STEPHEN HISCOCK
Founder
I’ve worked across a lot of different jobs in my life — painting lines on the road, climbing power line poles, building retaining walls, cleaning restaurant bathrooms, working in a warehouse, and even just running equipment on construction sites. Every job I did had its own set of unique challenges. But one problem followed me and annoyed me incessantly every single day. I could never find a pair of boxer briefs that actually stayed in place on my legs. No issue at work outlasted the 16 hours a day of wearing boxer briefs that rode up. This annoyed me for years, ever since I first started wearing “expensive” boxer briefs.
There were many days of working in the rain, freezing, and having my hands go in and out of multiple wet gloves — these issues were transient and came and went, but I could never truly stop adjusting my boxer briefs. It felt like every 15 minutes I’d have my hands in my pants pulling them down. I could never just “deal” with it.
For years I went through the winter transition here in British Columbia. As it got colder outside, I switched from the usual boxer briefs to long underwear. This also meant no underwear ride-up during the colder months. It was the transition from long underwear back to boxer briefs in spring of 2022 when the same annoying struggle of reaching into my pockets to pull my boxer briefs down bothered me for the last time. I was tired of just “dealing” with having my boxer briefs in my crotch all day. I wasn’t going to find a new brand to try, I decided I would solve this problem myself.
How It started
I first started with trying to rub some glue on my underwear. I went to work the next day excited to try my first "idea". The first time I got off the forklift they were riding up again. I was bummed — my first try didn’t work at all.
But I did not want to give up. I initially tried rubbing even more glue, hand sewing with a pin and needle, some waistband, and a few other various ideas. I was met with the same disappointment. None of these primitive methods actually solved the issue — they just made my boxer briefs more uncomfortable. I knew there had to be a real solution. After a few weeks of trial and error, I found some grip band that might work. I brought this band and some underwear to my girlfriend’s parents’ house. Her mom helped me out and she sewed this band onto the base of the legs for me. I tried them on without even leaving the room, and this became my “a-ha” moment. This grip band could be a real solution that would actually keep the boxer briefs in place every day no matter what I was doing.
My sewing machine
Within a few weeks, and after a few sewing lessons, I bought a sewing machine and started making my own. I finally had 7 days’ worth of comfortable boxer briefs that I wore to work every day. My girlfriend started telling her coworkers about my “invention,” and they wanted to try it too. We made some initial prototypes and after handing them out I asked for feedback. They all said my homemade “boxer briefs” solved a problem they didn’t know they had.
Fueled with initial excitement from this feedback, I decided I should scale this up and start my own business selling men’s underwear. How hard could it be? It’s just underwear.
Turns out I grossly overstated the simplicity of manufacturing men’s boxer briefs. I made mistake after mistake, hit so many failures, and had many days thinking to myself, “What’s the point of doing this?” I spent two and a half years, countless prototypes, countless cold reach-outs to manufacturers all over the world, and spent my waking and dreaming hours thinking about making my first pair of underwear. All of my attempts to have a high-quality product I would be proud to share with the world were met with disappointment. At times it seemed like I would never be able to actually have the high-quality pair of underwear I wanted.
My girlfriend and her mom helping out
It took two years, but I eventually started to burn out and got tired of the letdowns. I was tired of paying manufacturers for prototypes, explaining what I wanted over emails, phone calls, and videos only to get delivered something that belonged in a 7-pack from Costco. It seemed like no matter where I looked, I was hit with the same issue. These manufacturers could make a basic pair of classic boxer briefs, but they could not make what I wanted. I wanted a high-quality solution to my problem. This involved a manufacturer capable of complicated sewing methods, high-quality fabric, and trims that I had no idea would be such a struggle to find.
I had a major setback and what felt like 6 months of wasted effort with a company that had promised me they could eventually make what I wanted. I started searching through various websites to try and find someone new that could help. Basic web searches kept taking me to companies that can make great t-shirts but not custom underwear. I had been down this road before and knew it would only lead to failure again. So I took a new approach and started looking elsewhere for manufacturers. I reached out to a few names I found elsewhere. One of them seemed like the right fit — they got back to me the same day and set up a virtual meeting. They could work with my initial order and quickly deemed themselves more than capable of producing a high-quality product. On top of that, they were also in the ethical/sustainable manufacturing programs that have become incredibly important. Getting over this hurdle was huge — it finally felt like I had accomplished something, and after two and a half years, I found a company that could make the underwear that solved my need for something better.
After 6 months of back and forth, the first sales sample of my “Apex Boxer Brief” was on its way to my door. I put this first sample on and instantly felt that “a-ha” moment again. This first sample was the no-compromise, comfortable boxer brief I had been chasing for years. Finally a pair of underwear that I was actually excited about, and I knew I had found a manufacturing partner I could continue working with.
This leads us to now. It’s taken three years, but I am now a few months away from the first product release. Yet in reality, its only just started. With this first product, I am going to introduce a new solution to men who faced my same problem.
There are other brands that make great men’s underwear, but it could always be done better. This is my version of better.
After all, the first thing you put on before every adventure should be the most comfortable.
