aussieBum
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| aussieBum - International | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Founder | Sean Ashby, Guyon Holland |
| Headquarters | Sydney, Australia |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Industry | Fashion |
| Products | Men's swimwear, underwear, and clothing |
| Website | aussiebum.com |
aussieBum is an Australian men's swimwear manufacturer. In recent years aussieBum has also increased its product line to other clothing include underwear, leisurewear, sportswear and loungewear. The company is seen as having a large following among fashion-influential metrosexual and gay consumers.
In 2001, director Sean Ashby started aussieBum when he couldn’t find the style of swimwear he grew up with. The company had an inauspicious launch in the middle of the dot-com bust, and at the time the original website ran from a suburban lounge room, created by Ashby with bootleg web software. Joined by co-director Guyon Holland, they created a new market by bringing back the classic speedo-style Aussie cossie and introducing digital prints and other vibrant designs. Since starting out with only AU$20,000, aussieBum is now a multi-million dollar global enterprise, employing over 30 people, manufacturing over 150 different styles of products.
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[edit] Logo Design
The brand uses a lower case "a" in the logo design. It was a reminder to Sean Ashby, the underwear company's founder, that the company is never too big to forget it was started by a bum who couldn't get a job.[1]
The company is known for its highly creative products, such as Essence underwear; which contains vitamins locked in the fibre which releases through the skin,[2] and the Wonderjock; underwear designed to enhance the appearance of men's assets, causing quite a stir from news broadcasters around the world.[3]
[edit] Marketing
The company has no sales representatives overseas but relies on the strength of the company website. Australian sales make up only 10% of its business, and is on its way to AU$20 million in annual sales.[4] The company has a broad reach for a business run entirely via Web, with no shop front and only a bare-bones staff. Currently the company online website showcases products in 9 different languages: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Chinese and Portuguese.The online store warehouse, has a very advanced in-house technology, to pick, pack and ship over 1,000 unique orders a day requires only eight people.[5]
The brand is retails in some of the biggest department stores in the world such as Selfridges and Harvey Nichols in London, Printemps in Paris, France; KaDeWe in Berlin, Germany and Harvey Nichols in Dubai, as well as in small boutiques from Milan and New York and ships to more than 65 countries. The brand also is distributed to more than 70 countries via their online e-store.[6]
[edit] Advertising
aussieBum promote their products in non-traditional venues on the internet, such as blogs, social networking sites: Facebook, MySpace and the online game Second Life. Cultivating the image of a larrikin Australian has also helped the company in getting noticed in overseas markets where Australian culture is still a novelty.
Many believe that the image of Australia is the place far far away and a place where people live by the ocean, eat shrimps from the barbecue, enjoy a laugh and really don't take themselves seriously and, best of all, they believe all Australian men are beautiful and bronzed. Naturally, the company took advantage of that image, however, at the same time, make a point of showing people the reality of the brand.
According to a team of revenue-seeking Google advertising executives that aussieBum had become the 7th most popular search word in Australia.[7]
Celebrities including Ewan McGregor, Billy Connolly, and Daniel Radcliffe are fans of the cossies while Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue featured buff men wearing aussieBums in the video clip for Slow. Soccer superstar and men's fashion trendsetter David Beckham has also appeared in the brand.[8]
Advertising continues with the brand's distinct cheeky style in campaigns such as Shearing the Rams, which repainted a 100-year old iconic Australian painting with muscle-bound blokes shearing sheep in just their undies.[9]
[edit] Products
All aussieBum products are manufactured in Australia with the business run completely out of the company's headquarters in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt.
[edit] Wonderjock
In November 2006, the Wonderjock was launched in the aussieBum underwear lines. According to Ashby[10], they did it as a bit of a joke. HIs business partner, Guyon Holland, invented the Wonderjock to lifts and moves everything forward, which is what makes them so comfortable.[11]
Wonderjocks have been designed to lift and enhance a man's assets, through the use of a fabric cup used to protrude things out instead of just down. 50,000 pairs of the new underwear were sold in the first seven days of being released.[12] The name was chosen as a pun on the popular Wonderbra line of push-up bras.
In May 2007, the company also introduced Wonderjock technology into their swimwear line. Currently in the Classic, Storm and Classic 1.5" varieties, a fabric pouch is used to enhance a man's package, particularly when getting out of cold water.
[edit] ausbum.tv
The site www.ausbum.tv - which features videos depicting men, many of whom were plucked randomly off the streets of Ashby's home town of Sydney, modeling the products - offered "the chance to present our real larrikin character," a reference to the Australian tendency toward irreverence and self-deprecation.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
- Beachwear
- Competitive swimwear
- Speedo (suit style)
- Swimwear
- Underwear
- List of swimwear manufacturers
[edit] References
- ^ International Herald Tribune (2008-01-21). Aussiebum: Down Under designs in more ways than one. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
- ^ Fox News (2006-02-20). FOXNews.com - Energize Your Underpants. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
- ^ 10 News (2006-10-25). New Wonderjock Launches. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
- ^ Newman, Geoffrey (2007-04-30). Australian IT: Internet can overcome the name. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
- ^ International Herald Tribune (2008-01-21). Aussiebum: Down Under designs in more ways than one. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
- ^ Daily Telegraph (2006-11-03). News.com.au: Wonderbra for men 'enhances'. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
- ^ International Herald Tribune (2008-01-21). Aussiebum: Down Under designs in more ways than one. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
- ^ AAP (2005-10-20). The Age: Bums rush. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
- ^ Byrnes, Holly (2006-09-30). Daily Telegraph: Shear art attack. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
- ^ International Herald Tribune (2008-01-21). Aussiebum: Down Under designs in more ways than one. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
- ^ International Herald Tribune (2008-01-21). Aussiebum: Down Under designs in more ways than one. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
- ^ Daily Telegraph (2006-11-01). Daily Telegraph: Market grows for under wonder. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
