Fruit of the Loom now offers DC Comics licensed superhero underwear for girls, and it’s a huge hit!
In two articles for The Good Men Project – “Buying Boys’ Underwear for My Daughter” and “Kids Challenging Gender Barriers, One Pair of Batman Undies at a Time” – I talked about the limited gender options available for children who enjoy character underwear. (Girls get princess underwear, boys get superhero underwear, and never the twain shall meet.) I argued that, if parents want retailers like Target or Wal-Mart to offer less gender-marketed character underwear options for their kids, they would have to start giving retailers new sales data to work with. They would have to show manufacturers and retailers alike that there is a viable DEMAND for these kinds of kids’ character underwear.
And, amazingly, that’s exactly what happened.
After my first article was published, GMP was contacted by Fruit of the Loom, who wanted to announce that, “As of January 2013, Fruit of the Loom has added DC Comics licensed underwear to our girls’ product line! We now offer Wonder Woman, Bat Girl and Super Girl underwear for girls.” This great piece of news was also picked up by A Mighty Girl, an amazing online resource that touts “the world’s largest collection of books, toys, movies, and music for parents, teachers, and others dedicated to raising smart, confident, and courageous girls.”
On February 8th, A Mighty Girl linked to Fruit of the Loom’s new superheroes for girls’ underwear on their Facebook page. One hour later, A Mighty Girl had to post a follow-up on Facebook announcing that the underwear had completely been SOLD OUT. In ONE HOUR. (Their initial announcement about the underwear was liked on FB almost 1,000 times and shared almost 500 times.)
On February 15th, A Mighty Girl again posted on their Facebook page that Fruit of the Loom’s superheroes for girls underwear were back in stock. And, AGAIN, with an HOUR, Fruit of the Loom was sold out once again.
Retailers and manufacturers – I hope you’re listening.
From all of the comments The Good Men Project has received from parents and the remarkable response that these gender-inclusive options have received on sites like A Mighty Girl, it appears that the data is speaking volumes. There is a clear demand for less-gendered character underwear for kids. People want these options available for their children. Hopefully, the success of Fruit of the Loom’s new superheroes for girls line will inspire other manufacturers and retailers to follow suit and start experimenting with offering more progressive options for girls and boys alike.
*Batman-themed, featuring Batgirl.
The Editors: We were contacted by Fruit of the Loom who let us know they are a source of girl superhero underwear!
Read more:
Buying Boys’ Underwear for My Daughter
Kids Challenging Gender Barriers, One Pair of Batman Undies at a Time
Feature photo: andertoons/Flickr
As a mother of two little girl’s I am happy they finally have superhero undies for girl’s. My 4 yr. old loves to watch Small Ville with her big sister but believed that only boy’s were superhero’s. My husband told her about Wonder Woman being both a princess and a superhero. Then one day at Wal-Mart we found some Fruit of the Loom superhero undies for girl’s and of course had to buy them. Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Batgirl now proudly share a dresser with Disney Princesses. Now if I could just find Star Wars for girl’s.
It’s more curiosity, but do we know who is buying the underwear and why? One of my first thoughts was that female action figures are generally worth more than male action figures and are snapped up by collectors. The thought process is that fewer girls have (and do) play with action figures so fewer female action figures have been (and are being) made. It makes them rare and so valuable. Looking at this thread, it seems that it may be the dads that are buying the underwear for their daughters. It might be partly influenced by the rising number of… Read more »
This is part of the nature vs. nurture conversation. Are girls really more interested in tea parties and playing with dolls that represent infants than comic books and action figures that represent kick-ass superheroes, or do we just condition them that way? Left to their own devices, which would they choose for themselves? Well, the obvious answers, both of which are likely correct are a) some girls would want to play Mommy, and other girls would want to play Batgirl, and b) it’s a stupid question – we live within a cultural construct where there’s no such thing as “left… Read more »
Fair point. But, when you consider that manufacturers and retailers were barely making any superhero underwear for young girls, I consider this a baby-step in the right direction.
What Red Seven is saying is that your caption says “Batman underwear for girls”, but the underwear themselves say “Batgirl” and have images of the character Batgirl. Still very cool, but different than the caption. Maybe that’s what you’re saying too, but as a comic nerd dad, I had to say something. 🙂
Oh, thanks for the clarification, Brent. As a huge comic nerd dad myself, I apologize. That’s totally a typo – will fix in a minute.
Well, to be clear, Batgirl is part of the Batman theme and brand. It’s like saying that Jessie undies from Toy Story wouldn’t actually be Toy Story undies.
I added an asterisk to clarify, though, because you’re right that it’s not actually Batman, just Batman-branded.
As a nerd non-dad, but something of a feminist, I actually *like* the fact that the underwear features Batgirl, specifically. She’s a great character, and a good role model for little girls who are likely to be inspired by costumed crimefighters.
As a nerd non-dad, but something of a feminist, I actually *like* the fact that the undies feature Batgirl, specifically. She’s a great character with a terrific backstory (couldn’t get into the Police Force or FBI, so aligned herself with Batman and became a kick-ass vigilante crimefighter in her own right, complicated by the fact that she’s actually the Police Commissioner’s daughter), and arguably a better role model for the little girls who will be wearing these garments than Batman himself. One could argue that she stands in Batman’s shadow somewhat, and yes – he’s a more popular character. But… Read more »
Pretty sure those are “Batgirl” underwear. But all the same, this is great.