The big business of small, men’s undergarments

From left to right - Halid Esa, Nasrullah Jamaluddin and Rosman Kasiman showing the World Cup 2014 men's underwear at The Under Shop outlet at the Johor Baru City Square shopping complex.

To PUT it briefly, Steed Chiew, administration and product manager for men’s underwear company Depi Corporation Sdn Bhd, estimates the production capacity of the factories run by the company’s Chinese manufacturing partners in Fujian stands at about 360,000 pairs of men’s underwear a month.

Style wise, this includes trunks, bikinis, minis, tangas, boxers and classic briefs. Trunks and bikinis, only became popular around the start of the new millennium (the brand Renoma is said to have set the trend when they became the first to introduce the sport bikini in Malaysia), while minis and tangas were buoyed by the bodybuilding fever during the 1990s.