Men’s underwear marketing has come a long way.

Historically, brands hired professional athletes to appear in marketing campaigns and sign autographs at retail, as Jockey famously did with baseball legend Jim Palmer. In the 1980s, Calvin Klein changed the game by creating iconic billboard images featuring Olympian Tom Hintnaus, which introduced a queer aesthetic to underwear marketing. The brand went on to elevate the careers of celebrity spokesmodels Marky Mark, Antonio Sabato Jr., and more recently, Bad Bunny.

Calvin Klein’s disruption of the category emboldened niche brand 2(X)IST to sign football star Jason Sehorn of the New York Giants for a campaign that brought the company’s sexy products further into the mainstream while maintaining a not-so-subtle queer appeal. I happened to be a publicist for Jockey at the time and saw firsthand the stir 2(X)IST was making in the market.

Queer Representation

Recently, the menswear trade publication MR Magazine reported that Vancouver-based SAXX signed “Queer Eye” star Antoni Porowski to join its Gamechangers program of men making meaningful impact in their industries, which has included pro basketball player Aaron Gordon and pro football player Maxx Crosby.

Porowski, the food and wine expert on Netflix’s popular reality show, is a rising star with leading man looks and mainstream appeal. His deal with SAXX is a big step forward for queer representation in men’s fashion marketing that comes on the heels of the breakout popularity of the gay hockey players love story, Heated Rivalry, a series that’s also produced in Canada.

Different Messaging Strategies

Whereas men’s underwear brands once competed using billboards, magazine ads, and PR campaigns, today’s players, many of which are Canadian companies, are fighting for market share mostly on social media platforms with digital content that engages consumers using a wide range of messaging strategies.

SAXX’s campaign with Porowski is highly stylized and showcases lifestyle moments that include clever musings from him.

BN3TH, based in North Vancouver, spotlights the benefits of its 3D Pouch feature.

2UNDR, from British Columbia, has the patented Joey Pouch and combines visuals of fashion product with tongue-in-cheek humor.

Krakatoa Underwear, which wins my vote for the most clever brand name in a sea of ballsy brands, takes a how-to approach that focuses on product features.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of brands doing smart marketing in the digital landscape. However, as a marketing communications expert who once grew Jockey underwear’s media presence and helped launch the Pro Player line of performance underwear, I’m impressed by the resourcefulness of this batch of contenders to the position of the top men’s underwear brand.

A “Brief” History of Men’s Underwear Advertising