Sports clothing and eroticism

[sebbie]

Sports clothing and eroticism

I got to thinking about that, at least for guys, the large number of sports that require the participants wear specific clothing in order to engage in the sport, and also, that for a large number of sports this clothing has an erotic component to it that affects the fan base male and female as well as being of no small concern to the guy participating in the sport. I am going to focus on sports men and boys normally are in, in part because I understand little about a possible parallel world in women’s sports.

The obvious first example is men’s swimming and diving. There has been much discussion about how guys donning their first swim brief for team participation might feel about the situation they face. Mandating swim briefs for swimmer-athletes at least forces all the guys to be confronting the same set of issues, but given that the other guys are all wearing briefs too I would look silly if I did not look as if I were part of the team.

Letting guys choose either a brief or jammer may appear to alleviate the fear of briefs problem, but then this sets up a situation whereby the guys are not all doing the same thing. Are the guys wearing the briefs the ones who generally are the better swimmers, or do they simply “like” the brief for other reasons that cannot be openly discussed.

So if a guy wants to be a serious diver and has some sort of an objection to being seen clad in a brief, he had better get over it soon.

Water polo has always fascinated me in part because on average water polo guys are muscular but bigger than the average diver or swimmer. Water polo is a very physical sport, and requires great physical skills. Hence the big muscular dudes who get into the sport, and thereby need to force their bodies in really snug-fitting water polo briefs. I also hear that in a game of water polo lots of interesting stuff can and often does happen underwater, as in maybe grabbing the opponent’s swim brief or even more, ostensibly to affect the ability of the opponent to score. A big reason why water polo briefs fit so snug is because that makes it more difficult for the opponent to get any leverage by grabbing on to your brief. So the tight fit is very much part of the game.

Part of the fun for fans male and female for the three major swim brief sports—swimming, diving and water polo is seeing the guys clad in their gear. I think swimming has lost some of its appeal to fans was lost when all the guys were wearing jammers or even full body suits, and seeing briefs come back in competitions is in part helping the sports from the standpoint of the audiences.

Moving on to other sports, let me begin with US rules football, a game in which most of the successful players are really big, burly and muscular, at least for most of the positions. I find it interesting that currently the football pants mandated as the uniform for college and professional teams do not hide the fact that guys have penises. (see the HS football players in the attached photo)

Traditionally players wore a strap and cup underneath the pants, but nowadays the bulges do not look like the kind of bulge that a cup would make. Part of the sport is for the guy to leave the impression both with opponents and fans that the guy has a serious male organ and the current football pants play into that. Part of the US-Rules football fan base no doubt is there because they like to see obviously virile males clad in such snug-fitting garb. I’m presuming that most competitive players now wear compression shorts with a cup pocket under the pants we see, but exactly what guys do currently is a bit of a mystery—do some guys still wear jock straps and cups, for example, and if so how does that end up looking like the bulge the fans see under the pants?

Basketball is fascinating as well. When I was in high school basketball players wore uniforms that could basically be called a combination of a short satin gym short with a matching satin sleeveless A-shirt with a number and name on it. I always thought the guys looked really neat as the shorts had maybe only a 5-inch or so inseam. I presume that everyone had something on underneath, in those days specifically an old school jock strap and cup. And the guys in order to play had to all appear in public wearing this. This was not like appearing in public as a brief-clad swimmer or diver, but close. It’s fun to look back at old High school annuals at team photos and take note how scanty these uniforms really were.

Compression gear as undergarb was unheard of. The idea of wearing a compression tee UNDER the satin A-shirt was unheard of, nor would anyone be wearing white compression shorts under the looser fitting satin ones.

But, times change. Guys started wearing the compression tees and pants that covered the shoulders and extended below the shorts. Straps were replaced with pockets in compression shorts that could hold a cup. And the inseams on the shorts in the uniforms kept getting longer and longer, extending all the way to the knee.

The shorter shorts seem to be making a small comeback, but this has been very gradual.

The wrestling singlets as worn by the competitive wrestlers at the high school and college level have long fascinated me. Part of the issue is that, like swimming jammers, bulges for the guy’s anatomy often show given the snug fit, not unlike the situation football players face. A question I have for wrestlers is what, if anything do you wear UNDER the singlet. Not much, apparently, given some of the photos I have seen. A strap? A pair of brief underwear? Something else? Is a cup mandated?

I also hear that some wrestling coaches complain that guys do not take up the sport because they do not want to be required to wear a singlet, a problem similar to the swimming coach that has trouble convincing team swimmers that they need to wear a brief. Some coaches have responses by allowing wrestlers to practice and maybe to compete at local events clad in sweatpants. But at the college level, the singlets still rule.

Water rowers tend to like to wear garb similar to what the wrestlers do. But there are singlets designed specifically for rowers. They are expensive--$100 or more--compared to wrestling singlets that can be found on line for maybe $20-25. What to wear underneath for the rower is another issue. A strap--no real need for a cup.

As a stationary rower and stationary bike rider, I think I look the part wearing a wrestling singlet. The stretch fabric works well. The serious outdoor bike riders wear a two-piece uniform consisting of tight compression pants that have padding sewn into the butt area, and a top that fits equally snug but usually in a team color other than black.

How about the cowboys? The uniform here is a pair of snug-fitting wrangler jeans and a snug-fitting, snap button, colorful, long-sleeved, western-style shirt. Rodeos have a strong female fan base who watch the “wrangler butts” The “right” pair of jeans emphasizes the cowboy’s male anatomy in front as well, which is of interest as well.

There are all sorts of other sports we could talk about as well. The really skimpy briefs worn by the competitive bodybuilders that appear to leave almost nothing to the imagination. Winter Olympic sports such as the luge and the speed skaters, participants in both sports clad head to toe in some of the snuggest –fitting outfits I have ever seen.

Today, I got to thinking about writing an essay on the erotic nature of the clothes worn in a lot of different sports. The problem is that the essay has gotten longer the more I think about the subject.

I will stop for now and see if you have any comments.

[singletlover]

When I wrestled in public school I was issued a 100% nylon (not smooth but heavy, scratchy with no stretch) singlet. It was made by a company called Pro Knit Wear. A jock strap was also issued. Cups were not worn since they would move out of position and I was told caused more discomfort.

When I coached other than the singlets being made of nylon/spandex everything has remained the same. I coached in the early 80's and the boys were very excited to wear their singlet, as compared to todays kids.

I still have all my singlets somewhere in a box.

[sebbie]

The male rite of passage

In the 1950s and 60s, for many if not most boys, there was a male rite of passage that marked the end of childhood and the beginning of being a young adult. You probably think that this must be the first real orgasm that a guy has while wide awake, but this time I am thinking of something else.

What I am thinking about is the first time a guy is required to wear a strap, and probably a cup as well. At early ages, guys may not think their private parts need to be not only contained but protected from injury from the outside. I suppose the young baseball players are the first to be told that they need to wear a cup if they are going to play on a team. Part of this is something of a male tribal ritual that calls the notion that a guy’s organs are really important parts of his anatomy that should not be damaged in any way.

Getting a first strap and cup was always a “learning experience” for a young male. At some level, getting one’s head around the idea that he must wear this and still successfully play the sport was part of the challenge. But doing this was made easier by knowing that all the other guys on the team were required to do the same thing. Still, that strap looked mean as all get out. It fit closely to the body in all sorts of places, and gripped body parts quite securely. And adding the cup only increased the apprehension, as the guy knew trhe small cup would likely make itself quite noticeable bearing down on sensitive body parts. Still, the other guys were all doing the same thing, and if they managed, most guys were not going to back away. After all, wearing the jock and cup was a firm requirement for playing the sport.

Runners too, in the 1950s and 60s, liked to run in what we would now call short shorts—typically loose-fitting nylon shorts on occasion with a brief-style nylon lining made with the same material but sometimes unlined as well. Without additional protection, key body parts would simply flop around down there with every step. Basically, something needed to be worn so that the ‘nads stayed firmly in one place.

The solution, of course was to wear a strap of the appropriate size—large enough to enclose the genitalia and snug enough so the genitalia were largely held in one place step by step. A strap was generally an essential part of a runner’s running gear. But in the 50s and 60s straps tended to be rather “mean”, and as the runner took each step, those snug straps would cause chafing in the groin area wherever they came in close contact with the skin. The solution? Vaseline® of course. Routinely runners greased the entire groin area with Vaseline in all of the spots where the straps came in contact with the skin as well as where the edges of the pouch and the skin came in contact.

A runner might spend 15 or 20 minutes preparing himself for the run greasing himself up and getting his strap in exactly the proper position.

Bike® by far was the leading strap manufacturer with designs used without a cup and designs that generally included a cup. Cup designs in the 1950s tended to be smaller and less roomy than the ones we see today, but that made them more “interesting” to wear. Remember, compression gear had basically not been invented yet. The idea of wearing a compression short underneath the uniform with a cup pocket did not exist. Same for runners. Nowadays we thing of runners mainly wearing a pair of snug compression shorts with maybe a looser fitting pair of shorts that covers some of the compression short, but makes obvious the guy is wearing two layers.

The rise of the compression gear industry has had a lot to do with the decline of the jock strap industry. I suspect that the real straps now sell in only a fraction of the numbers they sold back then. Wikipedia provides a great history of the company here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIKE_Athletic_Company

Briefly, the article says the company was formed in 1874 and the early straps were intended for bicycle riders, hence the name. They also claim to have sold over 300 million straps over the years. Over the years they focused on “athletic protective gear”. They tried to market more general athletic clothing under the Bike name. I think the problem was that the Bike name was synonymous with jock strap and so marketing something under that brand was a non-starter,

The company was sold to the Russell company, another athletic wear brand. Russell became part of Fruit of the Loom, and FOTL was a brand owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s empire.Russell has had its own market problems, and in 2017 they discontinued making anything under the Bike label.

In my personal strap collection, I still have a few Bike® branded straps and some in pristine condition. I still regard being able to crawl into a strap as being a true male rite-of-passage thinking about all the guys who got to do this for the first time as young teens or even earlier. While compression gear is fun to wear too, every guy needs to have the experience of being strapped and cupped. It’s one of those great parts of just being a guy!

[singletlover]

Each season we passed out new jock straps to the team. Size was always a question--waist size that is. Of course all the boys, thinking the size was in reference to the pouch, wanted large. I still chuckle remembering this 85 pound boy requesting a large jock.

[sebbie]

So the straps were a requirement for engaging in the sport. I suppose it made as much sense for the school to provide the straps as it did for the school to provide the uniforms. But another issue might have been that the guy felt more than a little uncomfortable going to (probably back then) the local drug store to purchase one. And even telling your parents what you needed and letting them make the purchase was another potentially embarrassing situation.

The guys who were getting a strap for the first time were probably scared stiff. If the other guys said "Large' that is what you should say. But in straps a men's Large is a very different size from a boy's (aka "Youth") Large. The other problem strap manufacturers have is the lack of correlation between waist size and penis size, and straps are sold by waist size which assumes that as the waist gets bigger then the pouch size should get bigger too. But guys with a small waist may have a large penis. And vice versa. You see the fitting problem here.

I am reminded of the classic scene from the movie "Summer of 42" where the coming-of-age lad (actor Gary Grimes) decides he needs to have condoms. He goes to the drugstore and meets a friendly druggist and then hesitates to explain to the druggist what he is really looking for. It's a classic and funny movie scene as his predicament plays out relating to the embarrassment in just saying "I need a pack of condoms". In 1942, condoms were kept behind the counter in drug stores.

I can see guys in need of their first strap potentially facing a similar situation which is probably one reason why coaches passed out the straps.

[sebbie]

I’ve watched sports equipment change over many decades. I managed to dig out of my drawer one of my first straps. I’m thinking that the first one I bought was a bit bigger than this one, but this one still is from way back.

Not being a participant in any sports that required a strap, I think I got my first strap after I had moved away from home and was into college. But growing up, I was a tall but really skinny guy, and my weight at 5’10 was about 110 lbs. So that meant that I also had a really small waist.

This strap I purchased way back, but I do not recall exactly where I went or how I got to that point. I did not have the excuse the other guys had—that I needed it for a sport. I just liked the look and potentially the fit and feel of the strap. I knew I wanted a really snug fit. I also thought that a really tight strap would be fun to jerk off in, though that was an empirical “experiment” of sorts.

Anyhow, I somehow ended up with the strap you see here. As you can see the brand is MacGregor, a popular sports clothing brand in the day. The size is B R which stands for Boys Regular. Translated, that might be a size appropriate for a small 12-year old. Just getting into this was going to be something of a struggle even for me at my low body weight. But I was not buying the strap in order to wear it while engaging in a sport, unless you count what I had in my mind you could call a sport.

The measure says the waist measure but 9 inches across. Double that and you get 18 inches. But the waistband stretches a lot. I can still get into this, somewhat. The elastic still has a lot of stretch to it. That pouch looks to be more appropriate for a pre-pubescent boy, but that meant once I did get in it fit snug—really snug.

Oddly enough, otherwise this strap is still in reasonably good shape for being 50-years old or more. It has stained yellow in some interesting spots, but I would attribute that to the fact that cum-stains are often difficult to wash out completely, and what remains tends to gradually darken over time. Clearly, I had a lot of fun after I slipped on this strap.

Have my readers also kept sports clothing items like this that they bought when they were young?