Thursday, May 14, 2009

Discussing Legwear Over a Couple of Beers...

I know everyone probably thinks that it's just work, work, work, here at The Nylon Gene, and over at ActivSkin. But we also know how to stop and take time to enjoy life along the way, too.

The week before last I received an e-mail from one of our loyal customers that live in Central Ohio, inviting me to meet for a beer sometime soon. Not being at all adverse to barley-flavored liquid refreshments, I agreed to meet at a local wing establishment enroute between Granville (ActivSkin HQ) and my home. Before I arrived, Harold had already already earned a free beer by betting our waitress that the next guy in the door would be wearing pantyhose.

No, actually, he had told her that he was meeting a guy who was actually working on making sheer hosiery a regular part of menswear. I don't think she believed him at first, but now I understand the look of recognition when I got there and she saw what I was wearing. She had some questions about why men would buy and wear hosiery, and all-in-all thought it was a pretty cool concept and hoped we're successful with it.

It is certainly instructive to see how little attention is paid (i.e., none) to you by others when out in a public setting, dressed (admittedly) as unsually as we both were. I doubt that anyone could tell that Harold was wearing sheer hose, as they were beige and a good match for skintone. However, I tend to wear darker shades, especially since I am in the business of trying to promote the legwear concept, so anyone who cared to look could easily tell what I was wearing. Again, and as usual, nobody thinks much of it. Although we may not be at the point where most guys are ready to give legwear a try, it's not far behind the level of public aquiescence I see when I go places wearing legwear that can be easily seen by all.

Anyways, we had a good time discussing the current status of men's legwear in general, ActivSkin in particular, and a wide variety of current events and so forth. Hope to do it again some time...

11 comments:

  1. Look at the mirror reflection 2 women laughing :)

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  2. I notice the gals in the back ground seem quite intrigued with the whole concept.

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  3. Yes, those were two of the other waitresses (they were behind us--there was no mirror there). As you can see, they were mugging for the camera. I don't know if they were yet aware of our legwear when the photo was taken. Later on, our waitress had shared that info with others and I do believe they were intrigued. I left our waitress with a few of my ActivSkin business cards and told her to feel free to share them with others if she told anyone about men's legwear.

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  4. Steve,

    Nice job on this blog. I am from SE Asia, the tropical area. I am wearing hose for a purpose, I sat long hour on desk job (8 hours+) , I also cycle long distance. Support hose is great, I could not care less about how other people looked at me. Even sometimes lady cyclists asked, if the hose helped, I said ,of course and they are "not" the average ladies cosmetic pantyhose. I even told them to google comfilon, One of them once pinch the texture before agreed that it is of completely different type.

    I bought a few pairs of comfilon in the past and they still hold out well, except the top band part getting a bit loose after many washes. Maybe time for more online shopping.

    C from SEA.

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  5. Mahmood are you drunk? Where is the mirror? women outside of the table. They will see how the legs.

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  6. Steve,

    Can you tell me what style of pantyhose you were wearing, i love the shine?

    Thanks

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  7. If I remember, I believe they were A677 in tan.

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  8. I had a great time wearing kilt and tights yesterday evening when I went out to stroll in the mall. I live in Northern VA where I usually come across a lot of weird dressers on and off so I thought I'd see what it was like. For a strange reason, I felt like I was a dare devil at first but I was able to not give up my manly walking and posture and acted as if I was wearing a business suit to work. There were a few laughs but it was cool. One of the female clerks had laughed so hard she wet herself or least that's what she indicated when she blamed me for her losing control. Otherwise, it was cool. A few months ago I was scared to even try showing off my tights let alone a kilt to go with it but after last night's experience, I say let's us men combine kilts with male hosiery and give it a try.

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  9. I know that Utilikilts and the like are slowly gaining a small following here in the U.S. That's cool that you had some fun with it too, Ranjit.

    As for me, I think we've got our work cut out for us in breaking down the mental barriers in the way of wider acceptance of men's nylon legwear without trying for something even further out of the mainstream, like skirts and kilts. You'll notice that I don't give those topics any space to speak of here on The Nylon Gene. That's because I don't want newly initiated readers who visit to get the impression that men's legwear is one step along a slippery slope that will eventually lead to a push for men's skirts and the like.

    If you want to pursue that route, that's fine with me--to each his own. But as for promoting it--that is and will remain outside the scope of our blog here. You shared in your comments that a number of people were laughing about the skirt/kilt, to a greater or lesser extent. We're not seeing anything approaching that sort of reaction with respect to men wearing legwear--even the darker colors. (I know I've never experienced anything of the sort) Therefore, we don't want to take a huge leap backward in our quest to mainstream men's legwear by pairing it with something that, frankly, I don't think will ever fly.

    Sorry if my tone sounds harsh, Ranjit. I don't mean it that way. But, I don't want to dilute our mission here at The Nylon Gene by pairing it with trends that will only serve to alienate many of the guys who might otherwise be our allies. Keep on doing what you want, though. I support your right to do so.

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  10. Steve, not a problem. I do understand completely. I don't think you're being harsh. I actually agree that we would have to solve this mental fixation of society one clothing at a time. I think I can see where associating a kilt with male tights would be an issue for now. Maybe in 10 years it might even be the norm but yes, one at a time indeed.

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