underwear
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Chris White and the serious business of being ridiculous
Chris White studied law and business, then built Shinesty around clothes that made his friends laugh. Keeping the joke alive has required a rather unfunny skill: learning how to run a company.
SKIMS made the underwear the outfit
Kim Kardashian started with the layer nobody was supposed to see. SKIMS built a business by making fit, skin tone and everyday comfort part of the fashion conversation.
Mack Weldon made underwear worth buying twice
A better waistband was only the beginning. Mack Weldon’s real experiment is whether everyday comfort can turn a reluctant shopper into a regular customer.
Jens Nicolaysen
Jens Nicolaysen is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Shinesty, the Boulder, Colorado apparel brand whose stated mission is to force the world to take itself less seriously. A 2010 marketing graduate of CU Boulder's Leeds School of Business, he spent his early career doing brand strategy and innovation consulting for large consumer companies before launching Shinesty in mid-2014 with fellow Leeds alum Chris White. The company began as a vintage-clothing resale operation with buyers scouring thrift shops in college and ski towns, pivoted to original designs in 2015, and grew into a direct-to-consumer underwear and loungewear business best known for its trademarked Ball Hammock pouch underwear, its holiday and theme-party outfits, and a joke-first marketing voice that Nicolaysen oversees across email, paid media, catalogues and video. Shinesty's story became a six-episode MTV2 series in 2017, the company was named an Inc. 5000 honoree in 2022, and it has raised roughly $8.2 million through a Series A.
Jonathan Bottomley
Jonathan Bottomley is EVP and Global Chief Marketing Officer of Calvin Klein and, since May 2026, EVP of Group Consumer & Brand Strategy at parent company PVH Corp. Oxford-educated in modern languages, he spent roughly two decades in advertising - most notably eleven years at BBH London, where he rose to joint chief strategy officer and worked on Axe/Lynx, Google, Audi and Samsung - before crossing to the client side as Ralph Lauren's first-ever CMO in 2017 and later CMO of Boll & Branch. Since joining Calvin Klein in June 2022 he has rebuilt the brand's marketing around what he calls an 'entertainment mentality': casting talent with 'cultural velocity' rather than raw follower counts, and pairing archival brand DNA with modern CRM and first-party data. The results have been loud - the January 2024 Jeremy Allen White underwear campaign generated an estimated $74 million in media impact value and roughly 30% year-over-year growth in underwear sales the week it launched, followed by Bad Bunny in 2025 and Dakota Johnson in 2026.
Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein is an American global fashion house founded in 1968 by designer Calvin Klein and business partner Barry Schwartz. Known for minimalist design, denim, underwear, fragrances and provocative advertising, the brand elevates everyday essentials to iconic status. Now owned by PVH Corp., Calvin Klein products generate roughly $9 billion in global retail sales annually and are sold across apparel, underwear, fragrances, accessories and home through wholesale, retail and digital channels worldwide.
Pair of Thieves
Pair of Thieves is a Culver City, California men's basics brand that reimagines everyday essentials - socks, underwear, undershirts, tees and loungewear - with a focus on fit, performance fabrics and playful design at accessible prices. Founded in 2012 by three friends (film producer Cash Warren, designer Alan Stuart and operator David Ehrenberg) who each put in $1,500 to start a sock company, the brand grew into a roughly $100 million business sold at Target, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Amazon and direct-to-consumer. Its 'Give a Pair' and 'Good Fits' programs have donated millions of pairs of socks to people experiencing homelessness and to causes spanning mental health and LGBTQ+ youth support.
Shinesty
Shinesty is a Boulder-born, Denver-based direct-to-consumer apparel brand built around one idea: make the world take itself less seriously. Best known for its cheekily named Ball Hammock pouch underwear and Boob Hammock bralettes, the company pairs proprietary soft fabrics and a supportive pouch design with an irreverent brand voice and outrageous themed party clothing. Founded in 2014 by University of Colorado Boulder friends, Shinesty has sold more than 12 million pairs of underwear, runs a monthly underwear subscription, and landed on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing U.S. companies.
Victoria's Secret & Co.
Victoria's Secret & Co. is a Columbus, Ohio-based specialty retailer of lingerie, intimates, beauty and fragrance, operating the Victoria's Secret, PINK and Victoria's Secret Beauty brands along with the digital-first label Adore Me. Spun off from L Brands as an independent NYSE-listed company (VSCO) in 2021, it sells bras, panties, sleepwear, activewear, body care and fragrance through roughly 1,300 retail stores, a global network of partner-operated locations and a large e-commerce operation. With about $6.55 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue and around 31,000 employees, the company is pursuing a turnaround that pairs a revived Victoria's Secret Fashion Show with a broader, more inclusive brand message.
Savage X Fenty
Savage X Fenty is Rihanna's inclusive lingerie, loungewear and apparel brand, launched in 2018 as a joint venture with TechStyle Fashion Group. Built around radical size inclusivity (30+ bra sizes, XS-4X), it sells direct-to-consumer through an Xtra VIP membership model and an expanding wholesale footprint in Nordstrom, Galeries Lafayette and Selfridges. Backed by L Catterton, Neuberger Berman and Advent International, the company reached a reported $1 billion valuation and turned an annual Amazon Prime Video runway show into an Emmy-winning cultural event. It positions itself as the inclusive, unapologetic alternative to the old Victoria's Secret playbook.