Saturday, August 22, 2009

Health Fair Notes

Steve Newman manning the ActivSkin tent at Hilliard Health & Fitness Fair
Well, all those involved with Hilliard's Health Fair and Fitness Walk on Saturday the 22nd wish it had been better attended than it was, but it was still beneficial nonetheless. Senior Center organizers were hoping for more than 100 or so attendees this year, but only saw about half that number in this second year of it's existence. As I wrote previously, ActivSkin agreed to participate as a sponsor and we put up a tent and had displays set up, as you can see in the photo.

Our display attracted the attention of all of the attendees, who I had a chance to speak to as they visited and asked questions. One of the remarkable things I noted was how virtually invisible my ActivSkin legwear was to all who stopped to chat with me. As I greeted them and shared information about the emerging men's legwear trend, I would mention how much more comfortable these that I was wearing were than the medical grade compression hosiery often prescribed for more serious leg circulation issues. When I mentioned that I was wearing them right then, without exception they would look down and exclaim that they had not thought I was wearing them. Often this was followed by remarks as to how they had been looking at my legs as they walked up and thinking to themselves that, "he's not wearing them". These folks were very surprised when they learned I did in fact have them on. I was wearing ActivSkin Style A2019 in Tan. This is a full support style that is somewhat dark in color, and not one of our sheerer styles.

The ActivSkin display included brochures, articles, samples and mannequinsI don't typically consider this to be one of the styles that would be so hard to notice on someone, but the experience at the health fair certainly reinforces the notion that guys can wear skin colored ActivSkin legwear and need not be concerned with calling attention to the fact they are wearing it. Many guys are like myself and prefer to wear shorts when possible. So if need to wear support legwear to find relief from leg circulation issues they need not feel they need to give up their shorts in the process.

The attendees all seemed to be quite interested in the men's legwear trend, and most had not heard of it before this. As we find in so many venues, they were fairly open-minded about it all, too. Some even had a little fun with it as well. While the event organizer was holding a microphone for me while I was drawing tickets for the door prizes we gave away (two free pairs of ActivSkin legwear), an older lady who had been by the tent earlier came running up to me. As I looked down in puzzlement, she rubbed her hand up and down my lower leg to prove to herself that I was really wearing them! It was a hoot.

So, while we didn't get the chance to tell hundreds and hundreds of people about ActivSkin and men's legwear in general, we did get to try out our setup for participating in these sort of events in the future, which will make us well prepared for larger ones the next time.

4 comments:

  1. Steve I appreciate your work thanks on behalf of all men... I wish I were there...

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  2. Steve,
    This event demonstrates clearly that the primary task at hand is to get the word out to the public about the mere existence of men's legwear. Before members of the uninformed public can even formulate an opinion about men's legwear/tights they have to first KNOW about it.
    It's a pretty rocky and high mountain to climb, but I'm confident you will make it to the summit. Best of luck! On behalf all men, thank you and God bless, Alejandro

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  3. Agreed, Alejandro. That's a big part of my 'changing hearts and minds' campaign... to raise basic awareness of men's legwear as a growing trend.

    We know there are many men who are already wearing tights/pantyhose, based on our increasing sales each year. However, until now the majority have been reluctant to wear openly or acknowledge to acquaintances that they wear our product. Of course, it's difficult to promote a product that most of your customers won't tell anyone they use. That's where much of my activities with this blog (and similar publicity activities) are directed.

    Since we have so many satisfied customers--based on an infitesimal percentage of returns--we would like to enlist their aid as part of our sales force, by just encouraging them to be bolder in their willingness to wear their legwear in the open, at least occasionally. If the general populace could actually see how many guys they pass on a busy street were actually wearing legwear under their trousers, this trend would be making far more waves than it already does. That is, at least until it becomes as commonplace as, say, wearing sweatshirts.

    Toward that end, I put myself out there in a very public way, and report on it here, to encourage those who have let fear of criticism hold them back. We don't yet have a 'celebrity endorsement' for ActivSkin--and aren't actively seeking one--so the next best thing is to have a very visible spokesman for all things legwear, to demonstrate that the public is ready to accept men's legwear. I've accepted that role, and have enjoyed it. We just need all the guys who are already wearing legwear to step out there and let people see how many of us there are.

    We're seeing the beginnings of that already. We get emails and read posts on other forums that tell of a new readiness to 'vote with their legs'. As that continues, we hope to see the men's legwear trend finally reach that tipping point that has seemed very close of late.

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  4. pinky lady very pretty

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