...there are many men who are already buying your nylon and lycra based pantyhose for themselves. If you can, ask the salespersons in your shops personally, they will tell you. Or contact online shops. So how can you use this knowledge to increase your sales?

Let's say, 3 percent of all your pantyhose sales go to men: from 1000 items 30 go to the 'wrong place'. What does it mean? When hosiery manufacturers recognised a few decades ago that pregnant women did not wear pantyhose (or if they really had to, they purchased extra sized pantyhose) they started to produce a well targeted product for them: maternity pantyhose - and ladies started to wear them. The manufacturers could satisfy the needs of a niche market, therefore expanded their overall market and increased their sales.

Men are such a niche market now. If you are able to meet their needs with one or more product lines, they will buy it from you. Actually you can turn that 3% into a positive advantage: you will still sell 1000 items of female pantyhose plus 30 items of male pantyhose. What's more: men are buying your competitor's pantyhose, too, so you can take other 3 percents from your competitor's market share. So this is a very basic idea that has caught the eye of other hosiery manufacturers.

There are other important positive things about the male pantyhose market:

• the male market is growing much faster than the female market
• sky high is the limit - theoretically it can be as large as female market
• gents are willing to pay more per item
• they are likely to use up pantyhose faster than ladies
• other manufacturers have paved the road ahead for you
• it is now clear that a male pantyhose product does not cannibalise the female segment
• media and fashion industry participants are finally getting used to the idea
• produce-on-demand methods allow you to minimise your investment.