UndiesDrawer is pleased to bring you another in our Exclusive Behind-the-Underwear Interview Series. The purpose of the series is to provide an opportunity to get to know the people in the underwear community, to learn their stories and to provide more insight about their companies, brands, blogs, etc. All of the interviews were conducted by UndiesDrawer Underwear Correspondent Ron, a.k.a. KyUnderwear. We hope you enjoy the series.
Tim Wildman, 33, was looking for something for his mom to do. Tim loves men in underwear. He also loves his last name. So he did what anyone would do -- bring together everything he loves -- and the Desert Hot Springs, California-based WildmanT was born.
Tim is rather industrious and has already done a great deal in his professional life. Tim brought success to the New York-based Next magazine, as associate publisher, making it the largest gay entertainment magazine in the country. In April 2000, he went on to develop the design team of GSociety, Inc.
Now, Tim's primary company is Yellow Puppy Designs. It's a design service company that makes magazines, websites, ad campaigns and online programming applications. And, of course, he's dived head-first into the world of men's underwear.
I sat down with Tim and had the following conversation:
UD: What brand, style and color underwear do you have on right now?
TW: Ironically, I usually go commando.
UD: What's your favorite pair you own?
TW: A simple, faded, yellow bikini from Joe Boxer.
UD: How long have you been in business?
TW: We started retailing one of my website clients, Gosoftwear, a little over a year ago. We introduced the WildmanT brand about four months ago.
UD: What do you like most about designing and selling underwear?
TW: My therapist said that I love Christmas for the pretty packages. I think the same thing applies.
UD: What trends do you see in men's underwear today?
TW: Big bulging crotches! Everyone is starting to create one product or another to help enhance the male package.
UD: Tell me about your signature product, The Ball Lifter. How'd the idea for that product pop-up? How long did it take to get the design and how long did it take to bring it to market?
TW: I am a “do-it-yourself” kinda guy. I design my items, make the samples, make the patterns, and post it on a site that I created. One night I had been working for days on end making samples and patterns, and I wanted to get the products online before morning for feedback and didn’t want to wait another day to arrange for models. At 4:00 a.m., I get out my camera and start shooting shots of myself in the samples. I didn't like how unimpressive the crotch looked. It’s not like I have a small crotch, but BIG crotches sell underwear and I didn’t have that either. I pulled, yanked and stuffed, every-which-way to Sunday, to try and make the crotch look better for the photos. Finally, I took some elastic and gave the tired boys a much needed lift, and voila! I got the shots, posted them online and got feedback -- mostly about my crotch. So I thought, why not sell the contraption as well the underwear and The Ball Lifter was born.
UD: What other brands of underwear do you carry?
TW: Just Gosoftwear. They are a design client of mine so it was very easy to migrate their items into my site since I put them in their site first.
UD: What's the oddest question/request you've received about underwear or The Ball Lifter?
TW: Well, I get a lot of questions about the actual balls. Balls come in all sizes and this product just lifts what you've got. But I did have one very nice guy write in and say “I love your product, but I don’t think I have enough to ‘lift’.” I didn’t know if I should laugh or feel sad for the guy. So, I sent him over to purchase GoSoftwear’s padded crotch brief.
UD: What's next for WildmanT and The Ball Lifter?
TW: We've really just scratched the surface because we wanted to build with profits instead of getting investors to launch big. In the next months you will see more underwear styles, more colors for The Ball Lifter and the next generation Ball Lifters.
Whoa does any1 have the pics of him wearin his lifter?
Posted by: Bai | May 09, 2007 at 06:53 AM