small staff. It has been this way since 2008.

Guys Love Small Underwear

My personal preference is small undies. Bikinis have always been my go to style. Even in the days of boxer briefs and boxers. I would seek out smaller cuts. As I talk to many of you guys, you love bikinis, thongs and smaller! Across the board its one thing we have in common. In our reader survey it reaffirms this. It makes me happy that this area of men’s underwear is growing.

Straight/Bi/Gay Our origins story are the same

This is one of the WOW moments for me. The time we all started liking underwear is about the same. Usually early to mid teens. Some guys acted on it and other did not. Again across the board. Most really started to try out new pairs in college or after moving our of our parent’s house. After that it took off and there was no looking back.

Guys Love fashion Vs. those who don’t

We have a divide in our ranks. It’s not a bad one, but it makes me laugh. I have been on both sides of this divide. Guys who love underwear are either very fashion conscious or not at all. Those who are not, the underwear is the best thing they wear. Currently, I’m on the don’t side rather than do. I need to step it up.

There are some true underwear addicts out there! 

I thought I had a lot of undies around 400 pairs but I have talked to guys who have thousands of pairs. I say my hat is off if you have that much. Some of them have really great storage systems for them. On top of that a few of them have even created spreadsheets to keep track of their collections. I should do this because I always forget pairs I have and discover them in back of a drawer. But, if you’re one of the guys, know you have a lot more than a blogger! You are the guys we also love! You want to know the newest, lastest and greatest underwear on the market.

Sexy is different for each guy

We find many things sexy. Some it’s a thong or mesh. Other guys like classic white briefs. This goes along with what our partner/wife/husband likes as well. I remember a few years ago I tried to define date night underwear. This got me a lot of feedback that I was off base and never made that mistake again. I find date night undies to be skimpy, mesh and similar. You guys have a different definition!

Straight guys want to wear swim briefs

I always thought us gay guys were the ones to wear the swim briefs. I never thought that straight guys would want to be able to rock a swim brief on the beach or pool. But many of you do. The stories we have heard from many guys has them wearing them out of the country. They wear them in the Caribean, Europe or Mexico. Guys tell us how liberating it feels being able to wear them without judgment. They wish they could do the same in the State and not get labeled gay.

Underwear Guys are the Best Guys

If a guy loves  underwear and you bond over the fact. I think you have a friend for life. I’m not talking about sexual bonding but rather something you have in common. Over the years I have met gay/bi/straight guys all who have become friends. It’s all over underwear. Underwear is something really rarely talked about. When you can and really share your passion you open up more. This goes for all guys, not just gay. I think gay guys get put in the “underwear is sexual” all to often. We all need to talk undies because it is normal!

These are just a few things I have found out. There are tons more but when I put myself on the spot. My mind goes blank. But just know there are many of you guys out there and we need to develop a community around us regardless of sexual orientation. I hope we get at least 8 more years of UNB!

We featured some of the BodyAware Halloween Undies earlier this week. They are fun and festive for this holiday season. BodyAware produced videos of each of the pairs. We hope you enjoy and maybe you’ll get some fun undies for the Halloween season!

Trick-or-treat Thong

Trick-or-treat Brief

Pumpkin Patch Jock

Pumpkin Patch Brief

Find all these and more at BodyAware.

Is running an underwear blog as glamorous as it seems? Why yes it is! Said sarcastically! It’s a lot of work. UNB enters out 8th year of serving guys the latest in underwear, swimwear and more. Planning the week starts on Sunday and usually by Monday afternoon the schedule has gone crazy.

This is not because things go awry here. There is so much going on in the world of underwear, things get juggled. It has taught me to come up with a tentative schedule. We will get notice a new brand is out and will have to shuffle posts around. I have long given up on having a set editorial calendar each week. It’s more go with the flow.

What will your support mean? We can do more shoots and improve the blog. Recently we ran a poll about real guys in shoots. You guys asked why didn’t we get a brand to support it. Well, that’s a long discussion. It’s just, currently, easier if we take this project on and see it through. We would love brand support on these projects.

We currently don’t take money for posts and don’t have any intrusive advertisements. Why do we do this? First, we want to be objective and not be paid to post some. If you guys love something we will post more about it, if not we won’t. Next, reader experience is most important to me. I HATE sites with ads that take over the screen, videos that open from nowhere and ads between posts. Sites that does this, I never come back too. We may at some point may need to take on more advertising but we won’t have it be intrusive to your experience.

If you want to donate, go to the UNB Patreon page. Even just $1 a month will make a difference. Enough guys giving $1 can turn into something big! At the $1 level we are letting every one of our Patrons into our Private Slack for supporters. It’s a place you can talk undies and get to know the editorial guys and also other supporters. It’s a great group of guys and we have some good conversations!

Support us today!

Sukrew has released their Crimson collection. It includes the boxer briefs you see above. But, you can also get it in your favorite styles. That includes the U-Brief and U-Jock. But I personally am loving the longer boxer briefs.

Hey you fantastic sexy kinksters,

Welcome to October! I hope you all are starting to think about your halloween looks? I have mine already decided mostly because I’m in a show through the 2nd half of October playing a time travelling clockwork doll humanoid (it’s a halloween circus show, get into it!). If you are more of a store bought costume kind of guy, I wish you a good find. If you are more of a crafty stud armed with a sewing machine and a dream, I wish you luck, and please remember, no good sewing happens after 2 am (trust me.) If you’re new to the column,  you’ll know that one of my careers is as a costume designer/seamster, so I’m really into fiber arts. Some of you might remember my profile on KnittyGrittyNYC and his fantastic knit jockstraps. Well, today, I have another super sexy find from the craft world that I want you all to know about. This time, I am keeping it in the family, the daughter of the featured designer today is a colleague and friend of mine in the local Boston performance world, and I am delighted to share her mom’s work with you.

What happens when you take a witchy knitter, metal scales, and a passion for imagination? You get DragonSwag by Mamma Bones (“Comfy yet badass”). You have seen knit arm gauntlets, and shrugs, you may have seen them beaded, but have you ever seen them with DRAGON SCALES!?

Mamma Bones knits these amazing creations herself, using wool yarn, aluminum punched scales, and a bad-ass imagination. She has many items up on her Etsy page, but is also really cool with custom ideas, and constantly makes work for the local Boston performer community tailored to their needs.

A specialty of Mamma Bones is the DragonSwag gauntlets. Available at any length, these fingerless gloves convert your arms into sexy scaled armour arms. These can be found in solid colors, analogous color schemes, or some really cool contrast patterns. The luxury of DragonSwag is you get all the super bad-ass perks of having some serious metal hugging your body, but you get to just feel super comfy knit yarn on your skin, so avoiding the discomfort.

Mamma Bones has done bras and panties for female bodies before, I think i need to put in a request for a sexy jockstrap/harness situation. If you want something pre-made for Halloween, maybe this is the Etsy page you’ve been looking for. If you’re willing to wait (every custom piece is made to order), you can order your own ideas and color combo items for your future dragony dress up needs.

I love how many materials I’ve discovered on my fetish friday journey. So far, we have encountered leather, spandex, rubber, neoprene, knitting, knitting with scales, sequins, lace. Not to mention all the fun creations we’ve witnessed together.

Mamma Bones has a few different places to check out:

ETSY Shop: BisouKnits

DragonSwag Website

Facebook Page for BisouKnits

Send me sexy pictures if you get her work. Bonus points for creative posing.

Until next time folks,

Keep it Kinky!

TtheAmazing, over and out!

This week marks my 8th anniversary of UNB. 8 years of talking and writing about underwear. It seems like yesterday I sat down in front of my computer and started this journey. I won’t go into the origins story, I have done that so many times over the years!

What has 8 years of UNB taught me over the years?

I am the IT guy – When UNB was first launched we had shared hosting. Which was great till we grew too big and had to get our own server. A friend helped me move it over and then March hit this past month. We were down for the most of a 4 day period. This taught me all about web servers and moving WordPress sites.

Underwear Guys are the best guys – Over the years I have talked and befriended many readers out there. Regardless of bi, gay or straight, underwear guys are the most amazing guys. The blog has let me meet so many good guys. We begin with the underwear connection and then discover more we have in common. The support from long-time readers is amazing. You guys remind me why I do this, for 8 years.

Problem-solving is one of my strengths – UNB is on a budget. You may think we are this glamorous organization but we aren’t. We range from 4 to 12 guys over the years. When we have issues that hit the blog, I have to come up with a way to solve them. Usually on a budget and creatively. In the early years I would freak out and worry, now its worry then “I got this.” I have fixed many problems I never thought I could on my own.

What will the next few year hold? I’m not sure, other than the blog will go on! We are in the process of developing a community amongst all the underwear guys out there. It’s amazing how we are all very similar. Across all sexual identities, we virtually have the same story.

We are going to do some more anniversary stuff next week. The reason is I think of UNB as created in Mid October, when in fact the domain renewal is the first week in October. Stay Tuned and I’ll walk you through some of our best moments of UNB! .

Save 20% off at Planetundies.com on the HOM Lines Explorer and Terrain. Just use code 4820 at checkout! This is good through October 11th!