“I love the way jockstraps frame and lift my butt, they make it look peachy,” says adult content creator Josh Moore. “Even when I’m wearing clothes, I’m in one. It’s like my sexy little secret.”
A sports item turned queer grail, the jockstrap was once considered a niche thing. Many men wore them in locker rooms. Other men wore them in bedrooms, or, like Moore, in very physical videos. But they’ve been released from incognito browsers into the wider world, and fashion is pushing the jockstrap into the mainstream. Brands everywhere are incorporating them into their collections, mixing them with more common elements of menswear like suits and sportswear.
No new thing, the jockstrap was invented in 1874 by a guy called CF Bennett of Chicago-based sporting goods company Sharp & Smith. Essentially a minuscule waistband and a crotch pouch, jockstraps were designed for a function: to hold everything in place and secure during physical activities.
But while jockstraps were used largely in athletics, or by cyclists who wanted to keep their parts safe and friction-free (understandable), they've surpassed their original function. They were picked up by gay guys in the 20th century. In the 1950s the jock solidified its place within the gay community, spurred on by a shift as gay fashion focused on the hyper-masculine: the jockstrap was the emblem of sporty, buff athletes across America.
There’s a famous photograph shot by James Patrick Dawson that was printed in XY Magazine in 1997: two men kissing in secret, while football players changed round the corner. The image has since become a symbol of the gay fantasy with the overtly masculine locker room space – a space not always freely welcome to gay guys, and a space where jockstraps were worn for function.
But under the gay gaze, jockstraps are less about sports. Like the G-string for women, they became a sex symbol. With less material than a pair of briefs or boxers, jockstraps are more provocative. They also, like Moore says, make an ass look great. He’s not alone. “I wear them because they make me feel sexy,” says gay rights activist Max Hovey, who speaks daily to his 130,000 Instagram followers about body positivity while wearing nothing but a jockstrap. “I tend to wear thicker ones that give my cheeks some lift and make my ass look more defined.”
By the 1970s, customers at big city queer bars would be served drinks by go-go boys in jockstraps. “The jock has been a staple in gay sex and the queer party culture for a long time,” says stylist Larissa Bechtold, who recently worked on Troye Sivan's jockstrap-heavy music video for ‘Rush’. “I think that comes from fetishising the ‘hot straight jock’ and reappropriating it for queer environments.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, the jock fell out of favour in sports, with the rise of compression pants providing better safety for ball sacks. But in gay circles its popularity remained. It also began to filter into the mainstream. Andy Warhol photographed Jean-Michel Basquiat changing into a jockstrap in 1983 as part of his Warhol Contact Sheets. Then it trickled ever-so-slightly into fashion. In 1984 Vivienne Westwood, punk overlord and British provocateur, presented Pirelli branded T-shirt-cum-leotards that featured an attached jockstrap for one of her earliest collections, “Hypno”. Two instances in the early aughts also stand out. In 2004 that John Galliano presented a collection in which models wore fur coats and branded jocks. It was a first on the catwalk. In 2008 Miuccia Prada, the high priestess of Milanese chic, presented her Autumun collection. In it, and likely a shock move to all those on the FROW, Prada put men in the signature tailored shirts and suit trousers, but allowed black jockstraps to peek out over waistbands.
Now though, it’s gone somewhat noticeably more mainstream in fashion. Designers are down with freed-up cheeks. The former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, who routinely strapped his brand of fey fantasy into light kink (bondage and spiky dom masks were signatures in his collections) released a crystal-studded leather codpiece as the crux of Gucci’s spring 2019 collection. Eli Russell Linnetz of ultra-hyped label ERL presented a £30,000 Lesage-embroidered athletic jock as part of his Autumn/Winter 2020 menswear collection. Ahead of Milan Fashion Week in June 2022, Jonathan Anderson published a post on his Instagram profile: a picture of a jockstrap with a caption that read “Getting ready for fashion week”.
Following those instances, jockstraps have been everywhere on the recent catwalks and beyond. VTMNTS designer Guram Gvsalia has them peeking out over the top of thick-cut leather slacks. Thom Browne, the American designer whose playful aesthetic sees him make bags with clocks embedded in them and hound-shaped totes, designed jockstraps made from tartan, which came with his signature tricolour waist straps. These were worn with his everyday classic menswear items such as tailored jackets, pleated trousers and shirts and ties: a literal normalisation of the jockstrap. Elsewhere the French label Egonlab, which has been instrumental in the move to sexier menswear with its chaps and nipple-bearing low-cut shirts, made reference to jocks in its recent collections, exemplified by the "Pantaslip" in its Autumn/Winter 2023 collection and the "Free Ass Tailoring" featured in its Spring/Summer 2024 collection, which gave the illusion of a jockstrap being worn. “It’s been fun (but also a slight surprise) to see jockstraps popping up on the runways," says British designer Daniel W Fletcher. "It’s not something I’d have expected from the likes of Thom Browne a few years ago, but somehow this once risqué ‘garment’ has slotted right in.”
But these instances aren't just for Instagram likes and TikTok. The jockstraps being sent down the catwalk are actually being sold. They’re not just available on sites like deadgoodundies.com. Household brands such as Versace, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani, Michael Kors and Tom Ford all have them readily available for purchase online. Rick Owens even presented a jockstrap as part of a collection with Champion, the hyper-commercial sporting outfitter to millions of guys across the world.
This move of the jockstrap away from the subcultural gay space seems to be a mark of something bigger. That the jockstrap is enjoying a moment of mainstream popularity should really come as no surprise: menswear is experiencing a gentle and gradual queerification. “Rather than it being about the item, I think it's about gayness altogether,” says Jose Criales Unzueta, Fashion Writer at Vogue Runway. “Culture as a whole is increasingly less intimidated by queerness and gayness as we continue to see it in popular cultureFashion and menswear have been leaning into the aesthetics popularised by gay men of late, whether that be fluidity and androgyny or what used to be labelled as "metrosexual" back in the aughts in a derogatory manner, and this is merely another example of that."
Egonlab founder Florentin Glémarec also agrees. “Modern society continues to undergo a profound transformation when it comes to attitudes towards sexuality. This liberation of the LGBTQ+ community, especially within popular culture, has facilitated the integration of its norms into the mainstream”.
And jockstraps are probably only going to become more commonplace.. Elvis Presley's own rhinestone jockstrap is currently at the centre of a bidding war at Paul Fraser Collectibles and will cost its eventual buyer upwards of £29,000. “While making definitive predictions is challenging, we can confidently state that the jockstrap isn't on the brink of fading away,” says Kevin Nompeix, co-founder of Egonlab. “It has established a significant presence and is showing no signs of slowing down. Endorsements from high-profile celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian on the cover of Interview, Lady Gaga incorporating it into her official merchandise, and artists like Troy Sivan and Sam Smith embracing it, coupled with its adoption by leading couture houses, have fueled a growing fascination around acquiring this piece of clothing.”
While you might not have strayed very far from a pair of Calvin Klein briefs since your teenage years, it might just be time to get a lift from a jockstrap.
