A few years ago, there was a story about male brassieres being popular in Japan. You know, male bras for man boobs. A manzier for moobs.
Supposedly, the man bra improves postureâor makes some men feel more secure or something. And back between 2008 and 2009, there were a bunch of news stories about the garment.
Hereâs a Japan Today article from 2008, talking about how Japanese men are buying male bras âin drovesâ. It also explains why the male bra came about. âLately women have taken to wearing menâs underwear as a matter of fashion,â a spokesperson for Japanese underwear maker Wish Room said in 2008. âWhy shouldnât the reverse be true too? So we developed a bra for men.â
Heck, even Reuters covered this at the time, writing how a âbra for the boysâ was an âonline bestsellerâ. By âbestsellerâ, Reuters meant selling 300 man bras in a short span of time and hitting the top slot on an online retailerâs male underwear sales. But 300 male bras? In a country of 120 million? Still, that was in the braâs first two weeks of launch. Iâd love to see how it did a year laterâor how itâs doing now, even.
Mainstream Japanese TV shows covered the âtrendâ, too, reporting that there was even a one-month wait for the bras. It all made it seem like this was some mass-market trend. It wasnât. There werenât TV commercials for the product. No celebrity endorsements. This was a fringe product that had fifteen minutes in the spotlight. And thereâs nothing wrong with that.
But now, here we are in 2013, years after men bought the male bra âin drovesâ with another recent article about male bras in Japan. But arenât they already an âonline bestsellerâ? Arenât they already popular? EhâŠ
A recent article in Japanese tabloid Josei Seven discussed how women claim to have seen a neighborâs dreamy husband wearing the infamous underwear. The original article is incredibly thinâlike, I heard from a friend whose friend told them kinda thing. But still, manziers have once again became a topic of conversation on 2ch, Japanâs largest online forum.
âBefore, this seemed like it was going to be popular, but it was a massive failure,â wrote one 2ch user. âThis didnât become a thing at allâŠâ added yet another. âDid the company that made these bras a few years back go out of business?â asked another. No, actually. Wish Room still sells its outrageous men and womenâs underwear. Want a mankini? Wish Room has you covered. Literally.
Other 2ch users wrote that male bras were âstrangeâ. âI have no clue why anyone would want to wear these,â wrote one 2ch user. âThis seems totally bizarre.â
There were also comments in, forgive the pun, support of the menâs bras, pointing out that people can wear whatever they wantâwhich certainly is true. Hey, if you are a dude, wear a bra if you like! Thatâs fine. Others found the whole thing very amusing. âI probably have an A cup,â wrote one 2ch commenter.
In Japan, often small companies release incredibly unusual products as stunts. They know that the Japanese media will run with the story, so the more outrageous, the better. Itâs free PR! Tech companies in the 1990s and early 00s used to be particularly adept at this. Itâs unclear if thatâs the case hereâperhaps Wish Room felt the need for menâs bras. Itâs not the only lingerie maker to do so. And thatâs a-okay.
èżæă§äșșæ°ăźç·æ§ăăă©ăžăŁăŒă€ăăŠăăăšć€æăăèżæéšç¶ [Josei Seven]
ăă©ăă€ăăăźăŻäžäșșăźç·ăšăăŠćœăăćă« [2ch]
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