Sweat Under Gear Christmas last year

In anticipation of releasing the brand new 2009 Sweat Christmas pics. We thought we would remind you of last years shot. Here they are once again. We cant wait until Tuesday to show you what we did this year.

The Sweat Club

The website is based on the idea of The Sweat Club. Each style of underwear is represented in a room within the club. The front (index) page is the entrance to the club. Back in May 2008 (two months prior to launch date) we started to hammer out this concept and how we wanted the site to look. Men doing manly stuff in a makeshift secret club for members only. A cross between Mad Max and The Fight Club.

It was about that time we received an email from Michael Alago a photographer based out of NYC. He had seen the Yannick and Travis shoots we had put out as teasers and was interested in shooting for us. If any of you are not familiar with his work, check out roughgods.com.

Realizing he was a perfect fit to photograph for the website we managed to secure him to come to Vancouver. That is after he had finished working on the new Cyndi Lauper CD (yes, he is in the music industry too. A man of many talents). There are a million stories we could tell surrounding Michael’s visit to Vancouver.

Since this was going to be a huge shoot with several stages within one location, we wanted more than one photographer. Nuno Silva came on board as did Harry Leonard. Nery Monzon joined as stylist and brought his team of…gee dunno how many girls to apply makeup. When there is a male underwear shoot there is never a shortage of girls who want to apply makeup (or boys for that matter).

Now came the fun part, models models models. We needed at least 7 guys. So lets go down the line.

Yannick – of course our most famous Sweat Man was going to be there. We told him his scene was the outdoor tub where the guys clean up after dong whatever they are doing in the Sweat Club. Being the sport he is, Yannick stripped down Naked for Michaels camera and went right down into the tub. Funny we never did see those shots. We will have to ask Yannick about that.

Travis – our good sport jockstrap man. When we told him he would be posing with a motorcycle he did not care what he would be wearing as he just wanted to be near the bike. We got some great shots of his derriere and that huge lions tattoo on his back is ultra sexy.

Trey – he answered an ad we had placed on craigslist. We met him for coffee one morning to discuss the shoot and boy did this guy make us laugh. He comes to Vancouverfrom Texas and still maintains those sweet southern gentlemanly mannerisms. In fact I think he kept calling us sir. He was perfect for the Fighter Brief as he has the body you would expect to see in the ring.

Darren – we picked Darren from a local modeling contest. We loved his chiseled face and boy is he a smart whip. Being a smaller guy we dreamed up the idea that Trey would be teaching Darren how to fight in the Sweat Club ring. I wish I had a camera on his face when he was introduce to big Trey on set that day. Enough said.

Joe – Aussie Joe is a friend of our trainers. He had recommended him and sent us a few shots from some other shoots. I recall asking my trainer if Joe had any tattoos and he said “yes, some little girly one”. We hired Joe without meeting him in person and we never regretted it for a minute. A nice guy, amazing body and really he had allot of fun that day. He was also a big help in moving the borrowed gym lockers around set for his scene in the Sweat locker room.

Tom – our Sweat Club bouncer. We had already shot the bouncer pics a few weeks before this but we thought what a great idea to have the bouncer giving an initiation to the Sweat club tattoo to Trey. We got ourselves a real tattooing gun, and well the shot speaks for itself. We keep it framed in our living room.

Robert – he has been a friend for several years. It took a few phone calls to convince him to model but somehow we managed to persuade him to do it.

Chad – he came along with Yannick to the set that day. When we saw him we thought we night as well strip him down and slap on some Sweat as well. He did an amazing job in the arm wrestle scene and we were very happy he came along. Not as happy as Michael though who grabbed Chad along with Yannick and shot them separately across the street at another warehouse.

That pretty much rounds out the models. At times it was chaos with us running back and forth between shoots as they were simultaneously going on. Someone kept getting us coffee, no idea who she was but I guess we were paying for her to be there.

The arm wrestle scene was a concept deep in our heads and the end result was really pure genius on Nuno’s part. As per usual we gave him the basics of how we wanted it to look and he created a masterpiece.

One last thing about the shoot. The woman that owned the warehouse was there the entire time, but not really paying much attention to the goings on. At the end of the day. Harry Leonard asked her if she wanted some shots for her office of the hot guys in her warehouse. To which she replied “I am not that into beefcake” .

Tuesday we release our brand new 2009 Christmas shoot pics - check it out here.

Office Boys and The Sweat Club Bouncer

After showing the blue collar workers in Sweat, the next step was to show that white collar workers also love Sweat Under Gear.

The idea for this shoot was that the work day was coming to a close and the office workers were stripping down to their Sweat Under Gear to head off to the Sweat Club.

Originally we were going to shoot this in the offices of Nery Monzon. The day of the shoot we get a panic call that his office was broken into (no, his office is not in Surrey) and that computers were stolen and the place was a huge mess. The models were booked and Nuno Silva was set to shoot, so ‘the show must go on’ as they say. After a bit of discussion we decided to use the offices of a landscaping firm in North Vancouver. We loved the beams and brick walls.

We waited until the office workers went home (they had no idea that we would be using their work stations) and in we went. As we prepared the set, we realized that this space was perfect for what we wanted to achieve. The models consisted of Darren, who has a place on the Sweat Under Gear Fighter Brief box, Robert who is on the Sweat Brief box, and Tyson. Since this was an action shot it took several frames to really get what we wanted in terms of the guys undressing but not looking like they were about to all have an orgy.

At the end of the shoot we asked Nuno if he could somehow add the Sweat logo to the computer screens and to the gym back in the background. Nuno never says no, that is why we love him so much.

A few days later we sent the finished shot to the ladies that actually inhabit those desk spaces. Needles to say they were surprised/excited to see the pictures. One of them said “My desk has never looked so good!” We were happy with the outcome as in our minds the shot represents the Sweat logo popping up on the computer screens indicating to the workers that it is time to leave for the day and head to the Sweat Club. The Sweat signal!

The following week it was time to give you a sneak peak at the Sweat Club. The essential part of this shoot was to find a hot but menacing model with tattoos. We found that in Tom. This model was perfect to play the part of the Sweat Club bouncer.

Nuno suggested a warehouse in the east part of Vancouver that has some interesting doors we could use as the Sweat Club entrance. We headed over there to do the shoot one bright and sunny afternoon. Not sure what we were thinking as the shot was supposed to convey the early evening, in other words a bit dark. On set we thought it would be fun to so an ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ and one of us owners would play the part of the guy going into the Sweat Club past the bouncer.

Now for some trade secrets, as mentioned this was taken in the middle of a bright sunny day. The photo was darkened to appear as though this was nearing night time. The light beside the door does not exist in real life and was added in afterwards along with shadows. The Sweat logo on the door was also added in afterwards to appear as if it was carved into the concrete. The model brought brown shoes and we really wanted them black - hey if Steven Speilberg can do it why can’t we.

In the end this shot was extremely popular and many stores still have the poster version on their walls.

Next in our summary series we talk about the biggest and most bad ass shoot we have done. To this day we have not attempted anything like it again. The Sweat Club is revealed.

However, before that on Wednesday we have have some fab new photos from the guys at FabScout.

Jake and the Sweat vs Geir Cologne photo shoot in Whistler BC

Sweat Under Gear Man Travis

Continuing in our recap series of the last 2 years, this is forever referred to as the ‘Garage Boy’ shoot. Shortly after the success of the Yannick shoot we decided to do another Sweat Under Gear teaser shoot but this time in a garage. The concept was to be the same in that this was to be another blue collar worker wearing Sweat and preparing to head out from his work place to the Sweat Club.

To secure a model, we put an advert out on Vancouver’s craigslist. It was here that we first came across Nery Monzon and his company MUUM Production. MUUM is company that has a stable of male models, photographers and makeup artists. How can we best describe Nery, a whole lot of Janice Dickinson, a dash of Richard Simmons with some Perez Hilton thrown in.

Nery sent us pictures of one of his models, Travis and told us about a mechanic garage we could use - get this - in Surrey. For those of you who don’t know what or whereSurrey is, Google it, but be very very afraid.

The night of the shoot (we had to wait until the garage closed to customers at 6pm) we started our trek to the deepest darkest regions of Surrey. Being winter in the BC Lower Mainland it was already dark, cold and starting to snow. We pulled into the parking lot, parked the Sweat mobile and the first thing we noticed was what can only be described as crackheads doing whatever it is they do right there out in the open. Oh and then there was the hooker standing on the other side of the street. Nice area. We made the decision to bring everything that was in the vehicle with us as we had visions of coming out of the shoot and finding it broken into and everything missing. Or worse the entire vehicle gone. Surrey has something like 1 car every minute stolen. That We got out of the car, literally stepped over the crackheads and into the garage.

Inside the shop Nery was already running around with makeup people and clothing people and was a just a huge scurry of activity. We were introduced to Travis who was trying to keep warm without his shirt on and about that time we noticed a female model and a bunch of, hmmm, booty clothes hanging around. This was our first introduction the Nery’s little surprises. It seems he had a girlfriend who asked if she could participate in the shoot to beef up her own portfolio. She was/is extremely nice and we thought sure why not, as long as we get our pics of Travis we needed.

She brought about 15 possible outfits and each one was smaller than the first. We settled on one that was the least ‘booty call’ of them all. At least that is what we thought. The premise for her shoot was that she is the pinup girl on the wall calendar of the garage who has come to life and needing her vehicle fixed by the hot mechanic. Okay sure.

We should also mention that this was our very first shoot with photographer Nuno Silva. Nuno is not just a photographer, he is an artist. Whatever concept we throw at him, he takes it that step further and it turns out better than we could have imagined. We will focus more on Nuno in another blog entry in this series.

The camera started snapping, the snow outside was falling and Travis was freezing. We set up a heater next to him to keep warm but his legs turned red from the heat. Good thing for Photoshop. Once we completed the solo shots we brought the female model on to set and the two of them kept each other warm…enough said about that. We wrapped up shoot, stepped back over the crackheads and into the Sweat mobile and back home.

One of the things we love about our customers and fans is that you are not afraid to tell us what you like and what you dislike. We sent these photos out to the blogosphere, some with the female model and some without. Boy did we get an earful about her outfit and the concept of her character in the shoot. We stand by the quality of this shoot considering the idea was thrown at us at the last minute. For the record, we just finished a new shoot with her and you will see her in a much different light Dec 01 when we release them. As for Travis, we have shot with him again and he appears on our Sweat Jockstrap box. This shoot was the first time Travis had ever worn a jockstrap and now he loves them and shows up in the infamous ‘arm wrestle’ shoot wearing it again. Keep wearing those jocks Travis we love seeing you in them!

Monday is all about the office (white collar) shoot and the introduction of the Sweat Man Bouncer.

However, this Saturday we have some new Jake photos to show you.

Sweat Under Gear Man Yannick

This is the first ever Sweat Under Gear shoot. When we started to look for a model we had no idea where to begin, until it donned on us – where are all the big hot men??
bigmuscle.com of course. We wanted to find a local guy and started to search the Vancouver pages of Big Muscle. This is where we came across Yannick. At the time he was living in beautiful Victoria and working in the Navy. Yes, could it get any better? Great looking man in the Navy and his profile stated he would love to do some modeling. We promptly sent Yannick a message and yes it does get better. Lucky for us Yannick was preparing for his first ever bodybuilding competition and would be in Vancouver within a couple weeks to compete.

We knew a photographer that lives across the street from us and we asked him if he would be willing to shoot Yannick. After seeing Yannick’s profile on Big Muscle he of course signed on for the shoot immediately. Christopher C North is no longer a photographer and we often wonder if shooting Yannick was his swan song.

We always imagined a Sweat Under Gear Club and the characters who might inhabit this place of all things manly. The club became (at least in our minds) a place where blue collar and white collar men go after a long day at work to release pent up frustrations – in Sweat Under Gear. They box, fix motorbikes and cars, shower – fun stuff like that. This is still reflected in our website www.sweatundergear.com and a very important aspect of our marketing.

So where do we shoot Yannick? Before releasing the information on the Sweat Under Gear Club we wanted to tease you a bit with the workers at their jobs getting ready to go someplace hot and fun. Not actually revealing what that place was.

During all of this we were also having our home renovated and our contractor told us that next door to his house there was a new townhouse complex going in. He suggested we head over to his place and at 6pm when the workers go home next door that we sneak over there with our cameras and lights and shoot Yannick as a construction worker.

Up to this point we had not actually met Yannick in person and had arranged to pick him up in front of a Starbucks and bring him to the shoot. We pulled up to Starbucks, Yannick hopped in the car and his adorable French Canadian accent said “It has been a long time since I have gotten into a strange man’s car” From that time on we knew we would be friends and that he was perfect for this shoot.

6pm we watched as the workers left for the day and in we snuck to do our shoot. It was a very cold winter night so we brought a heater for Yannick to keep warm in between takes. We might add that Yannick is not the shy type and had no qualms about changing in front of the entire crew.

Over the following week we released the photos to the blogs. Sweat Under Gear had gone viral and within days we were receiving emails from every corner of the planet anxious to purchase our product. We were stunned and extremely happy.

Yannick became so popular that it was a no brainer to put him on the Sweat Sport Brief box. Yannick has shot with us again (we will have that in a future post here), he has danced at events for us and most importantly has remained a friend. We are sure that 2010 will bring another photo shoot with the original ‘Sweat Man’.

Next we will tell you the story of the 'Dirty Garage'. Watch for that this Friday.

The Year that was Sweat!

As 2009 draws to close we are reflecting back on all the amazing models and talented photographers we have had a chance to work with. From now until the end of December we will be showcasing all these people who have given so much to us. We will include shots you have never seen as well as behind the scene stories about the shoot (we have some good ones trust us), the men and the often times mayhem that surrounds our shoots.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the first in our series that we call "The Shot That Was Seen Around The World".

In the meantime here is a montage to wet your appetite for Sweat!

Palm Springs Mega Muscle Sweat Under Gear weekend

More amazing and Sweaty pics from the Mega Muscle weekend in Palm Springs. These photos are by Mark Jenkins. Models are Eric Turner and new discovery John McCallen. Eric is super sexy in those cowboy chaps and a glimpse of his Sweat Under Gear Jock - Ride em cowboy. John thinks he is an angel in the white Sweat Brief, but we all know better than that.

Stores that carry Sweat Under Gear

These hot stores carry Sweat Under Gear.

If you do not see a store near you, then please ask your favourite store to carry Sweat.

More from the Lady GaGa Fashion event

Jake in the Fighter Brief

Sweat Under Gear at The Lady GaGa fashion event in Vancouver

This was the week that was Vancouver Fashion Week. Events were happening all over town with amazing local designers. However, the one not to miss was the Lady GaGa Event last night.

Sweat Under Gear was there to meet the Lady's BFF DJ VH1 and of course to sex up the event with some hot Sweat Under Gear models. Enjoy.