Friday, November 21, 2008

Dudes want a brasierre.


About a year ago I watched the movie Kinky Boots and found it an entertaining, enlightening and inspiring movie about a shoe designer catering to...cross-dressers, drag queens and any man who wants to dress like a woman. It is a fun British movie and I do recommend it to those who like a good laugh as well as a great marketing idea.

Today, I came across this article on-line and I was completely and udderly (pardon the play on words) baffled by the trend. At first anyway. It makes complete sense though.

Men who enjoy wearing women's clothing cannot do so comfortably because of their size. Their feet are bigger. Their rib cages and skeletal frames are bigger. Try as they might, men just can't fit into women's brassieres.


This is where I say: I wish I could have thought of that. Seriously!

Was it George Costanza or Kramer that came up with the idea of a man bra some 8 years ago? At the time we all laughed and thought it was a joke.

Designing lingerie for men. Brilliant!

Business 101. Tapping into a market that never existed. Addressing a market need. A niche that needed to be filled, just like a bra cup that needs to be filled. Ugh, okay BAD joke!

I'm not only curious to find out more about this market. For research purposes - of course. I'm intrigued and amused that this is happening in Japan. Don't get me wrong. Cross-dressing and drag queens are everywhere. I just never would have thought Japanese men would be buying into this.

Excerpt from on-line article:

Since launching two weeks ago on Rakuten, a major Japanese web shopping mall, the Wishroom shop has sold over 300 men's bras for 2,800 yen ($30) each...Wishroom Executive Director Akiko Okunomiya said she was surprised at the number of men who were looking for their inner woman..."I think more and more men are becoming interested in bras. Since we launched the men's bra, we've been getting feedback from customers saying 'wow, we'd been waiting for this for such a long time'," she said.


Watch Kinky Boots and you'll know what I'm talking about.

4 comments:

Laurie Constantino said...

I got so distracted thinking about how happy you'd be about a movie featuring a shoe designer in a prominent role, that I had a hard time focusing on the man-bra aspect. But then I read it again and rally laughed. Bringing the concept sounds like a great businss opportunity for you!

Joanne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joanne said...

Laurie: Yes, it is quite an amusing post. It was my intention to make it lighthearted but at the same time to not dismiss the potential for its success. You are correct though that I start talking about shoes and then switch to bras and then back to shoes again, so the post can definitely get confusing if one reads it too quickly or is distracted by another thought entirely. :)

My husband did not like this particular post as I suspect many hetero men wouldn't. LOL ! Oh well, it is a changing world and we need to change with the times or at least be tolerant for differences in people, whether we approve of these changes or not.

cserdan said...

i had no idea all of this was going on!

great post!