e-MANcipate! pantyhose for men article page

A brief history of... our pantyhose
Part I. - Comfilon Activskin

Ever wondered about the history of Comfilon Activskin, the first - and for most of us, the best - pantyhose made for men? You might know that company founder Steve Katz has already published a wonderful and detailed article on Geraden's blog about how it started, so we will keep it short and focus instead on the nine years of development since the first Comfilons came out of the factory.

Starting up - 1998 to early 1999

Steve Katz (located in Granville, Ohio, US) first got the idea for male legwear from Lewis's web site - apart from experimenting with it earlier at camping and backpacking sessions together with his wife, as you can read on Geraden's page. He also discovered the old Legwear for Men forum (which is now the LAUF), conducted an online survey and did interviews with people at a local mall. At that time there was not much publicity for male pantyhose - only a few forums were available.

With his wife Constance, they worked out a business plan, and located a supplier in North Carolina willing to work with them to develop men's products. They worked with local graphic designers to develop packaging and a web site, and re-established the business as G. Lieberman & Sons, Ltd. (it was started originally by his great-grandfather in 1920 in St. Louis). Also Steve acquired and test wore many brands of women's hosiery (since that is what they were going to compete with) to find their strengths and weaknesses. The image shows the very first Comfilons that came out of the production pipeline.

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