Away for a bit...

In case anyone was worried because of the low number of posts for the month of December, "No" I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. As I've mentioned earlier, we are working on making some improvements to the look and message of the ActivSkin website, and that has been taking up much of my focus--leaving little time for writing informative and entertaining Nylon Gene blog posts. After the first of the year, I hope to return to the former level of activity on the web. In the mean time, I will not be here to moderate comments until Dec. 24th, as I am traveling with my two oldest teenagers on a youth mission trip as a chaperone, and will be out in the cold in Kentucky working on some helpful projects for people in need. Don't worry... I'll keep my legs warm with some ActivSkin A866 tights under my jeans. So anyways, don't be concerned if your comments don't show up right away. I'll post them as soon as I return.

Mantyhose in the Orient

China's national newspaper, The Global Times, published an article today on the men's pantyhose trend. Entitled "Sheer Ridiculousness", the headline betrays a certain lack of objectivity, wouldn't you say? The article is not a hatchet job, but it does include statements such as, "Mantyhose is a trend for which we can, predictably, blame Europe. (emphasis mine)...

The article opens with one of Chan Kraemer's latest images from e-MANcipate, which shows a man wearing a pair of the new Emilio Cavallini unisex tights (the ones with skulls on them... not too sure I like this design, but anyways...), and notes that there are as yet only a small number of men wearing pantyhose or tights in China. Yet, the numbers appear to be growing, especially in the larger urban areas like Beijing, Shanghai and Zinjiang. This mirrors observations we've made from ACTIVSKIN web traffic data.

I recently reviewed our data and found that, after the U.S. and Canada, China is responsible for the largest share of web traffic to the activskin.com website. While only averaging about 550 visits per month, this is still significant since most Chinese would be limited by the fact that the website is in English. Overall, Asia is responsible for 13.2% of ACTIVSKIN's web traffic (and 8.7% of traffic here at The Nylon Gene).

The article makes brief reference to Comfilon (aka ACTIVSKIN) as a result of information I provided for the article. In addition to the three cities named above, we have also seen considerable amounts of interest from Guangzhou and Dongguan, and more than 200 other cities across the country. Chinese interest in ACTIVSKIN has risen steadily since June, and we observed a sharp spike in web traffic following several postings on the online answers site, http://zhidao.baidu.com/.

The article also talks about Doyeah, a Chinese hosiery producer that's new to the male pantyhose scene. Their men's hosiery has been selling steadily, as well as those sold by an online Shanghai distributor, Comfimay. There is even a 'brick and mortar' retailer selling men's hosiery in China. Beijing's Chun Shui Tang retail chain store sells a "couple hundred pairs" of black- or beige-colored mantyhose per month.

That certainly sounds like the beginnings of a real trend. Most new things start this way. First, those near the fringe try out the things everyone else is afraid to do. Soon after, other early adopters begin to show up on the street with those same items, and before long they start to enter the 'realm of the cool'. From there, trends that succeed follow a somewhat predictable path to eventually attain commercial viability. The Chinese market looms large if Oriental men continue to brave the potential disapproval of their peers to try men's legwear for themselves.

The article quotes Beijing designer and fashion consultant Wu Jintao as saying that "mantyhose will soon have its time to shine" as interest from the in-crowd continues to grow.

A Positive View on Pantyhose... from a woman.

Sorry things have been so quiet here at The Nylon Gene for awhile. Steve Katz and I have been busy working up some ideas for refining the ActivSkin website, so I've not been as 'engaged' here on the net these past couple weeks. That being said, here's a link to an article from last week from a woman writer from the University of Cincinnati. It's entitled, "Pantyhose Benefit, Confine Fashionistas" Give it a read. It shows that there are women out there who haven't yet been indoctrinated to overlook the benefits that can be found in quality legwear.