Innovating Men’s Underwear For Consumers Who Don’t Know They Need It

Men’s underwear is rarely thought of as grounds for advanced design or reinvention. Arguably, that last big innovation in the field was somewhere between 25 and 30 years ago, when John Varvatos, head of Calvin Klein’s menswear, first came up with the idea of the boxer brief. Prior to that, the last great men’s undergarment innovation was the brief itself, invented in 1935 when it made its debut at a department store during a blizzard.

They were reportedly such a big hit that Marshall Field’s – the store that introduced jockey-style briefs to the world – sold nearly 30,000 pairs in three months. Boxer briefs were reviewed as “one of the greatest apparel revolutions of the century,” and helped make Mark Wahlberg a household name when he starred in the 1992 print campaign that let the world in on the boxer brief revolution.

That’s a long way of illustrating the idea that if it seems the world is not looking for innovation in men’s underwear, one need just look to the outsized reaction every few decades or so when a new variation rolls out. And it was in the quest to fill the often understated hunger for innovation in men’s undergarments that BN3TH (a stylized way of writing BENEATH) got its start.

Though it wasn’t always called BN3TH – originally, the company decided that better performance in life was predicated on underwear doing its job better, thus choosing the moniker MyPakage.

“The story of MyPakage started out as a business philosophy, a brand that would change the game and the way men think and talk about underwear,” the company said. “We still make the world’s best and most comfortable men’s underwear, but now we’ve evolved into so much more. We now really view ourselves as a lifestyle brand driven by a purpose beneath the surface: helping men unlock the adventure in their everyday lives.”

Co-founded by former skate shop founder Dustin Bigney and former marketing executive Dez Price, the firm got its start as two friends discussed their difficulty finding appropriate underpants for highly active men. In particular, they were looking for underwear that didn’t move, bunch or constrict while surfing, biking or hiking. Although they found there were some new ideas out there, no one was really looking at the issue from a technical design standpoint.

Their first product was created by taking an existing pair of boxer briefs and focusing on how to adjust the design around the pouch areas to create better separation and support for the person wearing them. And that increased support, according to BN3TH, is supposed to be in effect whether the wearer is simply going to work or running wildly through the woods.

From design to construction, BN3TH got an assist from one of the co-founder’s mothers, who had both a sewing machine and the basic skills necessary to literally stitch together a prototype.

From there, it was a long, slow climb – trying to get their first pairs into the hands of Olympic athletes coming to Vancouver for the Olympics in 2010, going to tradeshows and finding ways to snag free publicity wherever and whenever they could.

Mostly, it was a side hustle – until about 2013. But for the last six years or so, BN3TH has been a full-time job – and a story of expansion and building buzz overtime.

The firm’s secret sauce, the founders noted, is its patented MyPakage Pouch Technology, which they claim puts an end to shifting, adjusting, rubbing and chafing. The design is meant to stay cool on warm days and warm on cool days.

But most importantly, the firm says, they work every time in the same way, and often deliver more than they advertise. The goal is to give men a chance to consider the possibility that there are more choices than what they’ve been offered in the past – and that underwear isn’t a throwaway decision at all, and in fact might be the most important sartorial choice any gentleman makes on any given day.

The fact that most men don’t know that yet, Price told Forbes, is a testament to how slow advances in the market have been. People aren’t asking for better, he noted, because they still don’t know better is even available.

“They have their go-to pairs and brands that they’ve been buying for decades, with no idea that there is a more comfortable, breathable option with technology out there,” Price said. “Once more people come to realize that the design of engineered underwear is changing, we will be leading the way with what men will be seeking. We believe BN3TH will play a pivotal role in changing the way men wear underwear.”

It appears that the men’s underwear revolution is coming.